Schools today often ask about the “athletics question.” What do we do if our girls’ team faces an opponent with a male athlete? But the best response requires stepping back and contextualizing this modern question within a longer history and a larger debate.
Athletics reside at the heart of American culture, and even American schools. They have for decades. But it arguably goes back even farther. From chariot races to gladiatorial games to March Madness, college portals, and Super Bowl Sunday, sports have consistently generated fame, profit, and obsessive attention throughout Western civilization.
Christian educators have long wrestled with the appropriate response. What is the rightly ordered place of sports in human life? In the formation of human persons? A paradox, perhaps unsurprisingly, characterizes the Christian ethos of athletics. On one level, Christians reduce the significance of sports. By placing them in proportion to man’s transcendent end, Christian schools temper the tendency to near-idol worship. But here comes the paradox. This proper contextualization also involves a thoughtful elevation of sports’ formative power. Christians recognize a unique capacity to help human persons attain their true end.
To succinctly summarize the wealth of Christian reflection on athletics is a herculean task. Its roots can be traced to St. Paul, including his letters to Timothy and the sports-obsessed Corinthian church. He uses athletic competition as a metaphor for the Christian life. Rather than an opportunity for self-seeking and self-glorification, sports offer athletes a mini-universe—a microcosm—of human existence. Athletes discover a land of rules, organized conflict subject to rightful authorities, and fixation on an end that orders all decisions. This demands, in the context of team sports, interdependence. It calls for virtue: courage, fortitude, patience, prudence, even temperance. Success often requires character formation, at least to some extent. The athlete can find, in the universe of play, the pathway to a life well lived. This transforms the competition into an instrument of God’s glory and a witness to the power of Christian formation, which redeems humanity from its fallen, selfish tendencies. Particularly in recent centuries, Christians have then contemplated the practical implications of this thinking in light of unique cultural contexts.
The same is true today. We now find ourselves in a new unique cultural and civilizational moment. Can a young man, who identifies as a young woman, compete in women’s sports? Conflicting answers lead to raging social divisions. The millennia-old “athletics question” now takes on a new dimension. It possesses increased social tension and, in some cases, legal consequences. The response of Christian educators no longer merely deals with the question of formation, right thinking, and the proper integration of sports into curricular goals and understanding. This is significant enough. But it also involves the potential for legal disputes.
Just ask Mid Vermont Christian School. Its high school girls’ basketball team came up against an opponent with a male athlete. The school declined to play. Mid Vermont felt that its participation would have recognized the validity of the competition, in direct contradiction to its religious beliefs. Mid Vermont believed playing would communicate acceptance of the legitimacy of the young man’s, and the opposing team’s, declaration: a biological male can become a girl and compete in an all-girls event. And this would not only communicate a contradictory message to its students and school community; it would have compromised the fairness, and safety, of the competition itself. It could not capitulate.
The state of Vermont responded by excluding the school, in its entirety, from the state athletics association. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Mid Vermont challenged the state’s decision, arguing it violates the school’s First Amendment rights. The case was recently argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and a decision is pending. The legal analysis does involve some unique questions that may vary by jurisdiction. But the implications for the school’s religious liberty are obvious.
What can be done?
Schools can seize this unique moment as an opportunity to bear witness. This not only involves bearing witness to biological reality. It involves an artful articulation of the role of sports in human life and the mystery of human existence more broadly. This is another manifestation of the age-old “athletics question.” A school can begin to offer a response through the development of school policy.
Policy formation always involves an evangelical opportunity. We could analogize the process of policy creation to the trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric. Schools need to first deeply understand what they believe (grammar). Then they need to consider how these foundational convictions shape all aspects of operations (logic). Finally, they need to articulate it with clarity (rhetoric).
Start with foundational documents. Schools should carefully cultivate a distinct Christian identity in their legal infrastructure. This involves a thoughtful articulation of the school’s religious purpose, mission, and convictions in governing documents. What does the school believe about God and the human person He created?
Christians reject gnostic and dualistic concepts of humanity. We do not divide the human person into separate parts. Each individual is a composite of body and soul, and both are good. Any effort to deny the unity of body and soul, suggesting distinct identities in conflict with one another, rejects the integrity of God’s intention. God did not create any individual with an inner sexual identity at odds with a biological reality. Rather, the fall produced conflict and division at every level of human life: division between man and God, man and creation, man and man, and man and himself. One’s rejection of his or her own body has these same origins. But in Christ, we discover the hope of reconciliation. He makes all things new. And He invites us to recognize the lies that wedge themselves into our existence and to follow Him on the pathway to healing. This, in many ways, is the task of education: to lead forth into the fullness of life that God intends for us to possess in Christ.
That might offer the grammar. Logic comes next. How does this theological foundation inform the purpose of athletics in Christian education? And, by extension, what is the role of single-sex competition in advancing that purpose?
Christian tradition offers no shortage of fodder for contemplation. We have already explored some of it in this short article. But just spend a few minutes researching what Pope John Paul II had to say about athletics, or even the Jesuits as they re-fashioned education in the sixteenth century. Although by no means exhaustive, we might distill these themes into a few overarching concepts: honorable rivalry, character formation, friendship, God’s glory, and public witness.
Then apply those concepts to the purpose of single-sex competition. Most immediately, consider the need for honorable rivalry. A school does not sort students into a men’s team and a women’s team because all those people happen to think the same way about themselves. That renders the distinction arbitrary. A school might as well sort people into teams based on their favorite color or flavor of ice cream. They sort them into separate teams based on a real physical distinction that preserves the integrity of the competition. This advances the purpose of fairness and, in most contexts, safety. A competition that rejects this concept, in favor of internal or personal identification, renders a primary goal of single-sex competition obscure and meaningless.
But this concept goes further. Sports teach students the significance of rules. One of the rules of single-sex competition is that it is, well, single-sex. A school’s participation in a competition that ignores this reality requires one of two things: either acknowledge the validity of a rule imposed by the association that directly contradicts both the religious convictions and actual purpose of single-sex competition, or communicate to their student body that some rules don’t matter. As stewards of a religious and educational mission, neither option is viable.
The emergence of a male victor in a female sport thwarts additional purposes of single-sex competition. In creating men’s teams and women’s teams, or having men’s competitions and women’s competitions, a school acknowledges God-ordained differences and celebrates them. God is glorified in each competition for His creativity in establishing two different physical forms of the human person. If a male body wins a female competition, this purpose and celebration is directly undermined.
The school also speaks a word to the community, its students, parents, and faculty through its athletics program. The program should bear witness to its formational mission and religious convictions. School participation arguably communicates agreement or acceptance. This, too, could result in directly undermining the program’s public testimony.
And the list could go on.
Here is the point: A school should develop clarity of vision, both theologically and practically, surrounding sports. And then it should write it down. The issue involves far more than a modern moral or political question. An athletics policy should address the sports program in its totality, including its vital relationship to the school’s educational and religious mission. It should then address the role of single-sex competition within that context, including the events in which it will or will not participate as a result.
This admittedly leaves many questions unanswered. For example, how can the school tactfully and practically implement this kind of policy? As noted, the legal analysis could vary from circumstance to circumstance, so competent legal counsel should be consulted. And the way courts will view these policies in specific contexts also remains open.
But begin here: deep thinking, prayerful reflection, and clear articulation while engaging an age-old dilemma that now surfaces with new dimensions and questions. At the very least, the school will approach this unique moment with clarity of conviction and deliberate decision-making, prepared to bear witness to a watching world.
Patrick Piccolo is Legal Counsel, Deputy Director of Church and Ministry Alliance at Alliance Defending Freedom
CNS Joins Amicus Brief on Title VII Religious Exemption – Zinski v Liberty University, 4th Circuit
/in Blog Amicus Briefs, Public Policy and Legal (General)/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffClick here to read.
Youth Minister’s Plea to the Church
/in Blog Blog/by Rich Olon & Matthew UzdavinisWhat role does a teenager’s college decision play in the salvation of their soul?
Recent studies have revealed that the Catholic Church is losing approximately 85 percent of its members who have received the Sacrament of Confirmation by the time they turn 23-24 years old. While 10 to 15 percent eventually return, this means that almost seven out of 10 fully initiated Catholics are abandoning their Faith by the time they finish college.
There should be no surprise at these dreary statistics, however. Today’s secular colleges and even many Catholic colleges, while somehow still prestigious in the eyes of the world, are completely devoid of authentic education. The academic depravity in college classrooms should already be enough for us to reevaluate our trust in these institutions, but the culture of vice and ensuing moral degeneracy on college campuses seals the coffin. Thousands of Catholic families are sending their teenagers away to these decadent campuses each year, with the oftentimes misled hope that, in the end, their child will still be practicing their Catholic faith. We willingly throw our young people into the fire and then lament the fact that they’re burned.
Thanks be to God, families and their teenagers do have a choice today. The Cardinal Newman Society evaluates and promotes colleges that stand as beacons of Catholic life, academic integrity, and moral virtue in the face of the disorder rampant in our society. Graduates of such colleges leave having received a degree, but, even more importantly, having come face to face with Jesus Christ. Thus, it is not hyperbole to suggest that, in choosing a college, a young person is making a choice that will quite literally affect their eternal salvation.
In order to see the gravity of the situation more clearly, it’s helpful to look at a few examples. In 2022, a professor at the purportedly most prestigious Catholic university in the country made news, because she bragged about assisting and helping students acquire abortifacient contraception as well as abortion services. Although this professor never redacted and renounced her obviously anti-Catholic behavior, she still remains employed and in good standing at the university. This same institution has also hosted pro-abortion politicians as commencement speakers and dignified guests.
Moreover, on the secular side, our nation’s most “prestigious” universities have become bulwarks of gender ideology, transgenderism, LGBT activism, and atheism. If the institutions themselves are blatantly promoting anti-Catholic values, what else would we expect the culture among the student body to look like? Students are being force-fed ideology that is altogether divorced from reality and truth. Should anyone speak out against such disordered ideology, they face punishment by grade depreciation, so-called cancellation by peers, or even expulsion from the institution. Additionally, it is evident that fraternity and sorority houses, rather than being places to cultivate authentic fraternity and sorority, have become nothing more than more private locations for excessive drinking, destructive drug use, and loathsome fornication. Parents might have the temptation to think back on their own days in a fraternity or sorority and say something along the lines of, “It can’t be all that bad. I had some crazy times in my own day, and I turned out fine.” One simply has to realize that the culture among young people in the 1970s or the 1980s was very different from youth culture in our day—in many ways, our young people are being formed in a culture more vicious than any we’ve seen before.
Parents and teenagers must collectively do the work of evaluating colleges and universities not simply for their seeming prestige in mainstream culture but also for their ability to draw young people to the Heart of Christ, and thus, to discover the great gift that it is to live an authentically human life. We must change the framework within which we understand college and its role in the life of the human person. It is not naïve to believe that a young person can go to a college where they will truly encounter Christ, come to know and love Him deeply, and have their hearts and minds transformed in the process. Even further, it is not naïve to believe that such a young person, having been formed by Christ in college, will also receive a useful degree by which they can find meaningful employment and an adequate salary. We know that this is happening every year at faithful Catholic colleges, specifically those recommended on The Newman Guide.
If parents and students have not had the opportunity to visit these campuses, I cannot recommend this enough. I can only address to them the words of Jesus Himself, “Come and see.” Notice a few important attributes on these campuses:
At this point in the conversation, many parents will interject with a rebuttal along the lines of, “But, what about the Catholic centers on secular campuses? Many of those are flourishing and provide great community for the students. Going to an entirely Catholic school isn’t necessary for my child to keep their Faith. Besides, [insert prestigious secular school here] will help them get [insert job here] or [insert sport scholarship here].”
Without demeaning the good work that some Catholic centers and groups on secular college campuses are doing, we must still recognize the fact that Catholicism is entirely compartmentalized at secular institutions—regardless of how good the Catholic center is. The practice of the Faith will always just be one “extracurricular” to choose from, simply due to the fact that the Faith is completely divorced from their academic curriculum and ordinary campus life altogether. Not to mention, the potential peer pressure from hundreds or thousands of fellow students can oftentimes completely outweigh the good influence of the Catholic center.
Aside from this, shouldn’t we want the very best education and formation for our young people? Why are we not desiring that the Faith be an integral part of every course, club, extracurricular, and student life event? Do we think this is altogether extreme? If we are not desiring that our young people be formed by a curriculum that presents to them a holistic picture of the Truth, then we are doing them a great disservice. We cannot fail to remember that Truth has a face and a name: Jesus Christ.
The advantages of attending an authentically Catholic school rather than a mere student center at a secular college should be rather obvious. We cannot plant seeds in unhealthy soil and a polluted environment and then become perplexed or frustrated when they do not grow. In fact, we’d be wise to expect the opposite. We must seek to plant seeds in greenhouses—the authentically Catholic universities—places where our young people will live in an environment in which they have the opportunity to grow and flourish into everything God has created them to be.
Message to youth ministers
At the forefront of the charge leading our young people to these authentically Catholic colleges ought to be our youth ministers, priests, and parishes. If young people never see these colleges for themselves, they’ll always succumb to the purported prestige and greater opportunity promised to them by secular schools. In my own experience as a youth minister in rural Maryland, I have personally witnessed the invaluable impact of taking high school students on visits to authentically Catholic universities. I have personally witnessed students who were not Catholic or who perhaps chose to attend these college visits simply to have the chance to take a trip with friends have a complete change of heart and decide to attend one of the colleges. I have had the great privilege to watch many of our youth attend these most worthy institutions and experience a conversion to the Catholic faith, find their Vocations in the Church, and grow exponentially in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
None of this happens, however, if there are not parishes, priests, and youth ministers who are actively working together to organize these opportunities for the youth to see these campuses in-person. Because we’ve invested so much of our efforts into bringing the young people from our area to these colleges, we’ve experienced upwards of 50 students from our small county at Newman Guide schools at one time. This fall, our small parish will have nine seminarians. Two of them attended Ave Maria University and readily admit that, without visiting AMU on our college tours, they likely would not be in seminary or even practicing their faith. This is a clear testament to the fact that our youth desire a place where they can grow in relationship with Christ and true friendships that lead them toward heaven. They simply must be taken there and shown what the world and mainstream media don’t have to offer.
I cannot exhort youth ministers and parishes enough in this. Be the reason why the youth in your town are graduating in droves from colleges where they fall in love with Christ and choose Him above all else!
Message to youth
Dear young people, consider your worth in the eyes of Almighty God. Consider the great adventure that Jesus calls you to take with Him. As a youth minister, I have personally witnessed the shriveled fruits of sending young people to secular campuses alongside the abundant harvest that takes place when we send our youth to authentically Catholic schools. I know that you desire deep friendships, meaningful learning, and the fulfillment that only Jesus offers you. Do not be afraid to be different from your peers in answering the call of Jesus to cast your nets deeply for an abundant catch.
I promise you that you’ll never regret having immersed yourself into everything that an authentically Catholic college has to offer. Many of you will find your vocations there—perhaps as married people, priests, or religious. You will also find friends who call you to the heights of heaven rather than to the drudgery of sin and vice. The Cardinal Newman Society has presented us with an invaluable resource. They have given you and I the list of the top faithful Catholic colleges in our country. Take it seriously and choose wisely.
You are called to be with Almighty God for all eternity in the paradise of heaven, and the world is against you in this. Go where you will be helped along this journey. Be not afraid!
A Family’s Journey with The Newman Guide
/in Blog Blog/by Elisa Del CurtoThe Cardinal Newman Society has been hugely influential in my family’s life. As a mother of ten children, my main concern is the salvation of their souls.
I was a public-schooled kid, and my Catholic faith was one of ritual, not true understanding. We never missed Mass as children, Confession and Holy Days being de rigueur. However, my understanding was sorely lacking. I knew something was missing in my life. I did not delve into my Catholic faith until my husband, Andre, and I welcomed our first child, Elizabeth.
By the time she was school-aged, we made the decision to send her to a Catholic grade school. In filling out the forms, the question of “Why do you desire your child to have a Catholic education?” appeared with a couple of empty lines on which to write. Well, the words came forth in unbelievable speed. I quickly responded with over a page of prose of why our daughter should be a recipient of a Catholic education. I spoke of my lack of formation, understanding of the faith, and desiring much more for our child.
I envisioned our daughter being immersed into our Catholic faith, with Catholicism being woven into every subject. I expected the lay teachers to be expert theologians. My husband and I were left somewhat disappointed and disillusioned to learn this was not the case. It was a wake-up call for us as parents to learn that we were the primary educators of our children, and we were responsible to transmit the faith to our growing family. It was not enough to be what I call “ritual” Catholics.
Immersed in Catholicism
We spent two years at one Catholic grade school and two-and-a-half years at another, at which point we had six children. During those early years, we began to learn about our faith, reading Catholic books, listening to Immaculate Heart Radio, and having avid discussions with our pastor. We were busy building our domestic church: praying the family Rosary, praying as a couple, and also introducing other Catholic devotions into our growing family’s life. It became paramount to us parents that we must be able to explain our faith, encourage our young children’s questions, and rely on God’s providence in all areas of our lives. We attended Marian conferences, parish talks, read Church documents, and basically set out to school ourselves on our rich Catholic faith.
As we were immersing ourselves in Catholicism, a suggestion was made to my husband by our neighbor, who happened to be a public middle-school teacher. He suggested we try homeschooling. With much trepidation, prayer, tears, and familial support, we ultimately chose that path to educate our ten children.
We were acutely aware of what was being taught in public schools, as well as colleges and universities. We were concerned for our children’s future higher education choices. I fretted over how we could possibly navigate choosing a college. I tried to calm myself by reminding myself that God had always given us what we needed when we needed it. I questioned older parents and their college-aged offspring about how they approached discerning which colleges and universities were authentically Catholic. I got mixed answers, not all to my satisfaction, until I met a lovely, intelligent, pious woman named Maria Fran.
This dear woman told me about The Cardinal Newman Society and a book they had recently published that listed authentically Catholic colleges and universities. Immediately, I ordered and received a paperback book that listed all the authentically Catholic colleges and universities that existed in the U.S. My prayer had been answered. Soon, we began seeing some of these colleges being profiled in the National Catholic Register. We were thrilled to learn what each school offered and that they were true to Church teaching.
It was vitally important to us that our children learn in an environment that was not opposed to what they had been taught and believed. In August of 2009, our eldest daughter Elizabeth began her classics study at Ave Maria University, in part because of The Cardinal Newman Society. We then encouraged our other children to read through The Newman Guide and choose a college from the list. We have had children attend many authentically Catholic schools: Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Benedictine College, University of Dallas, University of Mary, and Catholic International University. While there is no longer a paperback book being published, the online information is exceptionally thorough and up to date. I appreciate knowing schools are constantly being monitored and, if they can no longer check off the boxes of being authentically Catholic, they are removed from the list. This resource is incredibly helpful to parents who are committed to helping their children navigate higher education institutions.
Prepared for life
Personally, I could not be happier with the results of our children’s college educations. They have a deep and clear understanding of their Catholic faith and have made it their own. Most of the colleges on the Cardinal Newman list have a required core of classes. In addition, to their respective major courses, our kids were exposed to great literature, philosophy, and theology. This has prepared them for life. It is not enough to be successful at their chosen profession if they do not know how to live a Christian life. It has been a blessing for our children to learn in environments that do not attack Christianity, but bolster the one true Church that Christ established.
I was so pleased to learn the Cardinal Newman list now includes elementary, secondary, and graduate programs. It will make clear for parents exactly which schools are in line with Church teaching and which will not undermine their domestic church. Looking back, it would have been so helpful to know about the Catholicity of local elementary and high schools. My prayer is that all levels of Catholic education will strive to be on this coveted list.
Connecting Catholic Education
/in Blog Blog/by Patrick ReillyNo one truly deserves to be called “educated.”
What I mean is, no human ever completes their education. It’s never accomplished, except in small part. Education is a lifelong journey that probably continues into eternity!
Nevertheless, we talk of high school graduation as a conclusion, college as the pinnacle of education, and doctorates as “terminal degrees.” We carve up education into a multi-step progression—from primary to secondary to higher education—and treat each level like a distinct program. Both students and teachers at each level are regarded as entirely different, and in most schools and colleges, there is minimal interaction across levels.
While there are reasons for this, The Cardinal Newman Society thinks Catholic education needs to unify. Next June, we’ll shatter convention with our Newman Guide Leaders Summit for administrators from all levels and types of Newman Guide Recommended education. And through our Newman Guide Network, we’re encouraging collaboration among peer groups but also across all Newman Guide Recommended institutions.
While Catholic schools, colleges, and other programs—and the grades and levels within them—are beautifully diverse in particular aspects, The Cardinal Newman Society strives to restore the common foundation and mission of all Catholic education. Our Newman Guide standards draw attention to the end toward which all Catholic education should stive: the full communion of every person with the Father, through Jesus Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit.
This is the meaning of the high red bar in the Cardinal Newman Society logo, typically running across the page. It symbolizes the high standards of faithful Catholic education, to which all Newman Guide Recommended institutions are committed. But it also is meant to remind us of the lifelong continuum of Catholic education, which begins with the parents’ baptismal promise to raise a child in the Faith and continues through the Christian life.
We think the practical divisions of Catholic education should not get in the way of ensuring faithful formation for every Catholic of every age. The divisions also need not prevent collaboration for the good of all. It’s time to unite and hold the center against the confusion, legal threats, and ideological distortions of our age, for the good of Catholic families.
Lifelong continuum
After nearly two decades of celebrating Catholic colleges in The Newman Guide, with rapidly growing numbers of recommended grade schools and graduate programs and soon also homeschooling, online, and hybrid options, we’re emphasizing the lifelong continuum of Catholic education for people of all ages.
Formation in faith and virtue isn’t just for children. And college isn’t the moment when young adults no longer need guidance—far from it! In fact, we need Catholic education throughout our lifetimes.
Of course, it’s a great blessing that educators today know so much more about the psychological development of their students and can ensure that curricula and pedagogy are age-appropriate. It helps to classify education by grade level, stage of formation (primary, secondary, and higher education), and educational approach. Some classical educators are embracing developmental stages called grammar, logic, and rhetoric, although others regard these as liberal arts that should not be strictly age-limited.
And yet, while broad age-related divisions are helpful, we must remember that they are conceptual and can be too rigidly enforced. We risk shackling students and preventing them from exploring the unity of all knowledge and ascending above it toward God. If we don’t serve every Catholic at every age, we risk excluding people who would benefit from Catholic education. If we don’t keep focus on the enduring mission of Catholic education across all levels, then we narrow our expectations to particulars and lose sight of the goal that lies beyond this life.
It doesn’t help that modern society is preoccupied with the diploma—a piece of paper signaling preparation for employment—instead of delighting in the daily encounter with truth. That encounter is no less fulfilling for the elderly as it is for children.
Mutual success
Moreover, just as Catholic education serves the good of the individual student as well as the good of the Church and society, so should every Catholic school, college, or other educational program be individually excellent yet also collaborate in its mission of evangelization with other educators.
We are excited to see leaders from the Newman Guide Recommended colleges already working in many ways to strengthen personnel policies, share costs, recruit students, etc.—always united in their shared mission. Now, as the number of recommended schools and other programs increases, our Newman Guide Network is forging ties among those faithful Catholic educators for mutual support.
The big task that remains is to build ties across levels. Our leaders summit in June will be a big step, with two cohorts—higher education leaders and leaders of grade-school, homeschool, and other programs—meeting separately for some time but then also gathering together for fellowship and attention to their shared mission. In addition, we are encouraging elementary and secondary education leaders to promote attendance at Newman Guide Recommended colleges, and we are encouraging colleges to forge relationships with Newman Guide Recommended schools and homeschool programs.
One key area of collaboration that is urgently needed is in the defense of faithful education from threats to religious freedom and from ideological activism. The Cardinal Newman Society has long been a vital conduit of information and advice from legal experts to educators. We also recommend actions to stand up and protect these precious institutions.
Heaven or hell
I’ll end with a brief reflection: At what stage of life do we become perfect?
It seems a ludicrous question, and yet I have heard it pronounced with great conviction by various Catholics that catechesis and formation in virtue is for the young, and it does not belong in college. Education in general is something that ends with high school or college graduation. The rest of life is just career and tending to families, perhaps with some private reading along the way.
So is it graduation, then, when we become perfect?
I ask this, because at the moment a Catholic decides education is no longer relevant to his or her life, that must be the moment when the intellect is without error, and the will and passions are perfectly aligned with reason. Only at that moment of perfection does the human have no need of learning and growing.
Until then, all our activity should still be striving for God, by growing in understanding and wisdom without ceasing.
Or maybe there’s an alternative. Perhaps, instead of perfection, we are on the opposite side of holiness when we lose our desire to learn. Perhaps we have lost our desire to know God.
Catholic education belongs in every stage of life. If we move from the liberal arts to specialized studies and skills needed for a particular career, all the more important is the Catholic worldview that situates the particular within the Whole. The alternative to striving for knowledge of God and His wisdom is to fall away from the very purpose for which man was created—and that doesn’t end well.
May faithful Newman Guide education thrive and grow at every level, and by every productive means, for the good of the student and the good of the Church.
The “Athletics Question”: An Age-Old Dilemma with New Dimensions
/in Student Formation Athletics, Commentary/by Patrick PiccoloSchools today often ask about the “athletics question.” What do we do if our girls’ team faces an opponent with a male athlete? But the best response requires stepping back and contextualizing this modern question within a longer history and a larger debate.
Athletics reside at the heart of American culture, and even American schools. They have for decades. But it arguably goes back even farther. From chariot races to gladiatorial games to March Madness, college portals, and Super Bowl Sunday, sports have consistently generated fame, profit, and obsessive attention throughout Western civilization.
Christian educators have long wrestled with the appropriate response. What is the rightly ordered place of sports in human life? In the formation of human persons? A paradox, perhaps unsurprisingly, characterizes the Christian ethos of athletics. On one level, Christians reduce the significance of sports. By placing them in proportion to man’s transcendent end, Christian schools temper the tendency to near-idol worship. But here comes the paradox. This proper contextualization also involves a thoughtful elevation of sports’ formative power. Christians recognize a unique capacity to help human persons attain their true end.
To succinctly summarize the wealth of Christian reflection on athletics is a herculean task. Its roots can be traced to St. Paul, including his letters to Timothy and the sports-obsessed Corinthian church. He uses athletic competition as a metaphor for the Christian life. Rather than an opportunity for self-seeking and self-glorification, sports offer athletes a mini-universe—a microcosm—of human existence. Athletes discover a land of rules, organized conflict subject to rightful authorities, and fixation on an end that orders all decisions. This demands, in the context of team sports, interdependence. It calls for virtue: courage, fortitude, patience, prudence, even temperance. Success often requires character formation, at least to some extent. The athlete can find, in the universe of play, the pathway to a life well lived. This transforms the competition into an instrument of God’s glory and a witness to the power of Christian formation, which redeems humanity from its fallen, selfish tendencies. Particularly in recent centuries, Christians have then contemplated the practical implications of this thinking in light of unique cultural contexts.
The same is true today. We now find ourselves in a new unique cultural and civilizational moment. Can a young man, who identifies as a young woman, compete in women’s sports? Conflicting answers lead to raging social divisions. The millennia-old “athletics question” now takes on a new dimension. It possesses increased social tension and, in some cases, legal consequences. The response of Christian educators no longer merely deals with the question of formation, right thinking, and the proper integration of sports into curricular goals and understanding. This is significant enough. But it also involves the potential for legal disputes.
Just ask Mid Vermont Christian School. Its high school girls’ basketball team came up against an opponent with a male athlete. The school declined to play. Mid Vermont felt that its participation would have recognized the validity of the competition, in direct contradiction to its religious beliefs. Mid Vermont believed playing would communicate acceptance of the legitimacy of the young man’s, and the opposing team’s, declaration: a biological male can become a girl and compete in an all-girls event. And this would not only communicate a contradictory message to its students and school community; it would have compromised the fairness, and safety, of the competition itself. It could not capitulate.
The state of Vermont responded by excluding the school, in its entirety, from the state athletics association. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Mid Vermont challenged the state’s decision, arguing it violates the school’s First Amendment rights. The case was recently argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and a decision is pending. The legal analysis does involve some unique questions that may vary by jurisdiction. But the implications for the school’s religious liberty are obvious.
What can be done?
Schools can seize this unique moment as an opportunity to bear witness. This not only involves bearing witness to biological reality. It involves an artful articulation of the role of sports in human life and the mystery of human existence more broadly. This is another manifestation of the age-old “athletics question.” A school can begin to offer a response through the development of school policy.
Policy formation always involves an evangelical opportunity. We could analogize the process of policy creation to the trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric. Schools need to first deeply understand what they believe (grammar). Then they need to consider how these foundational convictions shape all aspects of operations (logic). Finally, they need to articulate it with clarity (rhetoric).
Start with foundational documents. Schools should carefully cultivate a distinct Christian identity in their legal infrastructure. This involves a thoughtful articulation of the school’s religious purpose, mission, and convictions in governing documents. What does the school believe about God and the human person He created?
Christians reject gnostic and dualistic concepts of humanity. We do not divide the human person into separate parts. Each individual is a composite of body and soul, and both are good. Any effort to deny the unity of body and soul, suggesting distinct identities in conflict with one another, rejects the integrity of God’s intention. God did not create any individual with an inner sexual identity at odds with a biological reality. Rather, the fall produced conflict and division at every level of human life: division between man and God, man and creation, man and man, and man and himself. One’s rejection of his or her own body has these same origins. But in Christ, we discover the hope of reconciliation. He makes all things new. And He invites us to recognize the lies that wedge themselves into our existence and to follow Him on the pathway to healing. This, in many ways, is the task of education: to lead forth into the fullness of life that God intends for us to possess in Christ.
That might offer the grammar. Logic comes next. How does this theological foundation inform the purpose of athletics in Christian education? And, by extension, what is the role of single-sex competition in advancing that purpose?
Christian tradition offers no shortage of fodder for contemplation. We have already explored some of it in this short article. But just spend a few minutes researching what Pope John Paul II had to say about athletics, or even the Jesuits as they re-fashioned education in the sixteenth century. Although by no means exhaustive, we might distill these themes into a few overarching concepts: honorable rivalry, character formation, friendship, God’s glory, and public witness.
Then apply those concepts to the purpose of single-sex competition. Most immediately, consider the need for honorable rivalry. A school does not sort students into a men’s team and a women’s team because all those people happen to think the same way about themselves. That renders the distinction arbitrary. A school might as well sort people into teams based on their favorite color or flavor of ice cream. They sort them into separate teams based on a real physical distinction that preserves the integrity of the competition. This advances the purpose of fairness and, in most contexts, safety. A competition that rejects this concept, in favor of internal or personal identification, renders a primary goal of single-sex competition obscure and meaningless.
But this concept goes further. Sports teach students the significance of rules. One of the rules of single-sex competition is that it is, well, single-sex. A school’s participation in a competition that ignores this reality requires one of two things: either acknowledge the validity of a rule imposed by the association that directly contradicts both the religious convictions and actual purpose of single-sex competition, or communicate to their student body that some rules don’t matter. As stewards of a religious and educational mission, neither option is viable.
The emergence of a male victor in a female sport thwarts additional purposes of single-sex competition. In creating men’s teams and women’s teams, or having men’s competitions and women’s competitions, a school acknowledges God-ordained differences and celebrates them. God is glorified in each competition for His creativity in establishing two different physical forms of the human person. If a male body wins a female competition, this purpose and celebration is directly undermined.
The school also speaks a word to the community, its students, parents, and faculty through its athletics program. The program should bear witness to its formational mission and religious convictions. School participation arguably communicates agreement or acceptance. This, too, could result in directly undermining the program’s public testimony.
And the list could go on.
Here is the point: A school should develop clarity of vision, both theologically and practically, surrounding sports. And then it should write it down. The issue involves far more than a modern moral or political question. An athletics policy should address the sports program in its totality, including its vital relationship to the school’s educational and religious mission. It should then address the role of single-sex competition within that context, including the events in which it will or will not participate as a result.
This admittedly leaves many questions unanswered. For example, how can the school tactfully and practically implement this kind of policy? As noted, the legal analysis could vary from circumstance to circumstance, so competent legal counsel should be consulted. And the way courts will view these policies in specific contexts also remains open.
But begin here: deep thinking, prayerful reflection, and clear articulation while engaging an age-old dilemma that now surfaces with new dimensions and questions. At the very least, the school will approach this unique moment with clarity of conviction and deliberate decision-making, prepared to bear witness to a watching world.
Patrick Piccolo is Legal Counsel, Deputy Director of Church and Ministry Alliance at Alliance Defending Freedom
Ep. 42: What Sports, Saints, and Smartphones Reveal About the Soul – Catholic Formation at Belmont Abbey
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
In Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Bill Thierfelder, outgoing president of Belmont Abbey College, we dive into the deeper layers of Catholic education, sports, culture, and the soul. With stories from NFL training sessions to his own Olympic-level athletic career, Dr. Thierfelder unpacks what sport is really for and how it can form or deform the human person depending on its aim.
From Saint John Henry Newman’s vision of the university to Pope Pius XII’s theology of sport, this episode explores the radical claim that virtue, beauty, and discipline belong in both the classroom and the weight room. Dr. Thierfelder also warns of the spiritual cost of tech dependence and offers a moving reflection on what it means to be truly present, to God, to one another, and to the purpose He gives each life.
Whether you are a parent, athlete, or educator, this is a must-listen episode on Catholic formation, real presence, and human flourishing in a distracted age.
Click here to watch on YouTube
Ep. 41: How Dr. Bill Thierfelder Revived Belmont Abbey Through Faith, Love, & Benedictine Tradition
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Dr. Bill Thierfelder’s path to Belmont Abbey was anything but predictable — from NCAA Division I athlete and Olympic-level sports psychologist to business executive and devoted father of ten children, his journey ultimately led him to a small Catholic college in crisis. But what followed was nothing short of providential.
Rooted in the Benedictine tradition and inspired by the monks who built the college brick by brick over 150 years ago, Dr. Thierfelder helped transform Belmont Abbey into a faithful Catholic institution that now thrives spiritually and academically.
With humility, conviction, and a deep love for Christ, he shares what it means to live “according to the Rule” — not just as a motto, but as a daily mission. In this conversation, he unpacks the true meaning of love, the spiritual battles of modern education, and the simple prayer that defines his life: “Thank you, Jesus.”
This is a powerful testimony of renewal, leadership, and the beauty of Catholic tradition in action.
Click here to watch on YouTube
Leave a legacy of faithful Catholic education
/in Blog Blog/by Patrick ReillyWe’re now in June, with many people making plans for summer vacations. But did you know last month was “Leave a Legacy Month”?
If you haven’t made plans for how your values will be passed on in your will, now’s a perfect time.
Leaving a gift in your will to The Cardinal Newman Society is an easy way for you to leave a lasting legacy of support for faithful Catholic education. And if you don’t yet have a will, you can easily create one in 15 minutes for free through our partnership with My Catholic Will.
For more details about legacy giving, please visit cardinalnewmansociety.org/legacy.
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We have a winner! Meet our 2025 scholarship student, Teresa White
/in Blog Blog/by Patrick ReillyTeresa White, a homeschooled student from Illinois, will attend the Newman Guide Recommended University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., thanks to our $5,000 Newman Guide scholarship.
“Attending a truly Catholic college will decidedly strengthen me spiritually, prepare me to be a virtuous defender of the Faith, and assist me in living out my vocation according to God’s plan,” Teresa wrote.
Can you believe that scholarship applications increased 225% this year? You helped make
that happen—thank you!
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Facebook campaign celebrates pro-life Newman Guide education
/in Blog Blog/by Patrick ReillyPerhaps you heard about Planned Parenthood’s annual report: they killed a record 402,200 unborn babies in 2023-24—while using almost $800,000,000 of our tax dollars. Still, wayward Catholic colleges refer students to Planned Parenthood, hire pro-abortion professors, and give credit for internships at pro-abortion groups.
That’s why we launched an online poll on social media asking, “Shouldn’t Catholic schools and colleges be PROUDLY pro-life?” And we’re offering our free eBook, Catholic Means Pro-Life, as part of the campaign. (Contact us for a copy.)
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…Read the previous article.
View the entire Programs Report as a PDF.