The Catholic College: Uniting Faith and Reason
The Holy Father’s intention for October is “that Catholic universities may increasingly become places where, in light of the gospel, people may experience the unity of faith and reason.” As every Catholic in America knows, the “Catholic” colleges are becoming more and more secular. Many conservative Catholic grads are horrified by the politics of their alma mater. Others are apathetic because they don’t consider those schools to be “Catholic” anymore.
Although many accept the “secularization” of Catholic higher education as a natural course, they shouldn’t ignore the fact that it is a problem. I doubt one would send their child to Notre Dame for their child’s spiritual life; rather, it has a highly rated department for their chosen major. I understand why Catholics send their children to non-religious universities. There is the classic dilemma: should I send little Augustine to the spiritually strong Catholic university with less academic prestige, or should I send him to an Ivy League where his faith will be severely tested?
My immediate answer to this dilemma is this: there are good Catholic schools. Sure, some have better departments than others. University of Dallas has a good drama department and a mandatory liberal arts core. Christendom is known for its excellent history program. Catholic University has solid philosophy courses and Franciscan University has a top notch nursing program. Last, but certainly not least (writes the TAC student with a twinkle in her eye), Thomas Aquinas College has an intense philosophy and theology double major which is taught by brilliant professors. There are even more schools that have a strong Catholic staff: Wyoming Catholic (an intellectual outdoorsman paradise), Benedictine, and Thomas More.
People CAN and DO become more devout in college and manage to have a pretty good time.
And no, little Augustine, you aren’t going to turn all “homeschooler” or into a hobbit by attending one of these places. You will probably drink a beer with your friends, try your first cigarette (Sorry, Mom) and maybe, if you shower more often and stop quoting Star Wars, you’ll even get a girlfriend. You aren’t sacrificing “the college experience.” Or at least the good part. I gladly sacrifice the part of the experience where your roommate’s boyfriend or girlfriend sleeps over and you have to pretend it’s no big deal.
Sure, you will meet plenty of Catholic wackos, but they will be the nicest wackos you will ever meet. I promise, speaking as a former wacko critic, that you will get used to and love them pretty quickly. But remember, there are always a few wackos not even the wackos understand. Welcome to being Catholic. Offer it up or something. (Don’t you hate when people say that to you? My mother is a school principal so I have the wonderful privilege of hearing that all the time.)
There are always a few wackos not even the wackos understand. Welcome to being Catholic.
On a more serious note, you will be strongly influenced by the people around you. Being a devout Catholic is far easier when you’re practically “peer pressured” into it. A friend of mine, “John Paul”, had a friend who asked him almost everyday if JP would go to mass with him or say a Rosary. After living with this for 3 months, JP told me he was going crazy! This guy was making him not want to pray! By the next year, I was sitting in the car with JP and his friend who were now as thick as thieves. To my complete surprise, JP turned to me and asked me if I would mind saying the Rosary with them since they made a point of saying it everyday. I was deeply touched and smiled through the Rosary during the rest of the ride. The previous week we had been dancing in a parking lot and cracking rude jokes together. Who would have thought?
Take it from me, people CAN and DO become more devout in college and manage to have a pretty good time. Don’t worry, Augustine, plenty of kids just like you have parents who are dragging their useless children to these places so you will have someone you can relate to.
If we want to have vibrant Catholic intellectual communities down the road, we need to build them on a foundation of faith and reason.
If your little Augustine or little Sophia Olivia aren’t convinced, encourage them to visit authentically Catholic colleges. I have yet to meet someone who regretted attending the summer programs that these Catholic schools offer. Make your future saints (ha! You wish, huh?) get a job at the Gelato Spot or Fashion Square to raise the funds. Contact anyone you know attending these schools and ask if your kid can stay with them. Don’t visit during the weekend because most college students are in zombie mode. Visit during the week so your kid can preview classes and get a feel for the student body.
If you are up to visit TAC, let me know. I will gladly show you around, discuss the curriculum, or tease your child about the other colleges they are considering. “University of Dallas? Texas? Really?” (Just kidding about that last part.) If you want to talk about financial aid, the office will meet with you. TAC never turns an applicant away based on his financial situation. How else do you think they would have so many students from families with 10 kids? First, they accept your application…and then ask how you plan on paying tuition. Pretty nifty, I must say.
(TAC is planning to have an open house the 23rd of October. If that doesn’t work for you, call the school and find a good time to visit. The admissions office will let you stay on campus if there’s space available.)
Authentic Catholic colleges want strong Catholic applicants! If we want to have vibrant Catholic intellectual communities down the road, we need to build them on a foundation of faith and reason.
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Good post, Louisa! May the Force be with you.
Well said. I also think it is important for parents to realize that a good formation and foundation in catholic education is so much more important that occupational training.Americans and capitalists over emphasize the job part of education and have lost the notion of education for its own sake. Life is really about getting to heaven, not getting a paycheck. So what if your kids have to spend a little more time in school to get a job after going to a truly catholic school and learning how to think. They will be that much closer to being a good person and thinking about life clearly–and that is what is most important.
Oh, and TAC is the best!
Please do share with us what you are learning in future posts! Louisa, I heartily encourage highschool students and their families to make a good Catholic and Liberal Arts education or “Great Books” program a priority in determining their college of choice. The world and our Church will reap much benefit from future generations of people who have discovered the proper relationship between faith and reason and know how to live it. I was aware of the pope’s intention for October relating to Catholic colleges– we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that this will happen overnight because part of the solution is future generations of professors who are Catholic and embody the proper relationship between faith and reason in the way they think and teach. Hopefully, we can all work to help each other recognize this fact.
Thank you so much Louisa, this issue has been on my mind of late. I have heard encouraging things about the schools you’ve mentioned here.
I might spend the next 17+ years wishing for a ‘nihil obstat’ on the application forms of Georgetown, Villanova, Fairfield, Notre Dame, CUA, Marquette, Santa Clara? etc., etc., etc.
I sometimes wonder if the “There is no God.” of a secular University environment might be less dangerous to the Catholic student than the subtler perversions of the nominally Catholic, perhaps something like “You can confess it later.”
I really think that any university or college is only as good as its professors. I believe that professors are 90% responsible for influencing students for ill or good especially at schools with small class sizes. However, the huge lecture hall is hardly the place to learn about certain subjects that are so life changing–philosophy comes to mind. I have found that there are always “gems”, i.e. good and brilliant professors, at even bad Catholic universities. Some sub circles of professors like these teach in special programs within a generally crappy university. The FORMER Saint Ignatius Institute at the overall not so great University of San Francisco with its wacko theology department and gay friendly campus, is a good example of good and brilliant professors co-existing with the bad and ushering students through that environment relatively untouched by it.
CUA is VERY authentically Catholic. Even when I was there (in the bad-old-days) it was, but Fr. O’Connell really re-committed the school to its Catholic identity.
Betty – I didn’t mean to imply that it wasn’t, only that I don’t have a stamp of approval telling me for certain that it is authentically Catholic and will still be so when my children are old enough to attend.
In my first and only semester at UofA I dealt with roommate issues of the nature that you speak. Uncomfortable to say the least. I know that attending a Catholic college wouldn’t eradicate this problem entirely, but it would be mitigated. My husband encounters parents whose children have spent four years reading the Great Books at some of the Great Hearts schools. These parents don’t like the thought of their children “doing the same thing they just did.” Which I think is so prideful. When you’re a teenager you get something totally different out of such a curriculum than you will as a young adult. I have a vivid memory of a very passionate literature teacher at my eventual school (Seattle Pacific University) brought almost to tears when talking about how literature effects us differently throughout life. I can’t agree more.
My daughter attends a smaller Catholic college which is not super-conservative but not BC either. She shares a suite with 7 other girls and had a roomate issue in which the roommate brought someone back recently who she met up with at a local pub. Distressed, my girl ran upstairs to the suite of some boys she is friendly with. They said,
“No worries. We will handle it for you.”
They went down to her room pounded on the door and told the guy,
“You are not supposed to be here. These girls don’t want you here. It is time to leave.”
They are all big boys, football and lacrosse players, and while no threats were made, they hoped to imply one.
“OK, pal, if you want to end the evening by being manhandled by teenagers and hauled away by campus security, we can arrange that.”
The next day the suitemates confronted the wayward friend directly and told her “never again”.
I had a friend whose niece was in a similar situation at a secular University and she had no sympathy from either dorm neighbors or the RA, It tool a visit from her dad to the VP for Student Affairs before the situation was addressed AT ALL.
Here’s a real horror story: my first year on campus at the mostly “Great Books program floor” of the all girls dorm, my first roommate moved out and subsequently I had several temporary roommates–ESL students from foreign countries mostly. One of the last people to move into my intimately small dorm room was a “lesbian” she told me after a few days of changing in front of her. I wasn’t able to do a thing about it and I had to change my clothes in the bathroom from that moment until, thank God, she ran out of funds and left the school!
Oops! I forgot to add that this experience was at a Jesuit university.
At a JESUIT university? I am shocked. Just shocked.
As I am preparing to send my Great Books – loving daughter to visit Steubenville tomorrow and Benedictine next week, I must say this is a great post! Even Steubenville, with its more “charismatic” reputation has an honors program that is Great Books-oriented.
I would also like to add that all Catholic parents should at the very least consult the Newman Guide to Catholic Colleges from the Cardinal (John Henry) Newman Society when considering the aforementioned true Catholic colleges. Their website is always keeping up on what is happening at each of its recommended colleges: http://blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2010/10/18/bold-changes-at-catholic-college/
http://www.thenewmanguide.com/
Students who are interested in preserving their virtuous behavior should visit the campus, as Louisa points out, during the week, for a better feel for reality of atmosphere. You can tell a lot about a campus on a Thursday through Saturday stay.
Besides all of those mentioned, the buzz is out on Belmont Abbey College.
Best of all, any alumnae I speak to from any of these fine institutions ALL lobby you to go to their alma mater. UD grads won’t take “no, it’s probably not for my daughter” for an answer; a Franciscan alumnae will bug you every time you see him about your college-bound child; TAC’s staff as well as grads will do anything to accommodate your interests, just short of going overboard; Benedictine’s freshmen post rallying arguments on Facebook while their admissions staff offer travel reimbursements and multi-day food vouchers just for visiting. This is the most refreshing part: that any of my serious and true Catholic colleagues are all proud to call each their alma mater. That is hope for the future!
And… just in case someone is considering that school in Texas…
Odyssey Days: Oct 29-30 and Nov 19-20
Aspiring Scholars Preview (Jrs): Feb 25-26 and June 6-7, 2011
The art department was just ranked #15 in the country, too!
(Sorry, had to plug my alma mater!)
I definitely agree that Catholic higher education is the way to go! My husband majored in religious studies at ASU (not a Catholic school, in case you were wondering), where there was a clear disdain for Christianity. All other major world religions were approached with respect and left largely unmolested, while the teachings of Christianity (particularly Catholicism, go figure) were either minimized or openly mocked. I took an honors course, the “Human Event”, which consisted of reading Simone de Beauvoir, Nietzche, and Freud – hardly a well-rounded world view. Pray for our Catholic universities!
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