WHEELING — A $5 million gift from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston over the next five years will give Wheeling University “a chance” to come back from its recent financial and enrollment challenges, church and school officials said Friday.

The diocese announced the donation as church officials said they also were pleased to learn that a previous $2 million gift to the university in August still has not been processed, indicating the struggling school has made progress over the past 10 months. The university will receive $2.5 million for next school year and $1 million the following year, the diocese said. There will then be three payments of $500,000 over the final three years, ending after the 2024-25 school year.

“I just couldn’t bring myself to pulling the plug,” the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the diocese, said in an interview before announcing the gift. “I wanted to give them a chance.”

University President Ginny Favede thanked the diocese for the donation in a written statement released Friday afternoon.

“We look forward to sharing our continued progress with the community as we position ourselves for growth and would like to thank the Diocese and Bishop Brennan for their commitment to Wheeling University,” Favede said.

This the second financial gift the diocese has made to the university in the past seven months. In early August, with the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission withholding the university’s annual re-authorization, the diocese gave the school $2 million to shore up its financial situation.

The university also received nearly $13 million three years ago from former bishop Michael Bransfield’s secret nonprofit Bishops Fund Inc. that gave donations to various Catholic causes.

Brennan said the donations from the diocese will end with this $5 million gift.

“We’re not going to give more,” Brennan said. “It should stop after five years.”

Brennan said he hopes this recent donation will provide the university financial stability and give incoming or current students confidence they will be able graduate from the school. However, he said school officials must show they have a viable financial plan to keep the university operating in the long term.

“I did not want to pull the rug out from under them,” Brennan said. “They would struggle to get students through.”

Bryan Minor, director of Diocesan Administrative Services, said the university appears to be on a better financial path and has yet to process the $2 million gift from August.

“I don’t want to paint a rosy picture, (but) they’re doing much better,” Minor said.

He said the diocese plans to work with Favede and set benchmarks to “keep a close eye” on the school’s progress.

“We’re going to work closely and stay in touch,” Minor said. “We’re in the same (Catholic) family, so we need to help each other out.”

Diocese spokesman Tim Bishop said the donation is an investment not only in the university, but also the city of Wheeling.

“The bishop sees this as a really good commitment to the city,” Bishop said. “We don’t want to see another (financial) blow for the city of Wheeling. We want the city to succeed, and we want the school to succeed.”

Last March, the university’s board of trustees declared “a financial exigency” and announced the layoffs of 20 faculty members at the close of last school year and the elimination of all philosophy, theology and liberal arts programs. Then-Wheeling Jesuit University’s affiliation with the Jesuits was terminated after the school year, and the board announced in July it would rebrand the institution as Wheeling University.

Michael Mihalyo, who was elected the university’s president in August 2018, and Senior Vice President Joseph Petrella were placed on administrative leave last August, and both eventually were terminated. Favede, who previously served as board chairwoman, was elected president in October.