Keeping faith: Catholic college, students reject mainstream America - and the mainstream church

The Boston Globe ^ | 5/25/2003 | Naomi Schaefer

[TheWillardHotel]

WARNER, N.H.- At 7:30 on a cold rainy morning in late April, the chapel at Magdalen College, a conservative Catholic college located in a prototypical New England small town, is more than half full. Most of the school's 85 students and dozen-odd faculty members, wearing coats and ties of muted colors or long skirts and blouses, sit in silence waiting for Mass to begin. As the lights come up, two male students begin to lead the congregation in song.

[TheWillardHotel]

...growing conservative Catholic counterculture that is largely concerned with other issues.

[CARepubGal]

Something looks familiar here for some reason..... :)

[Wallace T.]

It appears that the right wing of the Catholic Church is replicating what conservative Protestants have been doing since the 1920s - establishing separate colleges, seminaries, and other parallel institutions, like religious publishing houses. The seminal year for the evangelical/mainline split was 1924, when Princeton Theological Seminary fell to the liberals. Several major conservative seminaries, such as Westminster, Dallas, and Philadelphia College of the Bible, opened in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Princeton.

One possible difference between the right/left split in the Catholic church vs. that in the Protestant denominations is the matter of support among parishoners. Since the 1950s, the mainline Protestant churches have been losing members while the evangelical churches have gained adherents. While both a liberal Catholic parish and a conservative one carry the label "Catholic", word of mouth spreads information as to the doctrine taught, the reverence of the Mass, etc. One wonders if Catholics, like Protestants, vote with their feet and their checkbooks in favor of more conservative parishes.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I wonder why they don't forbid computers.

The invention of the fountain pen was the end of real classical education . . . </sarcasm>

[Salvation]

**At a time when the Catholic church has been rocked by scandal, Magdalen is part of a small but growing conservative Catholic counterculture that is largely concerned with other issues. Across the country, a dozen or so colleges have sprung up to cater to a population similar to that of Magdalen-kids from families who are looking for a traditional religious and secular education in a strict social environment.**

Hooray for these kids!

[Salvation]

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[Salvation]

THE NEW FAITHFUL: WHY YOUNG ADULTS ARE EMBRACING CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY

Vatican to reinforce Catholic orthodoxy, Pope's advisors say traditional values have weakened

Keeping faith: Catholic college, students reject mainstream America - and the mainstream church

[Salvation]

Psst! Over here!

[.45MAN]

Thanks for the bump. great article. Hopefully there will be more collages like this..

[dansangel]

Hooray for these kids!

Agreed!

[ex-snook]

Are there any religious 'orders' operating these colleges or are they controlled by lay people? I understand Steubenville in Ohio is also a Catholic 'Catholic' College??

[It's me]

Magdalen as well as Thomas Aquinas College and Christendom are all lay run. Franciscan University is run by the Franciscans; they live on the campus and are ever present. They are all very "Catholic" colleges but very, very different.

[ninenot]

Word processing

[ninenot]

FrannyU of Steubenville has a noticeable tilt toward the 'Holy Roller' version of Catholicism, but their dogmatics, systematics, and patristics are OK++.

[Cacique]

bump for later

[Bigg Red]

Wow! I'd like to see more schools run this way. No dating seems a little extreme for college age kids though.

I love the idea that they do the cleaning. More young people should be doing this; they would get a lot out of it. There are so many spoiled children.

[RobbyS]

Ivy leaguers are generally a lot of bright kids who are left to fend for themselves. Their teachers are like pareents who hand their kinds a credit card while they do "important stuff" like personal research.

[TheWillardHotel]

Yes. I agree with you assesment. I am Protestant, I am shocked by the decline of scholarship within Protestantism.

[It's me]

What's the "Holy Roller" version of Catholicism?