Free Republic

André Malraux predicted that the 21st century would be religious, or it would not be at all. Sociologists note that, even in secularized societies, people thirst for things spiritual. Despite the aforementioned social and cultural visibility of Protestantism in Northern Europe, however, the Lutheran and Anglican Churches there are dying... In Sweden, 4 percent of Lutherans attend services regularly, while the corresponding figures in Norway and Finland are below 2 percent. By contrast, the Catholic Church is experiencing a mini-renaissance in Northern Europe. There are currently more practicing Catholics than Anglicans in Britain. In Scandinavia, there are about 600,000 Catholics,...

What a frightening prospect is the destiny of the backslider! Yet even for the worst of us sinners, God offers hope. A foolish old farmer, so the story goes, concluded one day that the oats he had fed his mule for years were simply costing him too much.  So he hatched a plan: He mixed a little sawdust in with the feed, and then a little more the next day, and even more the next, each time reducing the amount of oats in the mix. The mule didn't seem to notice the gradual change, so the farmer thought things were...

Our altar boys practically fight for the honor of being the thurifer. That's the name for the server who carries the thurible — the censer — in the procession at Mass.  They like being thurifer because they get to wear the more ornate lace surplice, and they know thurifer is the most complicated job and is reserved for the older, more experienced boys. The use of incense is optional for most Masses.  It's used to purify the coffin at funerals and to bless statues and images.  However, many Catholic priests choose not to use incense at Mass, and the...

Philanthropist Willard Hackerman, president and chief executive officer of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., is being remembered in the Archdiocese of Baltimore as a generous supporter of Catholic education. Hackerman, who was Jewish, died Feb. 10 at age 95. Since 1996, Whiting-Turner has given more than $1 million to Catholic schools in the archdiocese, primarily for tuition assistance scholarships, said Matthew Anthony, director of development for the archdiocese. According to Anthony, Whiting-Turner made a six-figure gift to kick off the archdiocesan Partners in Excellence scholarship program, founded in 1996 by Cardinal William H. Keeler. “It all starts with his relationship with Cardinal...

One of the hot topics during our family’s Christmas gathering was Catholic education. My niece is a senior in high school, and as with everyone her age, she is consumed with selecting a college. Her parents are allowing her some freedom, but prefer that she attends a college with a good, Catholic environment. They were all impressed with Catholic University of America. For my sister and brother-in-law, it was local and had a good religious atmosphere, and for my niece, it had solid academic programs and quick access to the city. I spent many years at CUA, earning my doctorate,...

Seeking to put the brakes on a five-year decline in enrollment that saw the number of students in Maryland’s nonpublic schools shrink by 22 percent, nonpublic school advocates are pushing state lawmakers to pass a business tax credit they believe will help stabilize their schools. The proposed Maryland Education Credit would provide companies and individual businesses a 60 percent tax credit on donations to nonprofit “student assistance organizations.” Those organizations would then help with student expenses such as tuition, supplies, tutoring, transportation and special needs services. Approximately 60 area parents, students and educators attended a Nov. 13 open house at...

Editor’s note: The following letter by Eagle Forum president, Phyllis Schlafly, was mailed this month to key members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States concerning the implementation of the Common Core education standards in public and private schools, including Catholic schools. It is reprinted here with permission of the author. Your Excellency, I write today to share with you our significant concerns about a troubling development in our Catholic schools and to seek your prayerful guidance about this issue. Under the guise of reforming the nation’s failing public schools, President Obama’s Department of Education offered states $4.35...

I was tempted to address Cardinal Dolan in my headline but I'm not yet sure how responsible he is for the decision to put two Staten Island schools on the "at risk" list for closure. I met the affable Cardinal at the 125th anniversary of Immaculate Conception Church but that didn't stop its inner-city school from being targeted. Clearly the archdiocese has abandoned its educational mission for the needy which was established hundreds of years ago. Instead the economic bottom line seems to count more than educating minority children in the neighborhoods with poor performing public schools and few alternatives....

...There are a growing number of authentically Catholic Colleges and Universities. They are among our greatest missionary resources. They are forming the "living stones" the Apostle Peter wrote of in his first letter to the dispersed Christians (1 Pet. 2:5) for the work of the Church in the Third Christian millennium. The men and women graduating from these Colleges will lead the West out of darkness and serve the new missionary age of the Catholic Church. The missionary task we face requires the preparation of young men and women in the fullness of the authentic Catholic faith which only an...

Catholics Teach the Children of New Orleans Since the Katrina disaster, the schools of the Archdiocese of New Orleans have swelled to double the enrollment of the local public schools -- 40,000 to 20,000. Rev. Neal McDermott, O.P., superintendent of the Catholic schools, told me yesterday that the archdiocese is facing a financial crunch when the $10 million in Catholic Charities money, allocated in 2006 to help the schools following the hurricane, runs out. "Beginning in June 2010, we will have to find $700,000 a year to replace those funds," he said. (Gov. Bobby Jindal eased some of the financial...

Nearly a year has passed since Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States and his speech to more than 200 leaders of Catholic colleges and universities at the Catholic University of America. Much has happened, both on campus and off. There is the historic election of Barack Obama, a politician described by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput as "the most committed abortion rights presidential candidate of either party since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision." His election can be viewed in the context of that papal visit, for many Catholic college professors and administrators helped make his victory possible. On...

“By its very nature, each Catholic university makes an important contribution to the Church's work of evangelization. It is a living institutional witness to Christ and his message, so vitally important in cultures marked by secularism, or where Christ and his message are still virtually unknown.” (Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities) Notre Dame’s decision to confer an honorary Doctor of Law Degree upon a President who fails to recognize the Right to Life has a silver lining. Catholics in America are saying “Not in our House”. Notre Dame is named after the Woman who’s “yes” to the Angel forever changed...

Most faithful Catholic colleges are also the most affordable, reports study Manassas, Va., Feb 18, 2009 / 06:15 am (CNA).- In an effort to assist parents and students who are weighing various college options, the Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education has commissioned a study to find the “best buys” at Catholic colleges and universities. The study found that the most faithful colleges are also some of the most affordable for students. The Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education, the research division of the Cardinal Newman Society recently conducted the study which compares the faithful Catholic...

Article published on October 18, 2008 Can you have a Jesuit college without Jesuits? Shortage of priests endangers identities By KATHY MATHESON The Associated Press The shortage of Roman Catholic clergy isn't just being felt in church. Religious orders that have founded and run Catholic colleges and universities across the United States - in some cases for more than a century - are grappling with how to retain the institutions' distinct religious identities in the face of declining numbers of priests and nuns. The Rev. Timothy Lannon, president of Saint Joseph's University, can envision a time when a lay person...

Anti-Catholic Education by: Malcolm A. Kline, March 14, 2008 The faithful are increasingly likely to face hostility to their beliefs in secular educational settings, the Catholic League’s 2007 Report on Anti-Catholicism shows: • On February 21, 2007, “A substitute teacher wiped the Ash Wednesday ashes off the forehead of a student at White County High School,” the League reports. “When the girl and her classmates protested, they were berated by teachers.” • On April 19 in Lake Bluff, Illinois, “A middle school teacher gave an assignment to her students pinpointing who was responsible for the Holocaust and listed Pope Pius...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following remarks today about an incident involving a DePaul University professor: “Catholics have every right to expect that Catholic colleges and universities are free from bigotry of any kind. Unfortunately, a recent ugly incident by DePaul professor Norman G. Finkelstein has betrayed that trust. To be specific, an online column he wrote at indybay.org suggesting that Alan Dershowitz be assassinated, coupled with an obscene depiction of the Harvard professor, is cause for alarm. (My note: If you go to the Catholic League link, there is a link to the indybay link and the...

Here is some background as well as some related posts on the Klocek case. Neil Steinberg and the Chicago Sun Times: In September, 2004, Professor Klocek read this Steinberg column. What Neil wrote was the intellectual basis of Klocek's ill-fated discussion with the Muslim students at DePaul. That column was based on this op-ed by Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of the al-Arabiya television network. This is the opening sentence of that article: It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims. March...

Well, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, DePaul University's president, is making snide comments about conservatives again. Last month some creep used a permanent marker to write racist graffiti inside a DePaul dorm on the school's Lincoln Park campus. Although the DePaul public relations department denies it, in the far-left group-think at DePaul, the vile incident seems inexorably tied to the mock affirmative action bake sale held by the DePaul Conservative Alliance in January. From UPI on March 9: DePaul University spokesperson Denise Mattson told WBBM Radio the incident was an assault on the university's values. Mattson said the campus has been politically...

The Colorado legislature has been considering bills that would loosen or lift the statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits. Because the legislation was to apply only to private institutions—and was specifically designed to affect the Catholic schools, but not public schools—Catholic League president William Donohue e-mailed the entire legislature on February 1 asking that the bills blanket all institutions equally. Amendments that would do just that are now being considered. Donohue commented on the latest development today: “The whole nation is getting quite a lesson in the politics of child sexual abuse as it is being played out...

Earlier this month, Chicago's DePaul University, pressured by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), agreed to drop its bizarre "propaganda ban" that the administration used as an attempt to silence DePaul College Republicans last fall. Controversial University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, in a paid appearance, spoke at DePaul, and the College Republicans faced several school administration roadblocks as they tried to protest that event. FIRE's interim president, Greg Lukianoff, stated earlier this month on the Hannity & Colmes show that in terms of free speech issues, DePaul was "a basketcase." Still, with its dropping of the "propaganda...