This has been going on for quite a while. We didn't even consider Catholic colleges when our older two went. The oldest attended UMass-Amherst because he got a 4 yr. scholarship. The other attends Carnegie Mellon because he considered it the best place for his major, which is Computer Science.
We have 2 more coming up. Our daughter has expressed interest in Ave Maria; we became Founders last year. Our youngest son will need an engineering program. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the good Catholic Schools have one; they seem to be mostly Liberal Arts.
I was about to post when your post caught my eye!! I graduated from St. Bonas a generation ago. I would not recommend it. Most of my Catholic friends (from college) aren't Catholic anymore, or if they are, it's only in a women-goddess-priest kind of way. Ugh. I found my faith seriously tested as well.
Because of the relatively short distance from where I now live (PA), many of our local Catholic school teachers go there for 'further' education. And come back devoid of their previous fervent faith. My son's (former) high school math teacher is a perfect example. He left the school abruptly in the first semester, leaving stunned math students. He was exceptionally good at teaching math. A double loss. Also, the former priest-teacher at his school left teaching and the priesthood in one fell swoop.
And not to pick on just Bonas, what is it with Catholic colleges? Totally hijacked, it would seem, by the same leftist agenda that characterizes so many institutions of higher education. I knew Bonas was in trouble when they 'let go' many tenured male profs, some very good ones in their prime, about a decade ago to adhere to 'fair hiring' practices. No longer judged by ability, just ability to fill a quota.
My post was originally going to be about my own experience in my freshman year. My very first 'theology' class started thusly: The professor announced to a packed room (mandatory class, about 40 of us) that he was going to challenge us to expand our horizons and teach us 'new' findings in Catholicism, things that would 'fly in the face' of what we learned as mere children. Hence the smear, now that we were 'grown up' we would see his point, right? - otherwise we would appear to all the class and him to be childish or unreasonable. In this first class, he told us how Jesus sinned and had a 'close relationship' (read: affair) with Mary Magdalene and had brothers and sisters. And, most importantly, how Jesus came not for some nicey salvation thing but to establish social justice here on earth. Gag.
Then he asked who found that hard to accept or disagreed. Four of us raised our hands. Granted, some just didn't care, but only 4. We were told disagreeing with him was not allowed and would prevent us from getting an A or even a B in the class. We were warned not to complain, all the profs taught this way and he would find out. He asked us if we still disagreed and we raised our hands. One guy argued with him. He told us we were a hindrance to the learning of the class. The guy who argued left, the other 3 of us stayed, of which I am not proud. I should have left. But you can see how he took advantage of new college freshmen, many away from home for the first time (at least to this extent) and we wanted to respect his authority. Oh well.
Sorry so long. I could go on. It only went down hill from there.