CNS Launches Newman Guide Recognition for Schools, Graduate Programs
What could be more exciting than The Newman Guide? More Newman Guide!
The first edition of The Newman Guide was published in 2007, and I used it to find a faithful Catholic college where I had an amazing experience and even met my future husband. By helping Catholic families find good Catholic colleges amid widespread secularization and infidelity, the guide has become a hopeful sign of the renewal of faithful Catholic education.
As that renewal continues with the revitalization of faithful Catholic schools and the availability of faithful graduate programs, the time is right for The Cardinal Newman Society to take its Newman Guide to the next level. In this special anniversary year, we are expanding our highly successful Newman Guide to include faithful Catholic elementary, secondary, and graduate school options in addition to Catholic colleges.
The Newman Guide recognizes model institutions that refuse to compromise their Catholic mission. Too many of America’s schools and colleges—including much of Catholic education—have become battlegrounds for today’s culture wars, causing as many as 85 percent of Catholic youth to lose their faith by adulthood.
By extending the Newman Guide into K-12 schools and graduate programs, we are providing Catholic parents and students with a pathway to a seamless, faithful Catholic education.
Over the years, The Newman Guide has earned a strong reputation for rigorously vetting Catholic colleges, ensuring they have strong policies and standards that uphold Catholic identity from academics and athletics to faculty hiring and campus life. This has resonated with Catholic families, as more than 75,000 families refer to the Newman Guide online every year to help find a faithful Catholic college.
Newman Guide schools
Have you heard about Catholic schools providing daily Mass for students? Forming them with timeless works of literature? Ensuring a Catholic worldview in all subjects? Focusing on virtue development in their athletic programs?
There is so much to celebrate at Catholic schools recognized in The Newman Guide! While some Catholic schools have gone “woke” by embracing gender ideology and mirroring public schools in their curriculum, personnel, and educational philosophy, the Newman Guide schools remain strong in the faith.
We already have a lot of experience evaluating and recognizing schools since 2011 with our Catholic Education Honor Roll. The Honor Roll will continue a while longer as currently recognized schools complete their five-year terms, but new recognition will be under The Newman Guide.
“We are thrilled that The Cardinal Newman Society is expanding The Newman Guide to include primary and secondary Catholic schools,” said Derek Tremblay, headmaster of Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, N.H. “The Cardinal Newman Society remains a critical and trusted partner in Catholic education. The policies and curriculum standards drafted and recommended by CNS reflect the fullness of the Catholic faith. There is simply no other institution that compares to what the Cardinal Newman Society has done to keep Catholic education faithful to Jesus Christ.”
Graduate programs
At the graduate school level, the expanded Newman Guide is also responding to a pressing need from Catholic families. For years, families have asked for our guidance in choosing a Catholic graduate program. And the number of U.S. students seeking a graduate degree has doubled in the last 20 years.
Some of the graduate programs working through the application process include the Augustine Institute, Ave Maria School of Law, Divine Mercy University, and Pontifex University. Newman Guide colleges that offer graduate programs have also expressed interest.
In the right program, students can pursue an advanced education while being immersed in a truly Catholic environment. This is great news for Catholic families and for the future of the Church!
Formation for a lifetime
There’s no greater gift parents can provide young people than a faithful Catholic education.
“We have told our kids they can choose from the list of faithful colleges for undergraduate studies,” said Elisa Del Curto, a Catholic mother of 10 in California, whose children have, so far, all attended a Newman Guide college at the undergraduate level. “We have never expected these faithful colleges on the list to be perfect; nothing can be. But what we have found in the guide has been beyond helpful in aiding our children in their quest for truth.”
We hope that families will find the same value in our recommendations of faithful schools and graduate programs. And we pray that the expanded Newman Guide will allow more students to enjoy better lives because of experiencing faithful Catholic education. The expanded Newman Guide is good news for Catholic families, Catholic educators, and the future of the Catholic Church!
Kelly Salomon
vice president for Newman
guide programs at The Cardinal Newman Society.
ksalomon@cardinalnewmansociety.org