The Churches didn’t have any elites running them, of course. /s
Even though the RC Church had a lot of corruption, and there were relationships with the international banking families, what the “banksters” really don’t like is the Bible.
They wanted all reference to the Bible removed from universities, which was not practically possible in those years in Christian-run schools.
So they took to founding secular universities. Some Jewish financiers initially had a Jewish influence in their endowments, notably Jacob Schiff’s, but of course, given the godlessness of globalist elites in general, secularism drowned out any significant true Scriptural influence in the overall institutions. Of course, they will maintain departments that study from the perspectives of Judaism or the various Christian denominations, but over time their teachings became essentially blended with the globalist agenda.
It’s rather shocking to consider that the Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton actually have Christian backgrounds, since all their efforts during the 20th century and continuing are aimed at a subtle redefinition of Christianity to blend it in with atheism and rejection of God.