Pope Readies a Challenge to Catholic Educators

The Sun ^ | March 7-9, 2008 | ELIZABETH GREEN

[veritas2002]

I challenge everyone to name one TRULY Catholic college or university. I’ll start...Christendom in Front Royal VA. You’re next

[livius]

"People will listen to him, and he'll go back home, and it won't make much difference," he said.

Sheesh! I think we can see where one of the problems lies.

Tnere are some people who just need firing.

[NYer]

Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH.

[ELS]

Thomas Aquinas College, CA

[veritas2002]

That makes two

[veritas2002]

Three truly Catholic colleges named so far

[ichabod1]

Ave Maria University in Florida?

[annalex]

There is a hilarious, given the recent scandal news, mentioning of Eliot Spitzer in the article.

[veritas2002]

four...let’s remember now that 40 years ago there were hundreds of truly Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S.
four and counting

[Eternally-Optimistic]

Hopefully Cardinal Mahony will resign!!!!!!!!

[Mrs. Don-o]

You can call it Liberalism, but it would be more accurate, I think, to call it institutional corruption and consumer fraud.

The founders of the 235 Catholic colleges and Universities in the US wanted them to be Catholic, not --- did you notice the skeptical quote-marks in the article? --- "Catholic."

They gave these schools Catholic names, and built them on the $5 and $10 contrbutions of immigrants, mostly ---Irish domestic servants and Italian cops and Polish miners and Slovak nurses --- and the largesse of Catholic philanthropists --- all united in the intention of building flowing fonts of Catholic intellectual formation in America.

The betrayal of the founders, the donors, the people who set up the initial faculties, administrations and trust funds, amounts to a vast structure of institutional corruption --- embezzlement is not too strong a word. And the selling of second-rate secular course offerings to students looking for a Catholic education is nothing short of a bait-and-switch scam.

So call it "liberalism" if you want: but some of us are more inclined to go for words like "hustle," "swindle," "counterfeit," and "fraud."

[Straight Vermonter]

I think a diminution of the influence of priests and religious on campus has had a huge impact. It is difficult if not impossible for the bishops to discipline the leaders of these schools if they are lay people. This is assuming that the bishops even want to turn things around.

Despite a shortage of priests in our diocese our wonderful Bishop has decided to place priests in charge of the high schools again. Hopefully things will improve.

[Mrs. Don-o]

YOu've made a huge point. When the administration and the faculty of the school are laypeople, the Bishop is left with no canonical "carrots and sticks" (I almost regret that phrase, but how else to explain it?) and has to lead purely by the force of his teaching and example. Which is not a bad thing in the light of "not to lord it over them," but a whole lot more difficult.

Lay Catholics owe "holy obedience" to their bishops too, of course, but in this cultural milieu it would be seen by the laity as usurpation and arrogance, even IF the bishop were solidly in the right and the layperson twisted as sin.