Catholic Dads

From Recapturing our Cathoilc Patrimony…

It’s that time of year again; students graduating, planning their next moves with regards to higher education or entrance into the workforce, etc. But what about their formation as persons, especially if they’re Catholic? Do Catholic graduates today know what it means to be a Catholic in the world? Have they been formed to respond to our culture of death? What are the implications of God’s law for society, for the moral life, for music, for literature, architecture, economic life, political life?

I, just as John Paul II, “was deeply enriched by the beneficial experience of university life: the ardent search for truth and its unselfish transmission to youth and to all those learning to think rigorously, so as to act rightly and to serve humanity better.”

But what has become of our universities and the fruits of Ex Corde Ecclesiae? What is the purpose and identity of Catholic higher education? It seems little has come about in the evangelization and reformation of “Catholic” colleges and universities since the Holy Father, released his apostolic letter in 1990. Are Catholic institutions just throwing up their hats in defiance or flippantly graduating classes, failing to assess their Catholicity (or lack there of)?

Sure, there are a handful of faithful Catholic schools in the US, for I am a product of one, but it seems as though the more prestigious our Catholic institutions become, the less Catholicity they reflect. Even though numbers are down “significantly” from last year, LifeSite has noted 12 Catholic Colleges have Pro-abortion commencement speakers for 2007.

Perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you, especially in the wake of yesterday’s Chicago Catholic Charities event where Hilary Clinton was the honorary speaker. But it seems little is being done to correct these problems.

What has happened? In 2004, the USCCB issued a statement which forbade Catholic institutions from permitting pro-abortion speakers, but now it seems like it has fallen on deaf ears. In their document, Catholics in Political Life, the Bishops’ Conference states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honour those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honours or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Yet, has this statement been followed by those who proposed and promulgated it?

Recently, Franciscan University of Steubenville, held a symposium on higher education, where Archbishop Miller, the Vatican secretary for the Congregation of Catholic Education, urged schools to adopt quantifiable measures of assessment about their Catholicity. He recommended that those measures include, among others, ensuring that a majority of the faculty are Catholic, that all scholarship and research are in accord with Catholic teaching, and that the schools’ theologians obtain a Mandatum from their bishop, guaranteeing that all they teach is in conformity with the teachings of the Catholic Church. He also made it clear that “assessment is not an end in itself.” Rather, he stressed, “the whole point of assessment is enhancement.”

As we delve into Catholic social teaching at RCP, the topic of the university is extremely important. It is a place, apart from the family, where culture is developed, where the mysteries of humanity and of the world are explored, clarifying them in the light of Revelation. I believe we need Catholic universities that will form us with a truly liberal education, with serious studies in philosophy and theology in addition to the other usual subjects. Increasing the numbers of liberally educated Catholics with a knowledge and love of their faith would make a significant contribution to the promotion of justice in the workplace, political order and civil society.

Lest we forget…

Man’s life is given dignity by culture, and, while he finds his fullness in Christ, there can be no doubt that the Gospel which reaches and renews him in every dimension is also fruitful for the culture in which he lives. (Ex Corde Ecclesiae no. 6)

The purpose of the university is that “the Christian mind may achieve, as it were, a public, persistent and universal presence in the whole enterprise of advancing higher culture and that the students of these institutions become people outstanding in learning, ready to shoulder society’s heavier burdens and to witness the faith to the world” (Gravissimum Educationis, n. 10)