Down to the Buzzer, Religious Colleges Score with NCAA

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Here’s some great news, just in time for the holy feast of Christmas: At the last moment before approving its new revised constitution, the governing board of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) added broad protection for Catholic and other religious colleges to continue participating in the college association.

The NCAA constitution still needs to be ratified by the membership on Jan. 20, but the draft they will be considering is much improved.

Just last week, with the desperate hope that sunlight might help disinfect the NCAA’s diseased constitutional revision process, I went public at the National Catholic Register with concerns raised by faithful Catholic and other Christian colleges. They have been struggling valiantly to defend against an earlier amendment to the NCAA constitution that seemed intended to push out religious colleges with traditional (i.e., truthful and rational) views of sexuality and gender.

By adding deliberately pointed language to its constitution — that colleges must “comply with federal and state laws and local ordinances, including respect to gender equity, diversity and inclusion” — the NCAA appeared to be stacking the deck against religious colleges, at least those colleges that have remained faithful to Christian tradition and have refused to violate the integrity of women’s sports and the sanctity of marriage and sexuality.

This was the result of lobbying by activists including the anti-Catholic Human Rights Campaign, which last month sent a letter to NCAA governors complaining that drafts of the constitution did not explicitly embrace gender ideology. Although the HRC complained about a few state and local laws that prevent biological men from competing in women’s sports, drafters of the NCAA constitution cleverly latched onto the much more extensive push by many states, counties, cities, and even the federal government to force gender ideology on schools and colleges.

Such efforts, of course, violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause if they interfere with religious colleges’ ability to conform to their religious beliefs, and colleges are likely to prevail in court when they contest violations of their religious freedom. Nevertheless, last week’s draft of the NCAA constitution could have allowed the association to ban Catholic colleges from participation even while they fight in court to preserve their mission.

“The Catholic attempt to use sport toward the integral formation of the human person and to give praise and honor to the Creator is subverted by competing ideologies in the common culture, especially gender ideology,” warns the Cardinal Newman Society’s standards for athletics policies at Catholic schools and colleges. “The issue is bigger than just about sexual politics; Catholic educators must resist gender theories that aim to annihilate the concept of nature and our understanding of who we are and how we exist in the world.”

Faithful Newman Guide colleges including Benedictine College, The Catholic University of America, the University of Mary and Walsh University joined many other religious colleges in urging the NCAA to add another provision to its constitution, ensuring their rights to uphold their religious missions. The effort succeeded, just as the NCAA governors approved the final constitution.

The proposed language from the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities said, “Consistent with the principles of institutional control, nothing herein should be construed to restrict or limit private religious institutions from adopting or maintaining policies consistent with their legal rights as private religious institutions.”

No one in the NCAA should have had a problem with that language. But the “woke” agenda prevented its inclusion in the final draft constitution that was presented to the NCAA governors last week, before the governors apparently decided that losing Catholic colleges as members would be a harmful to the association and patently unfair to religious institutions.

In a surprising and exciting turnaround, the constitution approved by the governors on Thurs., Dec. 16, is very similar to what the religious colleges wanted and should be helpful in protecting their distinctive missions. It includes the language: “Consistent with the principle of institutional control, no provision in this Constitution should be construed to restrict or limit colleges and universities, public or private, from adopting or maintaining missions and policies consistent with their legal rights or obligations as institutions of high learning.”

Deo gratias! We shall see whether the constitution is approved on Jan. 20. But already religious colleges have taken an important step forward, and by their witness they have shown the importance of never giving in to the worst elements of our culture. Faithful Catholic education is worth fighting for, and it was the smaller but most faithful colleges that helped achieve this valuable protection.

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.

Will the NCAA Force Out Catholic Colleges?

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Athletics has long been an important part of Catholic education in the United States, but trouble is brewing.

Already schools and colleges face social and legal pressure to abandon their Catholic mission and conform to gender ideology by allowing biological males to play on girls’ sports teams and enter locker rooms.

Now, proposed changes to the constitution of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) could prevent Catholic colleges from participating in the premier league, unless it takes steps to protect Catholic education’s commitment to truth and religious freedom. At the moment, it seems the NCAA has no intention of doing that.

The hurried effort to update the NCAA constitution — with a vote expected on Jan. 20 — is prompted by legal issues concerning the commercialization of student-athletes, financial disparities among the association’s three divisions and calls for greater institutional autonomy. Still, the process could not avoid the political correctness of our time. The latest draft proposal includes a new provision demanding that colleges “comply with federal and state laws and local ordinances, including respect to gender equity, diversity and inclusion.”

That might seem harmless, to require compliance with the law. But then again, why is there a need to add such a provision, with specific reference to “gender equity, diversity and inclusion”? There is an agenda here that threatens religious institutions.

Pushing out Catholic colleges

Earlier this year, the NCAA Board of Governors updated its policies to allow women to participate on either men’s or women’s teams, based on their self-declared gender. Men may compete on women’s teams if they have completed a year of testosterone suppression treatment. But religious colleges have preserved their autonomy to do what they know is best for their student-athletes.

The NCAA also publicly opposed state and local laws upholding the integrity of women’s athletics, declaring that it “firmly and unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports.” No law, in fact, excludes students from participating in college sports, but they may be required to compete with others of the same biological sex.

The most dangerous laws go in the other direction. Many states and localities — and more recently, the federal government under the Biden administration — have sought to force religious institutions to adopt gender ideology in direct contradiction to their moral beliefs and understanding of human biology. This is done under the guise of nondiscrimination law.

Faithful Catholic colleges, however, do not truly discriminate against students with gender dysphoria. Instead, they have steadfastly upheld the advances made in women’s sports and have protected students morally and physically from the unreasonable demands of gender ideology, while the secular world endangers girls to satisfy activist demands and undermines hard-won opportunities to compete in sex-specific competitions.

Under federal law, religious institutions currently have some protections — despite recent court case attempting to erase the religious exemption in Title IX, which opposes sex discrimination in education but has been interpreted to mandate certain LGBT policies. The Biden administration supports legislation including the horrendous Equality Act that would unconstitutionally force religious institutions to comply with gender ideology.

If it becomes necessary for Catholic colleges to assert their rights and fight any new law or regulation in court — a law or regulation violating the religious mission of the colleges — how will the NCAA respect its members’ religious freedom? Based on the proposed new amendment to the NCAA constitution, it might be that the NCAA would exclude faithful colleges like Belmont Abbey College, the Catholic University of America and the University of Mary from participation. They could technically be in violation of existing (although clearly unconstitutional) laws.

In states and localities, legal protection for religious freedom is less secure, since the Title IX exemption for religious colleges and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) concern only federal law. Catholic colleges do have recourse to claims under the First Amendment, but fighting state and local laws that threaten religious education takes time, and many courts are not friendly to religious concerns when set against gender ideology.

Again, how will the NCAA treat a Catholic college fighting an unjust state or local law? Will it stand by its members? Instead, it seems the new constitutional provision is intended to push out any college that stands by traditional and natural divisions of the sexes in college sports.

This is the irony of the campaign for LGBT nondiscrimination protections: whereas new laws and private association rules will likely have minimal effect in correcting unjust discrimination — which has never been proven to be a widespread problem for LGBT-identifying Americans — the nation’s majority of religious people will be targeted and subjected to all kinds of legally protected discrimination for maintaining their religious beliefs and truthful policies toward gender and sexuality.

The result is much more discrimination, not less, and the erosion of America’s bedrock principle of religious freedom.

Solution rejected

If the NCAA does not intend such a threat to religious education, there is an easy fix: another amendment that recognizes the distinctive and appropriate needs of religious colleges.

That is precisely what some Catholic colleges, together with the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, proposed before the latest draft constitution — and yet their request was ignored. The language they suggested was quite simple: “Consistent with the principles of institutional control, nothing herein should be construed to restrict or limit private religious institutions from adopting or maintaining policies consistent with their legal rights as private religious institutions.”

The NCAA’s failure to embrace religious freedom and adopt this simple amendment is a very clear signal that its intentions toward Catholic and other religious colleges are not good. Efforts continue to advocate a religious freedom amendment in the new draft expected around Dec. 15. Without the amendment, NCAA members should reject the new constitution.

Otherwise, faithful Catholic colleges may have no option but to leave the troubled NCAA. What a great tragedy for all concerned, especially the young men and women whose interests are the last priority in the relentless march of ideological extremism.

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.

Newman Guide Colleges Increase ‘Recruit Me’ Scholarship to $20,000

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Several faithful Catholic colleges recognized by The Cardinal Newman Society have generously chosen to supplement the Society’s “Recruit Me” scholarship, potentially increasing the amount from $5,000 to $20,000 over four years.

The Newman Society’s annual Essay Scholarship Contest rewards a U.S. high school senior with a one-time $5,000 scholarship toward the cost of attending one of the colleges recommended in The Newman Guide. To be eligible, a student must sign up for Recruit Me, a program that invites Newman Guide colleges to compete for promising candidates.

High school seniors can submit their application and essay for the seventh annual Essay Scholarship Contest until February 20, 2023. 

The winner will have the opportunity to be awarded $20,000 over the course of four years. Several of the Newman Guide colleges have agreed to supplement the Newman Society’s scholarship with additional $5,000 grants over three additional years. In order for the scholarship to continue, the student must be enrolled full-time and maintain satisfactory academic progress. Some of the colleges have additional requirements.

The following Newman Guide colleges have opted to supplement the Newman Society scholarship, should a winning student choose to attend their institution:

  • Ave Maria University (Ave Maria, Fla.)
  • Belmont Abbey College (Belmont, N.C.)
  • Benedictine College (Atchison, Kan.)
  • Campion College (Toongabbie East, NSW, Australia)
  • Christendom College (Front Royal, Va.)
  • Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, Ohio)
  • Holy Angel University (Angeles City, Philippines)
  • Holy Apostles (Cromwell, Conn.)
  • John Paul the Great Catholic University (Escondido, Calif.)
  • Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts (Warner, N.H.)
  • Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (Barry’s Bay, Ontario, Canada)
  • The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, N.H.)
  • University of Dallas (Irving, Tex.)
  • University of Mary (Bismarck, N.D.)
  • University of St. Thomas (Houston, Tex.)
  • Wyoming Catholic College (Lander, Wyo.)

The Newman Society’s $5,000 scholarship is made possible by the generosity of Joseph and Ann Guiffre, supporters of the Newman Society and faithful Catholic education. Supporters of the participating Newman Guide colleges have generously provided the funds for the supplemental awards.

The Newman Society encourages Catholic families to tell family and friends about the Essay Scholarship Contest and the value of faithful Catholic education. Questions about the Essay Scholarship Contest can be directed to Programs@CardinalNewmanSociety.org.

Abortion Advocacy, Sex Contests Have No Place in Catholic Education

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What kind of lunacy must this be, when the Pope unambiguously calls abortion “murder,” yet a Catholic university hosts a fundraiser to support America’s largest abortion business?

Or when students at a Catholic high school walk out in protest of a pro-life speaker?

Or Catholic college students compete for numbers of sexual conquests?

“Catholic education is an expression of the Church’s mission of salvation and an instrument of evangelization: to make disciples of Christ and to teach them to observe all that he has commanded.” If ever the need for a renewal of truth and fidelity in our Catholic education was more obvious, it is certainly clear now.

Faithful alumni of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles — sponsored by the Jesuits, Marymount Sisters, and Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange — are urging signatures on a petition protesting a university-hosted fundraiser for the abortion giant Planned Parenthood scheduled for this Friday, Nov. 5. It is sponsored by a student group, LMU Women in Politics.

The University told Catholic News Agency, “The fundraiser being hosted by Women in Politics is not a university-sponsored event. However, the existence of these student organizations and their activities are living examples that LMU embraces its mission, commitments, and complexities of free and honest discourse.”

Not a university event? Consider this:

1.  LMU Women in Politics is a “Registered Student Organization” at the University. Its radical feminist mission includes emphasis on “LGBTQ+ women, gender queer, and non binary individuals.” In September, the group protested the “terrifying” Texas ban on many abortions.

2.  Friday’s event is scheduled to occur in LMU’s Roski Dining Hall on campus.

3.  The “Planned Parenthood Fundraiser” was advertised in LMU’s student calendar until this afternoon, after substantial media attention. Calls to the LMU media office to confirm the reason were not returned before publishing this article.

Then there are the students at Archbishop Riordan High School, a Catholic high school in San Francisco, which last year became co-ed after being an all-boys school. A recent school assembly featured pro-life speaker Megan Almon, part of the Life Training Institute, which, as Catholic News Agency states, seeks to “empower others with the knowledge and conviction necessary to make a case for life that changes hearts and minds.”

About five minutes into Almon’s speech, almost all 800 students walked out, leaving only a few dozen students left to listen to her talk. The interim president, Tim Reardon, appropriately defended the talk, telling CNA, “Many of the parents sent their kids to Catholic school so that the kids could learn about Catholic social teaching. To avoid these topics would be a failure to serve these individuals.”

The College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University are investigating reports that male students from St. John’s held a “sex competition” to see who could score the most female sexual partners from the College of St. Benedict.

Students who were appalled by the news recently staged a walkout, because they believed that the colleges were not doing enough about the allegations. Aisha Sadik told those who gathered in protest, “Some Johnnies allow their peers and friends to get away with these actions because it has nothing to do with them. … Bennies have talked about how scared they feel walking alone at St. John’s University.”

In Ex corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education by Pope St. John Paul II, he states, “If need be, a Catholic University must have the courage to speak uncomfortable truths which do not please public opinion, but which are necessary to safeguard the authentic good of society” (No. 32).

He specifically calls on Catholic educators to fulfill their duty in proclaiming the truth of the dignity of all human life. Especially in our current culture, these truths are not always popular, especially as we’ve seen in the debates over the Texas Heartbeat Bill.

Nevertheless, it is the purpose of Catholic education to teach truth in fidelity to our Catholic faith. When failures occur, Catholic families need the entire Church to stand with them in protecting students from scandal, rejecting institutions that deny the truth of Catholic teachings, and redoubling efforts to renew faithful Catholic education.

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.

sacred heart academy

A Parochial School Finds New Life in the Heart of a Parish

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A few years ago, a visitor traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to tour Sacred Heart Academy, a classical, K-12, parochial Catholic school that has turned around completely after nearly closing its doors.

The visitor said, “This is incredible. This is like looking into the past.”

Fr. Robert Sirico, then the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, replied, “No, what you’re looking at is the future.”

A bright future for Catholic parochial schools would be a welcome change. The number of elementary students in parish schools has declined nearly 75 percent since the 1960s, and weak catechesis has propelled many Catholic parents toward independent schools and homeschooling.

But a change is underway. Sacred Heart Academy is one of a growing number of parochial schools that have embraced a more distinctly Catholic formation in both the faith and the liberal arts, which is attracting more Catholic families and strengthening parish life.

And Fr. Sirico, whose faith and leadership made the transformation possible at Sacred Heart, has helped spark excitement among other priests and bishops to bring about the renewal of parochial education.

Continue reading at Crisis Magazine…

Pope Saint John Paul II

John Paul II Was Right: Catholic Athletes Must Be Champions of Virtue

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Twelve-year-old me looked forward to one thing every day: swim practice. Every day, five days a week, I was in the pool churning out laps for at least an hour. And I did not want to be anywhere else.

Between dreams and aspirations of one day living Michael Phelpsian Olympic glory in the water, that hour a day was an important part of my daily Catholic education.

My mother, in her highly-structured homeschool curriculum, was adamant that physical activity was as important to my education as was the time I spent learning about the sacraments, the saints, the American Revolution, fractions and coefficients, and everything else a 12-year-old kid learns in school.

For centuries, it was commonly understood that an education, fully realized, included athletic practice and competition, and the practice of such things nurtured greater virtue and intelligence. The classically educated person nourished mind, body and soul.

Today, athletic competition is no less formative. It has the potential to impress and the potential to depress — to inspire celebration or disgust. And as such, it embraces the human experience, with all its highs, lows, twists and turns.

Continue reading at National Catholic Register…

Liberal Arts, Science, Technology ‘Work Together,’ Says UST Houston President

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Students interested in deepening their understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition while also embracing developments in the sciences will find a beautiful harmony of both at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Tex. Dr. Richard Ludwick, president of The Newman Guide-recommended University, explains that Catholic universities have the “responsibility to search for meaning in these developing fields.”

The Newman Society recently asked Dr. Ludwick to discuss the University of St. Thomas’s majors and initiatives in the sciences and how the University is a leader in uniting faith and science.

Dr. Richard Ludwick

Newman Society: The University of St. Thomas is unique among colleges in The Newman Guide with its variety of majors and initiatives in science and technology, while also embracing the liberal arts and the Catholic intellectual tradition. Can you tell us how the University balances this approach? 

Dr. Ludwick: It’s not so much of a balance as it is a beautiful symbiosis. The liberal arts can actually work together with science and technology for the benefit of both and for all humanity. That is an essential part of the Catholic intellectual tradition and the part that will continue to lead us forward. For 75 years, the University of St. Thomas has been bringing together the greatest minds of our time to study and teach philosophy and theology and the many other disciplines that we treasure in an education grounded in the liberal arts, but the most essential question is how do we use that expertise not just to study the past but to win the future? How can we call upon the 2,000-year repository of great Catholic thought to help us understand and leverage these unprecedented breakthroughs in science and technology for the benefit of the human person? Ex corde Ecclesiae doesn’t just tell us we should do this, it tells us that we must. For the authentic good of all humanity, it is our responsibility to search for meaning in these developing fields. It’s also a lot of fun, and it continues to demonstrate daily to students the importance and relevance of our faith in the modern world.

Newman Society: What are some of the University’s new digital ventures, and how are you drawing inspiration from St. Maximilian Kolbe for them? 

Dr. Ludwick: In his time, St. Maximilian Kolbe built the largest media apostolate in human history by leveraging radio and print. Not many people know that he even had plans to start a movie studio! Those were the platforms that he had available to him at the time. Just imagine what he would have done today using YouTube, social media, Virtual and Augmented Reality, learning management platforms and a host of other spaces across the digital landscape. Just as with science and technology, we are called to use these tools for the authentic good, to advance society. Guided and inspired by St. Maximilian Kolbe, we have opened the USTMAX Center, a micro-campus concept; the St. Maximilian Kolbe Innovation Network for integration of technology and innovation, focused on the dignity of the human person; and MAX Studios, a new digital apostolate at the University of St. Thomas that seeks to encounter the culture with a missionary spirit. We create podcasts and shows with a focus on intentional dialogue that help us understand our faith and role in this world. We are also forming partnerships with other apostolates for innovation and technology, as well as businesses, including e-sports, for pathways of evangelization.

Newman Society: What do you think makes the University attractive to Catholic students in the 21st century?

Dr. Ludwick: Catholics come to St. Thomas now in growing, record numbers! They want and need more in their formation and they get it: Jesus Christ, the living love of the Father. They tell us they need a coherent core curriculum, not a buffet of unrelated classes, so they can answer timeless questions and make sense of the world. They want the best faculty and relevant majors, all in an authentically Catholic culture that is vibrantly alive. That’s what attracts them to UST. The special bonus is that they get to do all that in one of the world’s top cities, Houston. Our town is the biggest little town ever. It is a community that best reflects the entirety of our human family, and students get the chance to come together with Catholics from all across the globe. We also enjoy the food that such a mix of cultures brings. With the nation’s largest medical center just down the street, amazing museums and unparalleled career opportunities, it’s no wonder that Houston is one of the fastest growing cities. Students get access to all of that from our serene, leafy campus in the middle of the arts district. Once prospective students visit our campus, they almost always make the decision to stay.

Newman Society: Looking forward to the future, how can the University of St. Thomas be a leader in uniting faith and science? 

Photo via University of St. Thomas – Houston

Dr. Ludwick: There is a void to be filled in society, as science and technology continue to rocket forward at accelerating speed. We must keep pace. Armed with our values and a core curriculum that sets students up to ask the big questions, we will make sure that the human person remains at the heart of research and innovation. Whether our graduates go on to be priests, nurses, theologians, engineers or philosophers, they will be a force for good in the world. Ex corde Ecclesiae calls us to a continuous renewal as both “universities” and “Catholic.” As we navigate this bold new world, guided by that apostolic constitution, we will continue to engage the unknown without fear, but instead knowing that our questions will always lead to the Truth. It is that spirit, which we often refer to as the Spirit of St. Thomas, that will lead us into the future for centuries more to come.

Faithful Catholic College Prepared Nurse to Make Daily ‘Gift of Self’

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Scott and Clare Held

When Clare Held (née Stiennon) graduated from St. Ambrose Academy in 2012, she knew she wanted to be a nurse—but what she didn’t know was what that path would look like.

She chose to attend the University of Mary in Bismark, N.D., one of the faithful Catholic colleges recommended in The Newman Guide, because of its highly rated nursing program. She was blessed to receive scholarship money to attend the University because she attended Catholic school, and the University was looking to increase the number of Catholic students on campus. “I got out of it what I intended to get: a bachelor’s degree in four years, the ability to work, affordability (I have no debt between my scholarships and the help from my parents) and development as an individual person.”

“I really valued the community. I was on the campus ministry; I have a lot of friendships that have lasted. I felt very well formed with very good friendships with other people who care about Catholicism.” She even met her future husband there, but they didn’t marry until July of this year—after they re-met years later!

She majored in nursing with a minor in theology. She worked as a certified nurse assistant (CNA) all throughout college, and perhaps unexpectedly, she hated her work. She worked in a nursing home at the time, and while she enjoyed ministering to the elderly, the environment was a challenge. She tried a psychology degree, but when that didn’t feel quite right either, she started working in the insurance business.

“I was an insurance claim examiner and producer for a while. I just didn’t enjoy it much. I did enjoy reviewing medical notes to preauthorize treatments and medications. So, I decided to switch back to medicine.” Now, she works as a CNA on the cancer floor in her hospital, which also receive a lot of medical patients. She ministers to the dying through doing a lot of the practical tasks such as flipping patients, giving them comfort baths, changing them and helping them use the restroom.

“I don’t find it to be emotionally challenging, because I think it’s meaningful to help care for those patients. I like my work better now, because I believe we offer better care to our patients, and my co-workers are good people.”

She likes the fact that she’s come full circle. “I am doing a corporal work of mercy every time I go to work.”

From her time at the University of Mary, she distinctly remembers the opening talk that President, Monsignor James Shea, gave to freshmen. He talked about how students must find a way to give theirselves away, and that’s how they find fulfillment, both in a career and in their personal lives.

“That’s always stuck with me,” Held says. “When I switched from insurance back to nursing, I felt that extra-strong feminine desire of giving myself in a meaningful way. How do I make a sincere gift of self? That was an influencing topic when I was at the University, in the culture, friendships and theology. I’ve come to see that nursing is a really wonderful way to give yourself away: I can give myself to the sick and dying.”

Clare has truly come full-circle. After being in an unfulfilling career, one in which she struggled to see how she could give herself away—a strong theme from her time at the University—she has discovered that caring for the sick and dying is how she can truly “make a sincere gift of self,” as Pope St. John Paul II encouraged. Thanks to her time at the University of Mary, she is able to pursue her vocation in nursing in a profoundly radical way and give herself in a Christ-like manner.

Q&A: What is ‘Franciscan’ about Franciscan University of Steubenville?

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Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, is widely known as one of the most faithful institutions of Catholic higher education. But among those institutions recommended in The Newman Guide, it is the only one that maintains a “Franciscan” identity. The Cardinal Newman Society recently caught up with Father Jonathan St. André, a Franciscan friar of the Third Order Regular who works and ministers at Franciscan University, about what makes this Catholic university so unique.

Newman Society: When someone says they are “going to Steubenville,” most Catholics today immediately recognize that they are headed to that vibrant Catholic university in Ohio. We almost forget to say, “Franciscan University,” and yet the Franciscan charism is essential to the education you provide. What is it about Franciscan University’s charism that makes it so special? 

Fr. Jonathan St. André, TOR: The primary charism of Franciscan University of Steubenville is ongoing conversion, since that charism is the foundation of the TOR friars who serve at the University (the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular of Penance—penance being another word for ongoing conversion). The University’s charism is to offer in everything it does the opportunity for people to become disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ! People can tell there is something special here, and what they sense is a vibrant faith rooted in an openness to the Holy Spirit and the joy that comes from following the Lord.

Newman Society: As a Franciscan friar yourself, you have studied the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare. What about their lives translates into a Franciscan University education?

Fr. Jonathan St. André, TOR: Contrary to popular opinion, Saint Francis and Saint Clare were not against education, rather, they were wary of the pride that can puff up one who has been educated, and they warned that studies were to be promoted as long as they did not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion. A Franciscan University education is Franciscan in that it promotes humility through study, always recognizing that one is called to further learning and to be generous in sharing what one has learned. A Franciscan education aims to direct all disciplines to charity, the love of God and love of neighbor. Saint Francis and Saint Clare exemplified this love of God and love of neighbor in the way in which they encountered all created things. They saw the hand of God in creation, and they shared this vision of God’s presence in the material world with their followers so that through the created world every person could make their way toward the eternal life for which they were made. At Franciscan University, we seek to adopt the same understanding of Saint Francis and Saint Clare—that the created world leads us back to God.

Newman Society: How do students experience this Franciscan charism on campus and in the classroom?

Fr. Jonathan St. André, TOR: Whether it is in the classroom, on the sports field, participating in our households (faith-based communities) or going on a mission, there are multiple invitations to grow in holiness every day and throughout one’s time at Franciscan University. Saints Francis and Clare were in love with Jesus and the mysteries of his life, particularly the Incarnation and the Passion. Students experience the Franciscan charism in the University’s devotion to the Lord in the Eucharist (daily Mass, perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) and in the call to ongoing conversion (sacrament of reconciliation). We cultivate the Franciscan charism on campus by celebrating Franciscan feast days and teaching our community about the holy men and women of the Franciscan tradition. The friars in their witness and preaching seek to show our University community the many ways that they can live the Gospel in fulfilling their personal vocation to holiness. In the classroom, students are taught the connection between the Franciscan charism and the discipline they are studying. Students can also enroll in classes that focus on Franciscan spirituality and gain a Franciscan Studies minor.

Newman Society: What do you hope Franciscan University students carry forward into their lives after graduation?

Fr. Jonathan St. André, TOR: I hope our students who graduate bring with them a deep, vibrant, personal relationship with the Lord grounded in a sacramental life in the Church. I hope they have a sense of their personal vocation to holiness and a sense that their discipline of study can be carried out to the glory of God. I hope they continue the deep relationships they have formed and always foster a sense of Christian community in their lives.

Facing Hard Truths About Secular Colleges

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Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming fall 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine. A version of this piece was published at The Catholic Thing.

An article by R.R. Reno made waves this summer, especially in academic circles, because of his frank rejection of “elite” secular universities.

Reno is editor of First Things magazine, which caters to a generally highbrow readership. He is a graduate of the prestigious Haverford College, earned his Ph.D. at the Ivy League’s Yale University, and taught theology at Creighton University—a Jesuit institution that has national prominence, despite having drifted away from its Catholic mission.

Still, Reno no longer recruits Ivy League graduates for employment.

“I don’t want to hire someone who makes inflammatory accusations at the drop of a hat,” he writes, responding to the increasingly hostile “cancel culture” on Ivy League and other “elite” college campuses. He also doesn’t want to hire graduates who have become “well-practiced in remaining silent when it costs something to speak up” against the prevailing campus ideologies.

“I have no doubt that Ivy League universities attract smart, talented and ambitious kids,” Reno acknowledges. “But do these institutions add value? My answer is increasingly negative. Dysfunctional kids are coddled and encouraged to nurture grievances, while normal kids are attacked and educationally abused.”

Toxic for Catholics

Most Catholic college students attend secular colleges (and largely secularized Catholic colleges) where the anti-reason “cancel culture” threatens anyone who espouses Catholic teaching and even Western culture. Shouldn’t the Church be doing more to warn them of the dangers?

Jennifer Frey, a philosophy professor at the public University of South Carolina, is a faithful Catholic who promotes multidisciplinary dialogue about virtue and goodness among her faculty. But as she explained recently in The Point Magazine, she is confronted by the very definition of secular higher education today. Its focus is deliberately concentrated on scientific knowledge, it rejects philosophical thinking about higher truths, and it excludes the essential truths of theology.

“My own vision of what a university should be is inspired by the Catholic tradition in which it originally came to be: a university is, in its essence, a community of scholars and students who seek the truth together as a common end for its own sake,” writes Frey. She cites St. John Henry Newman and his argument for theology as the foundational discipline of all education, “since God is the only coherent source of the sort of unity and order that such a search presupposes.”

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Newman’s vision of a true university “has no chance of being realized outside of a Catholic context,” Frey acknowledges. But she strives for some “alternative vision of a secularized university” that at least recaptures an appreciation of various theologies. It might be the most that can be accomplished in a public university today—but it this the education young Catholics deserve?

Concerns about secular education go well beyond academics, of course. Student life on most secular campuses is toxic to students trying to uphold Christian morality and to simply live healthily. Many students lack sleep and good physical habits, they abuse alcohol and possibly drugs, and they may suffer anxiety as a result of promiscuous lifestyles and shallow relationships. Most secular institutions today aggressively promote gender ideology and sexual immorality, even to the point of demanding students’ assent in contradiction to our Catholic faith.

The Church has made it a priority to provide Catholic centers and Bible studies on secular campuses, offering some opportunity for Christian fellowship and the grace of the sacraments. But these cannot alter the general campus culture, which is increasingly dangerous for young Catholics. Such apostolates also cannot provide an authentically Catholic education, in which the insights of our Catholic faith bring light to every subject and provide a solid foundation for personal formation.

Parents’ right to know

The Catholic Church must not turn a blind eye to the growing dangers of secular education. There is surely nothing “elite” about colleges that embrace depravity and lack commitment to truth and reason. Long ago, they turned against faith-filled, liberal arts education. Many today seem intent on malforming young people.

“We do not flourish without communion with the good,” Frey argues, and that first requires forming students in “virtues like wisdom, courage and justice.” These are best cultivated in the home and within an education that is centered on Christ.

Secular education, with its focus on training students for functional roles in the economy and society, rejects an authentic higher education that forms the whole person. Catholic leaders must recover confidence in Catholic education and proclaim it, especially (but not only) to the faithful who either have lost appreciation for the superiority of a Catholic education or have been let down by colleges that are not truly committed to their Catholic missions. We need to restore trust as well as confidence.

Frey, who argues the essential roles of theology and philosophy to higher education, concedes that the ideal is a Catholic institution. Reno has chosen to hire graduates of “quirky small Catholic colleges such as Thomas Aquinas College, Wyoming Catholic College and the University of Dallas,” which are not “deformed by the toxic political correctness that leaders of elite universities have allowed to become dominant.” These are among the colleges highlighted by The Cardinal Newman Society in our Newman Guide, which offers Catholic families a variety of faithful options for higher education.

These colleges are for the most part growing each year, even as many private colleges across the country are struggling to maintain enrollment. Catholics should be rallying around these faithful colleges and encouraging families to give them strong consideration. Meanwhile, we need to talk openly about the dangers that young Catholics face at secular colleges and steer them to better options.

I recently spoke to a good friend who provided a strong Catholic education to his children but then sent the eldest to his alma mater, a highly reputed public university. He regrets the choice and bemoans the poisonous campus culture.

“I just didn’t know how bad it had become,” the father told me. I think he deserved to know.