Fighting Social Media’s Grip

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What issues are young people struggling with today?

According to one Catholic school principal, “loneliness, anxiety, identity confusion, and a loss of meaning and purpose.”

“They don’t know God nor seek Him, because they are bombarded with messages from social media that promise fulfillment, happiness, and self-worth,” said Christina Mehaffey, principal of Faustina Academy in Irving, Texas. “Many are growing up in a culture that normalizes sin, broken relationships, encourages self-indulgence, and often mocks faith, purity, and sacrifice.”

“They are also burdened by intense performance pressure—to achieve, impress, and align themselves with influencers—without a clear understanding of who they are before God,” Mehaffey continued.

“We also see a great deal of moral and spiritual confusion: about what love truly is, what the human person is made for, and what leads to real freedom and happiness. The result is often discouragement, restlessness, and a sense of being alone,” she said.

Faustina Academy limits screentime

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy reported that up to 95 percent of young people ages 13-17 use a social media platform. For those using social media for more than the average three hours per day, their risk of symptoms of depression and anxiety doubles.

What will be the long-term effects of smartphones, social media, and screen time on the youth of our country? Faustina Academy isn’t waiting to find out.

Faustina Academy, a Newman Guide Recommended school focused on Catholic formation, is taking a proactive approach to technology. Students are not permitted to carry or access smartphones during the school day. They also may not have social media accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and other platforms.

This is a revolutionary approach, but Mehaffey believes it is critical to the mission of the school.

“We intentionally educate and inform families about the neurological, emotional, and spiritual effects of smartphone and social-media use, and parents commit—through the enrollment contract—to uphold these expectations consistently at home,” she explained.

“This issue is vital because it connects directly to our mission: leading souls to Heaven,” Mehaffey said. “If we are truly committed to this mission, then social media and digital addiction cannot be part of our students’ daily lives.”

“It is impossible for young people to consistently seek the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, while being bombarded—after school hours—with conflicting, confusing, and often harmful messages on screens. Such exposure can quickly unravel the formation, clarity, and virtue we work so intentionally to cultivate during the school day.”

The policy has had “a transformational impact” on the school culture, Mehaffey said.

“Without smartphones or social-media distractions, students are more present, focused, confident, and engaged. They form deeper friendships, participate more fully in academic and spiritual life, and experience noticeably reduced anxiety and comparison pressure,” explained Mehaffey.

“Teachers report richer discussions, stronger attention spans, and a more peaceful classroom environment, while parents express gratitude that their children are growing in a community grounded in real relationships and authentic formation.”

St. Rita School’s family pledge

Another Newman Guide Recommended school that is devoted to the Catholic, integral formation of students in a tech-obsessed world is St. Rita Catholic School in Alexandria, Virginia.

As at St. Faustina’s, there wasn’t a problem with technology use during school hours. It was what was happening with technology outside of school hours that was raising an alarm for the school’s principal and teachers.

Teachers “noticed how many students were discussing social media, spoke about cyberbullying,” explained Malia Busekrus, principal of St. Rita. Through her own research for her graduate school work, Busekrus learned more about the negative effects of smartphone use on young people—and how little parents are educated on the topic.

“Through my research, I discovered that the ‘gap in the literature’ was that parents didn’t understand the complexities of what their kids are dealing with when they are using devices.  What’s missing? Parent information, formation, and the role of parental guidance in managing device use,” Busekrus said.

Through the dedication of the school leadership, passionate teachers, and committed families, the school began educating families about the dangers of smartphone use and social media for young people:

  • The school hosted speakers like Peter Ryan, co-founder of the Center for Responsible Technology, to present to parents at back-to-school night.
  • Book clubs for parents of students in grades K-3 and 4-8 discussed books like The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
  • The school community was invited to join the “Diocesan-Wide Day to Unplug” from devices.
  • The school also learned from national movements like the “Wait Until 8th” pledge, in which families delay smartphone use until at least the end of 8th

An entirely new initiative at St. Rita’s was born: “Real Presence Collective: An Incarnational Approach to Friendship, Family, and the Good Life.” The Collective is an optional community for St. Rita families who pledge that their children will not have smartphones or social media while a student at St. Rita School. The school pledges to continue guiding families on this topic and providing resources, activities, and events for the community. So far, 100 students and their families have pledged to the Real Presence Collective.

The Collective isn’t simply a “rejection of smartphones” but a “joyful affirmation of what it means to live the good life.” Activities for students through the collective include a fall festival, pumpkin carving, laser tag, trivia, and book club.

“This initiative responds to a pressing cultural challenge that threatens the social, emotional, and spiritual well-being of our children, a challenge which undermines their innocence and contributes to scientifically evidenced mental health issues and social struggles,” the philosophy statement states.

“By fostering a community of like-minded families committed to this goal, we aim to create an environment where students are free to develop authentic relationships with God and others, cultivate imagination, and focus on the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.”

Colleges address technology issues

Newman Guide Recommended colleges also stand out for their courageous efforts to address modern challenges. For instance, many block pornography on campus wi-fi and provide resources to help students fight and heal from pornography addictions.

Wyoming Catholic College’s no cell-phone policy frees students from virtual distractions and offers them the freedom for real, in-person connections in the classroom, cafeteria, and dorm room.

Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., recently launched a new Center for Technology and Human Dignity in response to Pope Leo XIV’s call to address the rise of artificial intelligence.

“The Center offers a Catholic lens through which to evaluate emerging technologies,” explained Dr. Mariele Courtois, the Center’s director.

“Our Catholic college is able to engage the unique resources of its faculty, staff, and programs to draw from the insights and rigor of various disciplines—from computer science, to engineering, to philosophy and theology—to grapple with how to direct technology to ethical practices while also determining when to limit technology use in light of higher goals for human life, namely to care for our relationships with God and other people,” Courtois said.

While educating students about artificial intelligence, Benedictine College is also helping students foster a healthy relationship with technology.

“Benedictine College values authentic human experiences: meaningful relationships, commitment to service, a pursuit of excellence, and a heart that seeks to love like Christ,” Courtois said. “These values help to form consciences and avoid distractions and manipulations from technology that can interfere with living one’s vocation.”

Teaching family values

Beyond the crisis of smartphone and technology addiction, Newman Guide Recommended colleges are addressing the collapse of a proper understanding of man, woman, marriage, family, and human sexuality.

For example, fewer high school girls than ever plan to marry and have children, according to the Pew Research Center. In 1993, 83 percent of 12th grade girls planned to get married someday, but today only 61 percent plan to do so. If they do get married, only about 50 percent of 12th grade girls and boys plan to have children.

Fortunately, there are efforts like the Institute for the Study of Man and Woman at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, which offers research and education from a Catholic perspective on the value of marriage and the blessing of children. The University of St. Thomas in Houston recently launched a Graduate Certificate in Sexuality and Gender that teaches the Catholic understanding of the human person for professionals in education, ministry, healthcare, and more.

Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., is offering a new free, online Theology of the Body course with Professor Mary Stanford in response to some of the most pressing cultural challenges, including gender ideology, sexual confusion, widespread loneliness, and moral uncertainty.

“A young person who takes this course and discovers the Catholic view of theology of the body will come away with a deeper understanding of themselves as a man or woman, along with the anthropological and spiritual insights that lead to healthy relationships,” explained Niall O’Donnell, the College’s vice president for communications and marketing. “They will grow in their ability to understand the opposite sex, cultivate authentic friendship, and prepare for their vocation—whether that is marriage, priesthood, or religious life. The wisdom of John Paul II is a gift for anyone seeking clarity, confidence, and direction in a confusing world.”

O’Donnell says free online courses and the College’s commitment to the Catholic faith and liberal education can help many people beyond campus: “The Catholic intellectual tradition, expressed through the timeless liberal arts, offers profound beauty and wisdom to those asking life’s deepest questions: Is there a better way to live? What is my purpose? Am I prepared for the future?”

For students on campus, the impact is even greater.

“Through the study of philosophy, theology, literature, and history, students receive the principles and formation that sustain them throughout life,” said O’Donnell. Students thrive “where a close-knit academic community and dedicated staff and faculty mentors walk with students during one of the most important stages of their growth.”

Here is the wisdom in St. John Henry Cardinal Newman’s insistence on education that embraces the truths of our Catholic faith. In faithful Catholic education, there is no separation between life and learning, morality and academics, or technology and humanity. Newman Guide Recommended education leads to greater joy in the hope of Christ and healthier lifestyles, changing the habits and priorities of its students.

 

Highlighting a few Newman Guide Recommended College Initiatives:

  • Wyoming Catholic College’s Technology Policy includes no cell phones or handheld devices with wireless or cellular data on campus
  • Benedictine College launches a new Center for Technology and Human Dignity
  • Franciscan University of Steubenville offers the Institute for the Study of Man and Woman
  • University of St. Thomas in Houston offers a Graduate Certificate in Sexuality and Gender
  • Christendom College offers a free, online Theology of the Body course

The Changing Catholic Family

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Parents are the primary educators of their children, as is repeatedly asserted in Vatican documents. Parents are not only the first educators in a child’s lifetime, but they are also most important at every stage of a child’s formation.

Everything in Catholic education, then, depends on the health of the family. But tragically, the American family is not well, and Catholic children are suffering the consequences.

Restoring the family and rebuilding a culture that properly nurtures children requires at least a kernel of faithful Catholic education. Our patron, St. John Henry Newman, knew the importance of forming faithful, rational, and virtuous laypeople.

For this, we have the example of Newman Guide Recommended schools, homeschool programs, colleges, and graduate programs. Their leaders exhibit the dogged determination and faithful trust in Providence that sustained the 19th-century founders of parochial schools—St. John Neumann, St. Katharine Drexel, and many other heroes of Catholic education.

Family in crisis

One recent sign of trouble in the family is the plummeting number of Catholic baptisms of children. From 2010 to 2023, child baptisms dropped 37 percent, according to the Official Catholic Directory. Since 1970, when 1.09 million children were cleansed of original sin and welcomed into the Church, the number of baptisms has dropped by half.

This is a natural consequence of the marriage decline that likewise began in the 1970s. Catholic marriages declined 74 percent from 1970 to 2023.

Consider that for a moment! Only about one-fourth as many Catholics get married in the Church today, relative to 1970. To call it a “marriage crisis” seems an understatement.

Did you know that, without immigration, the Church in the U.S. would be disappearing quickly? It may seem a consolation that the number of adult Catholics in America has increased more than 40 percent since 1970 because of new immigrants, but it only puts the family crisis in a worse light. Adjusted for the total number of Catholics in 1970, the marriage rate has actually declined 82 percent and the baptism rate 64 percent in a little more than five decades.

Another factor is the shrinking size of those Catholic families that remain intact. In the 1970s, fewer than a third of Catholic women who had ever been married had one or two children, and 21 percent had five or more (General Social Survey). But in the last decade (2010-2019), only 6 percent of ever-married Catholic women had five or more children, and fully half had just one or two. There are many factors impacting this, including higher costs of child rearing, but surely contraceptive use, abortion, divorce, and cultural biases against large families are also to blame.

The total fertility rate for U.S. Catholics in 2024 was about 2.2, according to Pew Research—just under the rate for Evangelical Protestants and far below the rate needed for the Catholic Church to grow, given massive numbers of young Catholics leaving the Church every year.

Education of children

Amid fewer marriages, fewer children, and fewer baptisms, we also see fewer Catholics educated in the Faith.

More than half of Catholics born in the 1940s attended Catholic schools, The Pillar reports. But as of 2021, only 29 percent of Catholics born in the 2010s had ever enrolled in a Catholic school.

It’s astonishing: in the 40 years leading up to 1960, Catholic school enrollment nearly tripled to more than 5 million students (NCEA). Now, 65 years later, enrollment has dropped more than two-thirds to well below the count in 1920. All that work, all those prayers and donations have been erased, and young Catholics are further separated from the Church than they were before the rise of parochial education.

Fewer than 10 percent of Millennials (born 1982-2005) attend weekly Mass, compared to more than 55 percent of the Silent Generation (born 1925-1942), according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Mass attendance declines to about 4 percent for Millennials who have never attended a Catholic school.

If there’s a lesson to learn from all this, it’s that the Church had it right all along. Yet today, few parents realize and even fewer pastors remind them that it’s their solemn duty to provide a truly Catholic education to their children.

“Parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide a Catholic education. If they are unable to do this, they are obliged to take care that suitable Catholic education is provided for their children outside the schools” (Canon 798).

Clergy “have the duty of arranging everything so that all the faithful have a Catholic education” (Canon 794).

How, then, is it that the vast majority of Catholic children and young adults today attend secular schools and universities?

In 2024, 81 percent of Catholic families with children said they chose public schools, and another 5.4 percent had kids in secular private schools, according to the American National Election Studies. Just 18.4 percent chose private religious schools—hopefully, most of them Catholic schools. (School Choice Chart with this note: The portions add up to more than 100 percent, because some families have children in two or more types of schooling.)

On the other hand, how is it that many parents who are serious about Catholic education have difficulty finding schools and colleges that are both academically strong and faithful to their mission?

Increasingly, Catholic parents are finding their own solutions when Catholic schools don’t measure up. In 2024, 3.6 percent of Catholic families chose to homeschool—not nearly the rate of Protestants who homeschool (7.8 percent), but still a growing sector.

The Newman Guide Solution

Catholic homeschoolers and Catholic school students make up an outsized portion of students attending Newman Guide Recommended colleges. That’s good news! Amid the Church’s decline, The Newman Guide offers hope for a better future.

Even as parochial school enrollment slides, there is a revival of faithful Catholic education among many Mass-attending, traditional Catholic families. And even though many Catholic schools and colleges still strive to attract a population that has little interest in authentic Catholic formation, others are succeeding and growing by doubling down on their mission.

In 2024, The Cardinal Newman Society reported impressive rates of married alumni who met their spouses while attending Newman Guide institutions, including 30 percent at Wyoming Catholic College, 29 percent at Thomas Aquinas College, 28 percent at Christendom College, 25 percent at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Canada, and 25 percent at ITI Catholic University in Austria.

“Attending a Newman Guide Recommended college—with its promotion of the sacramental life, faithfulness to the Magisterium, and flowering of Catholic culture—increases grace in one’s soul but also increases one’s odds to find a holy spouse,” argued Patrick O’Hearn, author of Courtship of the Saints: How the Saints Met their Spouses.

As we celebrated last month on the Feast of the Holy Family, even Jesus Christ was born of a mother and raised by a foster father. He was educated in the home and, probably, by a nearby rabbi, sanctifying the family and formation by an education deeply rooted in the truths of God.

Newman Guide education is a return to what is natural and right. May God continue to bless it for the good of the Church, of families, and of young Catholics who deserve faithful Catholic education.

The Newman Guide: Fulfilling St. John Henry Newman’s Vision for Catholic Education

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LINK TO PRESS RELEASE

The Cardinal Newman Society announces the release of the 2025-2026 edition of The Newman Guide, which recommends elementary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and graduate programs that fulfill the vision of the newest Doctor of the Church and co-Patron of Catholic education, St. John Henry Newman.

Pope Leo XIV recently declared Newman co-Patron of Catholic education alongside St. Thomas Aquinas, recognizing Newman’s vision for education as the formation of the whole person—intellect, conscience, character, and faith—not merely the transmission of information.

This vision is increasingly unique and comes at a critical time for Catholic families as schools and colleges are assailed by secularization, ideological pressure, and loss of Catholic identity.

For nearly two decades, Catholic families have relied on The Newman Guide to help navigate their college search and discover faithful colleges that begin with the truth of Christ in all subject matter and form the whole person for God as Newman envisioned. However, with the latest edition, families can now find a seamless path of faithful Catholic education from kindergarten through graduate school, safely navigating the many educational options available today.

“The model institutions in The Newman Guide have gone through a rigorous review for compliance with Newman Guide policy and curriculum standards, ensuring fidelity to Catholic teaching and the mission of Catholic education,” said Patrick Reilly, founder of The Newman Guide and expert on Newman.

Obtaining a copy of The 2025-2026 Newman Guide empowers Catholic families to review Catholic schools and colleges with confidence.

To order The Newman Guide in print or request the free e-book version, or to inquire about achieving Newman Guide Recommended status for a school, college, or graduate program, please visit CardinalNewmanSociety.org/Guide.

Newman Guide Colleges Earn A+ Pro-Life Rating

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Catholic colleges recommended in The Newman Guide earned high marks for their pro-life efforts in a new study issued by Students for Life of America’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement. Newman Guide Recommended colleges are models for how colleges should promote a pro-life culture on campus.

The Demetree’s study reviewed 725 Christian colleges and evaluated their ties to promoting abortion. The results showed that more than 1 in 7 Christian colleges still promote abortion in some way.

The study included seven colleges that are Newman Guide Recommended. All seven colleges earned “A+” ratings for not only having no pro-abortion ties, but also for promoting pro-life pregnancy help centers.

These colleges are:

  • Ave Maria University (FL)
  • Belmont Abbey College (N.C.)
  • Benedictine College in Atchison (KS)
  • Franciscan University of Steubenville (OH)
  • The Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)
  • University of Dallas, (TX)
  • University of Mary (N.D.)

You don’t have to look hard to find ways that these colleges teach students about the dignity of all human life and actively live out a pro-life mission. For example, several colleges offer innovative housing, childcare and support for pregnant student mothers, including MiraVia at Belmont Abbey College, the Guadalupe House at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and the Saint Teresa of Calcutta Community for Mothers at the University of Mary.

On the other hand, nine Catholic colleges were given an “F” pro-life rating for having four or more ties to abortion. These colleges included:

  • Boston College (MA)
  • Loyola Marymount University (CA)
  • Sacred heart University (CT)
  • Santa Clara University (CA)
  • Seattle University (WA)
  • Catherine University (MN)
  • University of Detroit Mercy (MI)
  • University of San Diego (CA)
  • Villanova University (PA)

At colleges with an “F” listing, ties to abortion are found through internships, job listings, course materials, health resource pages, and more.

For example, at Loyola Marymount, the career and professional development webpage lists employers like Planned Parenthood, Reproductive Freedom for All, and other pro-abortion organizations.

At the University of Detroit Mercy, in the online library for students interested in women and gender studies and reproductive rights, the research guide links to Catholics for Choice, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Students earning their graduate degree in Marital and Family Therapy at the University of San Diego can choose their practicum setting at UCSD Reproductive Medicine, which connects women with abortion services.

The law schools at Catholic colleges on the “F” listing also have problematic ties to abortion. At the law school graduation at Santa Clara University in 2024, the commencement speaker lamented to the Jesuit-educated law students how we are “losing our reproductive rights.” At Seattle University School of Law, there’s a webpage on reproductive justice advocacy that works to “ensure that all people have access to the best reproductive health and attendant legal services possible,” including in the areas of birth control, abortion, and surrogacy. Boston College’s law school is also reported as hosting various events with ties to abortion, including one with speakers from Planned Parenthood to discuss Reproductive Rights in the Constitution.

For families seeking pro-life education, look to Newman Guide Recommended curriculum providers, schools, colleges, and graduate programs.

 

 

‘The Newman Guide’ Now Provides Seamless Path of Faithful Catholic Education

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LINK TO PRESS RELEASE

For the first time, The Newman Guide is recommending elementary schools, secondary schools, and graduate programs in addition to colleges. Families seeking faithful Catholic education can now order the 2025-26 edition in digest-sized print format or request the free digital e-book version.

Catholic families have relied on The Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide for nearly two decades to help navigate the college search and discover faithful colleges that begin with the truth of Christ in all subject matter and form the whole person for God.

With this new edition, families can find a seamless path of faithful Catholic education from kindergarten through graduate school, safely navigating the many educational options available today.

“We used The Newman Guide to find a college for our oldest son. I am thankful we did.  Knowing we can rely on The Newman Guide for his younger siblings to ensure faithful formation and a rigorous intellectual education is a blessing for our family and the entire Church, especially given today’s culture,” said Paul Pagano, a Catholic husband and father of eight, from New Jersey.

The 2025-2026 edition explains the importance of a Newman Guide Recommended education for the formation of young people in faith, virtue, and wisdom. It then recommends 28 elementary and secondary schools, 25 colleges, and 55 graduate programs for faithful Catholic formation.

Kelly Salomon, vice president of Newman Guide Programs at The Cardinal Newman Society, says The Newman Guide’s list of elementary and secondary schools is growing rapidly, as more schools seek the coveted Newman Guide Recommended seal and join the Newman Guide Network to connect with like-minded families and faithful institutions nationwide.

Becoming a Newman Guide Recommended school, college, or graduate program requires a thorough review for compliance with Newman Guide policy and curriculum standards, ensuring fidelity to Catholic teaching and the mission of Catholic education. The Cardinal Newman Society will work with educators who are serious about achieving Newman Guide recognition.

According to Salomon, the Newman Guide standards not only uphold Catholic identity but also protect educators’ religious freedom from legal threats and the influence of false ideology. While there are a wide variety of approaches to Catholic education, the key to The Newman Guide, as Pope Leo XIV says in Drawing New Maps of Hope, is to preserve the central focus on evangelization in fidelity to Catholic teaching and practice.

The Newman Guide Network of education at all levels is swiftly expanding and includes the brightest stars in what Pope Leo calls the Catholic educational “constellation.”

To order The Newman Guide in print or request the free e-book version, click here.

To inquire about achieving Newman Guide Recommended status for a school, college, or graduate program, click here.

Faith, Psychology, and the Human Person: A Catholic Response to the Mental Health Crisis

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Mental health challenges are rising rapidly among young people. How should Catholics respond? In Episode 48 of the Cardinal Newman Society Podcast, host Kevin Murphy continues his conversation with Fr. Charles Sikorsky, President of Divine Mercy University. Together, they explore how sound psychology, grounded in a faithful Catholic understanding of the human person, offers a hopeful and effective response to today’s mental health crisis. Fr. Sikorsky discusses the growing need for well-formed Catholic mental health professionals and the role of faithful education in restoring healing, dignity, and hope.

Click here to watch on YouTube

Response to Request for Comments on Individual Tax Credit for Qualified Contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations

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Click here to read.

2026 Newman Guide Scholarship Contest Now Open

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The Cardinal Newman Society’s Tenth Annual Scholarship Contest will award one lucky high school student $5,000 to attend a Newman Guide Recommended college, with the potential for up to $15,000 in additional aid from select colleges.

The contest is open to high school juniors and seniors who follow these four simple steps:

  1. Sign up for The Cardinal Newman Society’s Recruit Me program.
  2. Watch a 7-minute video on the advantages of a Newman Guide Recommended college.
  3. Review information about Newman Guide Recommended colleges through the online Newman Guide.
  4. Submit your application with a 3-5 sentence statement explaining your interest in a faithful Catholic education and formation at a Newman Guide Recommended college.

Applications are due by February 17, 2026. All the details about the contest can be found at this link: https://newmansoc.org/Scholarship

The winner will be randomly selected and will receive an initial $5,000 scholarship from The Cardinal Newman Society toward the cost of attending a Newman Guide Recommended college. However, most Newman Guide Recommended colleges have agreed to supplement CNS’s scholarship with additional $5,000 grants per year over the student’s three subsequent years, provided the recipient continues to meet the University’s requirements.

Last year’s scholarship winner, Teresa White, said The Newman Guide really “simplified” her college search. “They did the research and compiled data, which helped me choose to apply to the right universities. Attending an authentically Catholic college is the best investment I can make since it will prepare me for a career while deepening my faith,” she said.

White is just finishing her first semester at the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D.

“Time is flying by and my first semester at University of Mary is going great!” said White. “My classes are very interesting, and I am constantly meeting amazing people! There have been very fun events throughout the semester, and some of my favorite times have been going to hockey games, listening to the Cappella choir at Sunday night Mass, and going to the brand-new running club.”

Teresa White (second from left) attends a hockey game at the University of Mary.

If you have questions about the 2026 Newman Guide Scholarship Contest, please email us: Programs@CardinalNewmanSociety.org.

The Newman Guide scholarship is made possible thanks to the generosity of Joe and his late wife Ann Guiffre, strong advocates of faithful Catholic education.

The Top 5 of 2025: ‘Newman Guide News’ Stories

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This year, EWTN Catholic Radio invited The Cardinal Newman Society to launch a “Newman Guide News” weekly segment. Host Teresa Tomeo is joined by Kelly Salomon, vice president of Newman Guide programs at The Cardinal Newman Society, every Tuesday at 10:25 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in Catholic education and the Newman Guide difference.

Below are some of the top stories discussed by Tomeo and Salomon in 2025.
While some schools and colleges are leading students astray, Newman Guide Recommended institutions are forming students in faith, virtue and wisdom.

Recordings of the Newman Guide News segments can be heard at this link.

Highs

  • John Henry Newman, whose vision of Catholic education has guided the work of The Cardinal Newman Society for thirty years, was named a Doctor of the Church and Co-Patron of Catholic Education with St. Thomas Aquinas. CNS President Patrick Reilly, an expert on Newman, is speaking across the nation and globe to advance Newman’s arguments for faithful Catholic education. Plus, two new saints were canonized to inspire young Catholics: Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati.
  • Pope Leo XIV released an apostolic letter on Catholic education, Drawing New Maps of Hope, in which he addresses the use of technology in education, arguing that it must “serve, not replace, the person” and that “no algorithm can substitute what makes education human: poetry, irony, love, art, imagination, the joy of discovery and even learning from mistakes as an opportunity for growth.” Newman Guide Recommended schools and colleges, such as Faustina Academy, prioritize the integral formation of the human person in a digital age.
  • Twenty-three states, the NCAA, and the U.S. and International Olympic and Paralympic Committees have banned biological males from participating in women’s sports. Newman Guide Recommended schools and colleges not only keep men out of women’s sports, but also view sports as part of their mission of evangelization and sanctification through virtue development.
  • While many colleges are struggling, Newman Guide Recommended Colleges are flourishing in 2025-26, with many boasting record enrollments while upholding strong Catholic identity.
  • Bill Thierfelder dedicated twenty-one years of faithful service as president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C. Some of his accomplishments at the college include building an Adoration chapel, opening a home for pregnant unwed mothers from across the country on campus, and championing the integration of sports and faith.

Lows

  • What Emily Torres found at her ‘Catholic’ college will shock you — drag shows, free condoms, pro-abortion activism, and more. She is featured on The Cardinal Newman Society Podcast.
  • The University of Scranton, a Jesuit institution in Pennsylvania, hired Bob Casey, Jr., former U.S. Senator, as its Leahy Distinguished Fellow in Public Service. As a part of his role, Casey will mentor students. Unfortunately, on his campaign website in 2024, Casey is endorsed by the organization Reproductive Freedom for All and is quoted as saying: “Women’s rights are at stake in this election, including access to reproductive health care, IVF, and contraception. The difference between me and my opponent is clear: When Roe v. Wade was overturned, my opponent said it made him very, very happy. I voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act to restore the protections of Roe.”
  • Despite multiple student petitions, the University of Notre Dame continues to allow pornography on campus wi-fi. “This raises a serious question about Notre Dame’s complicity in the spread of a grave evil,” writes the Sycamore Trust.
  • Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., chose Dr. Mary McAleese, a self-professed Catholic and the former President of Ireland who supported the repeal of Ireland’s pro-life amendment in 2018, as commencement speaker in 2025. Dr. McAleese has publicly supported same-sex marriage and is quoted as saying that a Church hierarchy that is “homophobic and anti-abortion is not the Church of the future.”
  • Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the oldest Catholic university in the country, recently announced a new president who has publicly expressed his rejection of Church teaching on homosexuality. “Of course, I reject the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, so I would favor an even easier way out by treating committed gay relationships as morally valuable,” wrote Eduardo M. Peñalver, J.D., for Commonweal in 2014. He was responding to a situation that involved an administrator at a Catholic school entering into a same-sex marriage. “I take inspiration in my own marriage from the committed gay couples I have known.”

For families seeking a pathway to faithful Catholic education, explore the home and school curriculum providers, schools, colleges and graduate programs that are Newman Guide Recommended.