Boston College--Where young Catholics go to lose their Faith [89% yes on "sexual health" referendum]

Gloria Romanorum blog ^ | 2/21/09 | Florentius

[Antoninus]

It's good to know that BC is doing such a bang-up job catechizing the students in its care in the basics of Catholic moral teaching. In a recent article in the BC student newspaper, The Heights, it was reported that 89% of the voters in the recent school-wide elections approved of a "sexual health" referendum. According to an article by Alexi Chi in The Heights, this initiative was:

added to the ballot by a group called BC Students for Sexual Health and calls for support for affordable sexually transmitted infections testing, the availability of prescription birth control medication, and condoms on campus.

Don't you just love the terminology? "Birth control medication"?

Referenda like this are a clear indictment not only of the so called Catholic identity of Boston College, but also of the cultural Catholic parents of the students who voted. One must assume that if 89% of the student body at BC votes against basic Catholic moral teachings, then:

1.) nearly 9 out of 10 students at BC are no longer functionally Catholic, and
2.) that the university itself is doing an absolutely wretched job of catechizing young people and helping them understand that giddily following the pied piper of pop culture depravity is a sure path to both earthly and eternal misery.

I am an alumnus of Boston College. BC was a moral sewer when I attended over 15 years ago. It's sad to see that little has changed--indeed, it appears that things have gotten even worse.

In years past, few parents knew that "Catholic" schools like BC had rotted from the inside out. Today, it couldn't be more clear--as referenda like this one so stunningly demonstrate. For that reason, none of my children kids will even consider Boston College when the time comes.

If you are one of the 11% of actual Catholics left in the student body at BC, I implore you: get out now. There are several excellent, authentically Catholic universities across the country who'd be happy to have you--Christendom, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas, Ave Maria University, Magdalene, and the new John Paul the Great University in San Diego, CA.

Don't waste any more of your time and money at a university that people jokingly refer to as "Jesuit, but not Catholic."

[Antoninus]

Posted to my blog, but needs wider distribution.

If you're Catholic, don't send your kid to BC unless you want them to abandon their Faith.

[misterrob]

I grew up very close to BC. Lots of booze, sex and fights on the weekends. My brother was a Boston city cop and said that the BC students he ran into were a lot of trouble and worse than the inner city kids. City kids would fight in order to get away and not get arrested. The BC kids wanted to try and be tough guys.

[DemonDeac]

“If you’re Catholic, don’t send your kid to BC unless you want them to abandon their Faith. “

Anyone who thinks that doesn’t put much stock in the intellectual independence of their children and must think that they are sheep who can’t think for themselves and swallow anything from an adult hook line and sinker. I know plenty of people who went to big state schools that did a lot of things that Christians like myself do not like but who still ended up coming out just as or even more faithful. It isn’t like the kids will not have plenty of outlets at BC or anywhere else and it isn’t like in some cases that the best way to strengthen faith is to test it.

To sum up, I’m not saying this is right or that BC is a good place to go to school, i’m challenging the idea that sending your kid to a school that doesn’t match up with you philosophically with you will cause them to “abandon their faith.”

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Sorry, but I don’t buy the thesis that BC is where Catholics teenagers go to lose their faith. Most of the kids at BC lost their faith long ago...probably by following their parents’ less than authentic “catholicism”.

[kbingham]

If a university drives students to lose their faith, then it’s merely proof the institution is actually teaching the students something.

Faith by definition “belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.”
or
...”the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.”

If you prize faith above all else, why do you need to bother attending any institution of learning? Your faith is enough. Just go to church and sing the praises of your faith with other equally faith-minded people.

Let those who want to learn, even your children, do so unimpeded. Why prevent the acquisition of knowledge and remain ignorant in our enlightened era? Part of being englightened is learning about things and making a choice.

One can’t make a choice unless one actually understands what choices are available. Forcing people to remain ignorant prevents them from choosing anything, but that is what 3rd world theocracies do to their hapless populations. It’s not what American do, is it?

I’m trying to figure out when when learning became a sin. I must have missed that meeting.

At one point, conservatives prized science and knowledge, but gradually they’ve begun to prize ignorance above all else. They appear to hate science and proof, socially or otherwise, if it disagrees with their beliefs. They hate all change just like their Muslim counterparts in Saudi Arabia.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Learning never has been a sin. Learning to be sinful and encouraging/enabling same always has been a sin.

[ga medic]

College-aged kids have never been the most faithful to their religious teaching. (as a group) Just a phase in life, where religion doesn’t seem as important as other things. It doesn’t mean they will always be sinful and faithless.
In the amish culture it is considered a right of passage for the child to go off and experiment with other ways of life. They encourage them to sow their oats and get their youthfulness out of their system. Most come back and become solid members of the community. The same will happen with many of these Catholic college students.

[Antoninus]

Most come back and become solid members of the community. The same will happen with many of these Catholic college students.

I don't think that's true, frankly. In my opinion, the whole point of what goes on at colleges like BC is to affirm solidify young people in their degenerate mode of living. That's not what a Catholic university is supposed to do--quite the contrary.

St. Ignatius, pray for them.

[Antoninus]

Anyone who thinks that doesn’t put much stock in the intellectual independence of their children and must think that they are sheep who can’t think for themselves and swallow anything from an adult hook line and sinker.

As a parent, why would you voluntarily put your child into a situation where their morals and values are going to be mocked, criticized and derided on a daily basis? And worse, why would you give said institution tens of thousands of dollars to do it?

You only get one chance to educate your children. If your values are important to you, wouldn't you want to put your kids into an environment that teaches, confirms and strengthens those values? This isn't rocket science, here...

[Antoninus]

Sorry, but I don’t buy the thesis that BC is where Catholics teenagers go to lose their faith. Most of the kids at BC lost their faith long ago...probably by following their parents’ less than authentic “catholicism”.

I said exactly that in the post.

[Antoninus]

I’m trying to figure out when when learning became a sin. I must have missed that meeting.

Please explain to me how setting up STD clinics, handing out birth control pills, and distributing condoms has anything at all to do with learning--unless you mean "learning to be a degenerate."

[Campion]

If a university drives students to lose their faith, then it's merely proof the institution is actually teaching the students something.

Let's put the cards on the table, shall we?

What BC is "teaching them" is to get drunk and have commitment-free sex with strangers. (The technical terms are "getting wasted," "hooking up," and "friends with benefits.")

That's the "learning" that you're trying to defend.

What's worse is that BC does so under the aegis of the Catholic Church, and hooking up and similar behaviors, and their consequences (spelled "a b o r t i o n") could not be further from the moral teaching of the Catholic faith.

I won't pay money to send my sons into that kind of garbage environment, and I'll get downright violent before I'll send my daughters someplace like that. I've sacrificed too much for my kids, and I love them too much, to subject them to that kind of cr*p in the name of "learning".

[Coleus]

a friend of mine in the knights sent his son to catholic school for 16 years and his son repaid him becoming a buddhist! so much for a jesuit education.

[ladyjane]

BC kids aren’t all bad. Yes, many of them drink to excess but most of them have good manners - infinitely better than the BU kids.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Well, if the faith and Catholic culture are never taught or even presented, there is no reason to expect students to graduate with that knowledge. Unfortunately, many parents don’t know and are deceived by the use of Catholic and Jesuit imagery and slogans in publications.

[Antoninus]

a friend of mine in the knights sent his son to catholic school for 16 years and his son repaid him becoming a buddhist! so much for a jesuit education.

The Jesuits need to be suppressed again--this time, for a just and righteous cause.