Choosing a Catholic College / University, an Open Letter

Attend any university you want that fulfills your academic needs, but if you choose a Catholic university BECAUSE you want your faith to fluorish, just be aware that Catholic university these days does not mean what it meant 10, 20, 30 years ago.

Dear Prospective College Student, this is to respond to your post Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not to put you on the spot or anything. Just thought I’d add a few thoughts (riiiiight ) to those you already have on your blog.

Your post talks about Notre Dame, and in it you’ve got a short list of “not so good things about ND”. I figured since you still have quite some time to narrow your choices down and research colleges before you send out applications, now might be a good time to talk about some things you might not be aware of — remember of course that Tita Stef is speaking with the best of intentions here and because she loves ya, dear.

If you’re looking for great universities, Notre Dame should certainly be on that list. In terms of academics they’re one of the best, as you point out in your blog (and as pointed out by understandably loyal ND alums ). I would like to address the other part of the equation that I know you, as a devout practicing Catholic, would want to consider. Choosing a college for its academic merits is one thing. Choosing a college because you want your faith to be nurtured well is another. Please note I’m not trying to dissuade you from attending ND. And I’m not trying to convince you to attend any of the universities I mention here.

Aisa, as you know, plans to attend MCI and UC, and then get her masters at Steubenville. MCI and UC are not Catholic universities, but they are her best options in terms of the major/minor she wants to take as well as her choice to stay close to home. You might decide to go to a secular university as well. Ultimately, I do believe, and I’m sure you do too, that whether a university contributes to the growth or detriment of an individual’s faith is also largely determined by the particular individual. And I believe that you’ve got a great start in your faith and that you won’t waver easily no matter what outside influences there are. All that said, I do want to provide you with other information you may find useful in your search and eventual decisions. Take your time, there’s quite a lot here to ponder and think and pray upon, and we’ll be praying with you and for you (and all the other YFC-ers) for continued guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Let’s talk first about what the problem is:

The Dismal State of Most Catholic Colleges and Universities from Anne Hendershott, Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego

To illustrate, here’s a very telling article from someone who graduated from and is teaching at Notre Dame. Don’t Know Much About Liturgy, Don’t Know Much About Theology by Marian Crowe (an article that originally appeared in Crisis Magazine). It was this article which I read in 2001 that prompted me to look more closely at our children’s possible choices.

Marian Crowe is talking about Notre Dame specifically, but as explained in the Hendershott article, this has been happening everywhere. Here’s an article from May 2006: Catholic college sites link to Planned Parenthood.

This year, as in previous years , a number of Catholic universities — including Notre Dame — made a rather questionable choice of staging, yet again, an offensive show. This is what their bishop had to say about that in 2005.

In 2004, the Cardinal Newman Society for the Preservation of Catholic Higher Education published a 57-page, comprehensive 5-year review on The Culture of Death on Catholic Campuses. Section 2 alone is enough to give one pause: it talks about abortion advocates targeting college students. Why? “About one of every five abortions in the U.S. is performed on a college-aged woman. College students are an important and easily identifiable portion of the market for abortions.” That’s only one symptom — a dangerous one — of the illness that has been creeping through Catholic universities across the nation.

Has it always been this way? Apparently not. Katherine Kestern reminisces about traditional Catholic liberal education as it was in the 1940′s. She enumerates the many values from which Catholic universities these days have veered away.

The fact is, in 1943, education at Notre Dame was structured with one goal in mind: to prepare my father for freedom – freedom of the best and highest kind. [snip] The education my dad received at Notre Dame was a self-consciously liberal education, which means, an education designed to liberate — to free — the human mind and spirit. What did this education seek to liberate students from? Liberation from slavery to their desires, their impulses, and their petty self-absorption. Its goal was to liberate their reason, and to awaken them to the good, the true and the beautiful. [- emphasis mine]

Traditional Catholic liberal education was grounded in a very particular idea of freedom: what I call “freedom for” – positive freedom – as distinguished from license. It is what the English political philosopher Lord Acton characterized as “freedom to live as we ought, not as we will.”

Positive freedom is the freedom of the moral being, the moral agent, created in the image of God. It is the freedom to pursue the truth; the universal and transcendent truth that Scripture tells us will set us free. Positive freedom is the freedom that undergirds the American political regime of ordered liberty. It is the freedom of the adult, the freedom of the Christian.

Fellow blogger and homeschooling mom Erin Manning has this to say about liberty and license.

What about our Holy Father?

Here’s Pope Benedict XVI’s April 17, 2008 address at the Catholic University of America, where he talks about Catholic higher education:

In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church’s munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.

Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual. (emphasis mine – Tita Stef)

The Pope also expressed similar sentiments in his November 2005 speech at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. Here is LifeSite’s article after that speech. What’s alarming to note are the statistics presented in the LifeSite article — Catholic students who don’t graduate as “Catholic” as they came in. It is a frightening scenario.

However, that ideal has, for the most part, been gravely distorted especially in North America. Even if young people survive with their faith intact until university or college age, statistics show they will lose their faith in so-called Catholic higher education.

A large study which gained massive attention in 2003 found that by the time they graduate, students at many Catholic colleges are significantly more opposed to Church teachings, pray less, and are in many ways less religious than when they were freshmen. The study, based on annual surveys by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), surveyed students at 38 Catholic colleges finding that:

• Whereas a majority of students entered Catholic colleges pro-life (55% opposed to legal abortion, 45% in support), many graduated pro-abortion (57% pro-abortion, 43% pro-life).
• Support for legalizing homosexual “marriages” increased from 55% to 71% by senior year.
• Approval of having sex with someone known “for only a very short time” increased from 30% to 49% by senior year.
• Although 15% of seniors reported much stronger religious beliefs and convictions than when they were freshmen, the same growth was reported by 12% of seniors at nonsectarian colleges and 24% of seniors at other religious colleges (mostly Protestant).
• Only 37% of seniors prayed more than one hour a week; 31% didn’t pray at all.
• Among Catholic students, 9% left the faith by graduation. Although 11% of non-Catholic students converted to the Church, their actual numbers were smaller and still left Catholic colleges with a net 4% loss of Catholics.
• Among Catholic seniors, 13% did not attend a religious service in the past year (a four-fold increase since their freshman year), and about half attended only occasionally.

The eyebrow raising statistics come as no surprise to those who have followed the catalogue of anti-Catholic actions at Catholic universities and colleges in Canada and the United States.

What can we do as parents and prospective students?

Number one is awareness. For starters, know that just because you choose a “Catholic university” does not mean your faith will be fed adequately while you are there. It is this awareness that will put you at an advantage; perhaps you will be motivated to seek specific opportunities to find ways to grow in your faith, and not just wait to be fed by whatever your college offers. You will have to be proactive; you will have to think critically about the choices you find. And yes, you will have to be on guard against anything and everything that may compromise what you already know.

I am not trying to dissuade people from attending really great universities, ND included. The universities you are looking at have names that will surely look impressive on your resume once you start looking for that job. Certainly I can understand why many Catholic kids these days are still attracted to these institutions. It just pays to have our eyes open before we make that commitment.

If we decide that we need to look elsewhere, where do we go for better options?

Just for contrast, let’s take a quick look at Cardinal Arinze’s review of Christendom College.

Now let’s see what several committed Catholics have to say about this:

• from Deal Hudson, director of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture, former publisher and editor of CRISIS Magazine: How To Make Sure “Catholic” Colleges Really Are.
• from Keith Fournier, Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, human rights lawyer and long time pro-life activist: The Catholic College.
• from Jeff Ziegler, contributor to Lay Witness and writer for Catholic World Report: Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

Thankfully, the Newman Society has put together this very helpful guide:

Joseph Esposito, Director of The Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education, and Editor of the guide talks about the criteria they used in compiling it. One of the main things to remember is that the colleges included in the guide support and are faithful to Pope John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church).

Here’s a condensed version. You can also peruse The Newman Guide’s Table of Contents online for more great articles.

Parents reading this may want to consider joining the College4CathHS e-list at yahoogroups. It is a group put together by homeschoolers but there’s a lot of information there for parents sending their kids to college soon.

Of course, in the end, even though it matters that we be fully informed of our choices, what matters most is prayer, and trust that God will lead you to where He wants you to be. Many blessings on your journey:).