More to the story, of course.
The University of Toronto, not exactly a bastion of Catholicism, still had Latin as part of its entrance exam in the 1920’s, and maybe even for a while after that.
Harvard, also not exactly a bastion of Catholicism, still had Latin as part of its entrance exam in the 17th c.
Harvard College Lawes of 1642
[from New England's First Fruits; emp. mine]
1. When any Schollar is able to Read Tully or such like classicall Latine Author ex tempore, and make and speake true Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt) Marte, and decline perfectly the paradigmes of Nounes and verbes in the Greeke tongue, then may hee bee admitted into the College, nor shall any claime admission before such qualifications. [like modern SAT scores, such a requirement indicated the level of education one had received, and achieved. This served practical purposes of course, as copies of Scripture and other classics were also still mostly in Greek.]
2. Every one shall consider the mayne End of his life and studyes, to know God and Jesus Christ which is Eternall life. Joh. 17.3. [Today, personal as well as intellectual ignorance of the Biblical Christ abounds among Harvard students.]
3. Seeing the Lord giveth wisdome, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret, seeke wisdome of him. prov. 2.2,3 etc. [Instead, Harvard today militates against such Biblical wisdom , and peity. Today, if any activity is done "in secret," it is fornication (1 out 4 women have an STD).
4. Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they bee ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoreticall observations of Language and Logicke, and in practicall and spirituall truthes as their tutor shall require according to their severall abilities respectively, seeing the Entrance of the word giveth light etc. psal. 119, 130. [The goal here was to produce "able ministers of the New Testament" (2Cor. 3:6), "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2Tim. 2:15). Today, the Bible is almost wholly abandoned as the literal and authoritative Word of God, and the very deceptions Harvard was founded to prevent abound therein!] More, by the grace of God
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Cornell in the 1890’s expected at least four languages (French, German, Greek, and Latin IIRC) on top of English. I doubt that the U of T was at all out of line for the Anglophone world-—ENgland was still dragging pretty well everyone who was remotely academic through the Gallic wars in the 1950’s. WHther or not it was expected, top Canadian Catholic high schools required those on any sort of Academic track to take Latin, and in some cases Greek, that is superior to that required for many current undergrad degrees in Classics.
See my other post to Elsie.