Catholic nonprofits—including colleges, schools, and other entities—need a more complete moral framework for investing their funds, looking beyond the profit motive to also avoiding evil and doing good. Catholic moral investing can be complex, and so it requires the help of experts in both ethics and finance who understand the demands of Catholic teaching.
As Catholics, we believe that everything that we have comes as gifts from a loving Creator. He asks us to use them for His greater glory. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus tells us how to do so: we are to follow the two Great Commandments. It is clear from Jesus’ insistence that we do this “with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” and that everything in our lives is to be included.
Jesus also makes it clear that we are not to bury our talents (Luke 19:11-27). Those talents should include both senses of the term: our monetary resources and our God-given abilities. Neither our resources nor our abilities are for our own enrichment or aggrandizement. They are to be used for His greater glory. They are to be used to live out the two Great Commandments.
Accepting the reality that all that we have is really on loan, we can more readily focus on what Our Lord wants us to do with His gifts. So now we must begin the difficult work of applying our mind and will to determining the most prudent way to do so. With humble reliance on His grace, we seek to balance justice and mercy, proximate and remote needs, risk and reward, cost and benefit, deliberation and decisiveness, confidence and humility, etc.
Material Realities, Spiritual Significance
Angels have the luxury of an immaterial existence, but men do not. Therefore, God has charged us from the days in the Garden until the Last Judgement to sanctify ourselves in a material world. That world has grown more complex, as it has moved from the good and evil of an apple on a Tree to the good and evil of an Apple in your phone. One unfortunate example of today’s complexity is the ubiquitous presence of pornography. Since the abolishment in 1968 of the Hollywood Code on morality in motion pictures and the 1973 Supreme Court case redefining obscenity (Miller v. California), companies’ direct and indirect involvement in pornography has exploded.
In simpler times, living out justice and mercy could be largely achieved through a code of conduct evidenced in the Torah. Jesus supplemented the Ten Commandments with the Beatitudes. As the Church’s Magisterium developed the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the growing body of social teaching, the need for prudent judgment regarding material affairs has increased dramatically. In finance, as in human conduct generally, the concrete application of the Beatitudes requires much more study and analysis than the simpler application of the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments. As an example, it can be easier to avoid investing in companies that manufacture abortifacients than it is to identify investment opportunities that “bless the merciful.”
Much has been studied and written regarding the criteria for making judgments about economic systems, and St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have written extensively about the need for employers to emphasize the person over profit. However, there remains much more to be considered about the application of these Great Commandments to the financial affairs of individuals and nonprofit institutions. For Catholics and Catholic institutions with monetary talents, a proper formation of mind and will is critical.
Investing for Profit, with Integrity, for the Common Good
As a general rule, Catholic nonprofit institutions in this country seem to have taken a rather secular approach to these issues. The maxim for investments has been: “Get good portfolio returns and use them to advance our mission.” Does that sound like it is infused with the two Great Commandments?
For a long while, it seemed there was little attention to moral considerations on both how invested money is used and how the money is made. Somehow the principle that “the end does not justify the means” was lost. What moral/ethical concerns have emerged on Wall Street have been very much a mixed bag, with the current focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing. A classic example is the popular focus on protecting the environment; that can be an important good, but without a proper moral perspective, it can lead to such evils as population control.
Endowments, foundations, and retirement savings should be vigorously reviewed on the basis of the avoidance of evil and the promotion of good — a commitment to both the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. Just as many Catholics prayerfully protest abortion clinics and also promote pregnancy centers, the same avoidance of evil and promotion of good should be applied to portfolios. If the managers of labor union pension funds can have strong enough conviction to do business only with those that support “the working man” and refuse to do business with those that do not, our Catholic principles demand an even more deliberate strategy.
The common tool for the avoidance of evil in a portfolio has been the utilization of “screening services,” by which specific violators are excluded from the portfolio, such as pharmaceutical companies that manufacture or distribute abortifacients. Unfortunately, the screen is only as good as the data available. In addition, very few consultants are familiar with the criteria used by the screening service: Is a company screened based on revenues or earnings or charitable gifts? What percent of revenues, earnings, or charitable gifts warrants disqualification? Does every drugstore chain get disqualified if it dispenses certain drugs? Is there any “offset” for the good that the store provides in making legitimate medicines available to the sick?
These deliberations can be tricky, as numerous prudential decisions need to be made on a variety of investments. For those decisions to be fully informed, a blend of investment expertise and moral theology needs to be applied. Rarely is the investment committee of a Catholic institution comprised of members with the requisite blend of expertise. Even worse, investment consultants are often hired who also lack such expertise. As the Gospel warns us: “If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14).
The avoidance of evil should also extend to the asset managers, investment consultants, attorneys, and other professionals hired by the Catholic institution. If employees are expected to be practicing Catholics who are faithful to the Magisterium, why would compensation in the form of fees be paid to anyone who does not meet that description? What a scandal to pay fees to someone, who then uses some of that income to advance organizations diametrically opposed to the Catholic faith! While it would be nice if everyone did the right thing because it is the right thing to do, many times we do the right thing because of the negative consequences of doing the wrong thing. Insisting that every service provider align with the principles of the institution can be a concrete opportunity for evangelization.
A Teachable Moment
It would be wonderful if Catholic institutions could provide serious leadership on these issues by consulting with experts in moral theology and experts in finance. Catholic nonprofits need concrete criteria based on experience with screening services and asset management across various asset classes. The criteria need to be supported by a careful application of Catholic moral theology. For example, how does the First Commandment bear on portfolio growth goals? Is there a point at which pursuing a larger and larger endowment becomes the pursuit of “a strange god?”
While there is significant research to indicate that a morally screened portfolio does not necessarily lead to reduced market performance, questions of potential return shortfalls (short term and/or long term) should be considered. Is there a consensus on Proverbs 16:8, “Better a little with justice, than a large income with injustice”?
Just as the Ten Commandments are a wonderful guide to the avoidance of evil, so the Beatitudes are a wonderful guide to the promotion of good. As human experience demonstrates, prohibitions are easier to enact than commitments to pursue the good, the true, and the beautiful. Still the followers of Jesus should not settle for less, just because it is more difficult. Catholic nonprofit investment committees should be willing to spend the time and energy to wrestle with these challenges on a regular basis. Achieving acceptable rates of return while avoiding evil is commendable but insufficient. We are called to both hate the sin and love the sinner.
Here are some simple initial steps that might be taken to implement these commitments:
- Ensure that employee retirement plans include some Catholic values-screened mutual fund options (there are various fund providers available).
- Ensure that the investment management consultant on the endowment portfolio has specific expertise on these issues and has a robust professional practice concentrated in Catholic institutions.
- Form an ad hoc committee of the board of directors to review all service providers contracted with the institution to verify commitment to the teachings of the Magisterium. (Student interns can be a convenient source of assistance for such research.)
Ultimately, a commitment to “Catholic morally responsible investing” is a call to accepting the reality of natural moral law and the truth of Catholic moral principles. Investing in companies that ultimately kill their customers are clearly bad investments: abortion kills the child, and pornography kills the man. Investments in businesses that promote what is good in man’s nature should prosper with proper corporate management. Of course, all of this requires professional investment expertise, but it also requires an unrelenting passion for aligning talents with the two Great Commandments.
There is no one moral theologian who has all the answers, just as there is no one asset management company that has all the answers. An enormous amount of prayer, study, discussion, and analysis needs to be done. It is worth the effort. The impact can be enormous.
It is now estimated that over one third of all investment assets under management are managed with some kind of socially responsible screening. As these policies grow in influence on Wall Street, they will have a tremendous impact on endowment portfolios and retirement plans. Will these policies foster a culture of life or detract from it? The answer is dependent upon how vigorously Catholic institutions commit to morally responsible investing. Ten talents could turn into ten cities.
J. Patrick Kearns joined Morgan Stanley as a Senior Investment Management Consultant in 2014 and now serves as an Investing with Impact Director. He began his career on Wall Street in 1977, after graduating magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. degree in Finance and Business Economics. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he founded Fulcrum Advisory Services, Inc. and Fulcrum Securities, LLC. in 2003. He has spent a majority of his past 40 years in the financial services industry managing branch offices and maintaining key client accounts for firms such as Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and Prudential Securities. As a former branch manager, he successfully supervised and guided more than 500 professional investment advisors who were responsible for more than 250,000 client accounts. Kearns has earned the distinguished designation of Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and continues to attend advanced training programs on critical aspects of the securities industry. He serves on the boards of several charitable organizations, including The Cardinal Newman Society.
Investment Strategies in Catholic Education Should Seek More than Profits
/in Mission and Governance Financial Policies, Research and Analysis/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffCatholic nonprofits—including colleges, schools, and other entities—need a more complete moral framework for investing their funds, looking beyond the profit motive to also avoiding evil and doing good. Catholic moral investing can be complex, and so it requires the help of experts in both ethics and finance who understand the demands of Catholic teaching.
As Catholics, we believe that everything that we have comes as gifts from a loving Creator. He asks us to use them for His greater glory. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus tells us how to do so: we are to follow the two Great Commandments. It is clear from Jesus’ insistence that we do this “with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” and that everything in our lives is to be included.
Jesus also makes it clear that we are not to bury our talents (Luke 19:11-27). Those talents should include both senses of the term: our monetary resources and our God-given abilities. Neither our resources nor our abilities are for our own enrichment or aggrandizement. They are to be used for His greater glory. They are to be used to live out the two Great Commandments.
Accepting the reality that all that we have is really on loan, we can more readily focus on what Our Lord wants us to do with His gifts. So now we must begin the difficult work of applying our mind and will to determining the most prudent way to do so. With humble reliance on His grace, we seek to balance justice and mercy, proximate and remote needs, risk and reward, cost and benefit, deliberation and decisiveness, confidence and humility, etc.
Material Realities, Spiritual Significance
Angels have the luxury of an immaterial existence, but men do not. Therefore, God has charged us from the days in the Garden until the Last Judgement to sanctify ourselves in a material world. That world has grown more complex, as it has moved from the good and evil of an apple on a Tree to the good and evil of an Apple in your phone. One unfortunate example of today’s complexity is the ubiquitous presence of pornography. Since the abolishment in 1968 of the Hollywood Code on morality in motion pictures and the 1973 Supreme Court case redefining obscenity (Miller v. California), companies’ direct and indirect involvement in pornography has exploded.
In simpler times, living out justice and mercy could be largely achieved through a code of conduct evidenced in the Torah. Jesus supplemented the Ten Commandments with the Beatitudes. As the Church’s Magisterium developed the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the growing body of social teaching, the need for prudent judgment regarding material affairs has increased dramatically. In finance, as in human conduct generally, the concrete application of the Beatitudes requires much more study and analysis than the simpler application of the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments. As an example, it can be easier to avoid investing in companies that manufacture abortifacients than it is to identify investment opportunities that “bless the merciful.”
Much has been studied and written regarding the criteria for making judgments about economic systems, and St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have written extensively about the need for employers to emphasize the person over profit. However, there remains much more to be considered about the application of these Great Commandments to the financial affairs of individuals and nonprofit institutions. For Catholics and Catholic institutions with monetary talents, a proper formation of mind and will is critical.
Investing for Profit, with Integrity, for the Common Good
As a general rule, Catholic nonprofit institutions in this country seem to have taken a rather secular approach to these issues. The maxim for investments has been: “Get good portfolio returns and use them to advance our mission.” Does that sound like it is infused with the two Great Commandments?
For a long while, it seemed there was little attention to moral considerations on both how invested money is used and how the money is made. Somehow the principle that “the end does not justify the means” was lost. What moral/ethical concerns have emerged on Wall Street have been very much a mixed bag, with the current focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing. A classic example is the popular focus on protecting the environment; that can be an important good, but without a proper moral perspective, it can lead to such evils as population control.
Endowments, foundations, and retirement savings should be vigorously reviewed on the basis of the avoidance of evil and the promotion of good — a commitment to both the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. Just as many Catholics prayerfully protest abortion clinics and also promote pregnancy centers, the same avoidance of evil and promotion of good should be applied to portfolios. If the managers of labor union pension funds can have strong enough conviction to do business only with those that support “the working man” and refuse to do business with those that do not, our Catholic principles demand an even more deliberate strategy.
The common tool for the avoidance of evil in a portfolio has been the utilization of “screening services,” by which specific violators are excluded from the portfolio, such as pharmaceutical companies that manufacture or distribute abortifacients. Unfortunately, the screen is only as good as the data available. In addition, very few consultants are familiar with the criteria used by the screening service: Is a company screened based on revenues or earnings or charitable gifts? What percent of revenues, earnings, or charitable gifts warrants disqualification? Does every drugstore chain get disqualified if it dispenses certain drugs? Is there any “offset” for the good that the store provides in making legitimate medicines available to the sick?
These deliberations can be tricky, as numerous prudential decisions need to be made on a variety of investments. For those decisions to be fully informed, a blend of investment expertise and moral theology needs to be applied. Rarely is the investment committee of a Catholic institution comprised of members with the requisite blend of expertise. Even worse, investment consultants are often hired who also lack such expertise. As the Gospel warns us: “If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14).
The avoidance of evil should also extend to the asset managers, investment consultants, attorneys, and other professionals hired by the Catholic institution. If employees are expected to be practicing Catholics who are faithful to the Magisterium, why would compensation in the form of fees be paid to anyone who does not meet that description? What a scandal to pay fees to someone, who then uses some of that income to advance organizations diametrically opposed to the Catholic faith! While it would be nice if everyone did the right thing because it is the right thing to do, many times we do the right thing because of the negative consequences of doing the wrong thing. Insisting that every service provider align with the principles of the institution can be a concrete opportunity for evangelization.
A Teachable Moment
It would be wonderful if Catholic institutions could provide serious leadership on these issues by consulting with experts in moral theology and experts in finance. Catholic nonprofits need concrete criteria based on experience with screening services and asset management across various asset classes. The criteria need to be supported by a careful application of Catholic moral theology. For example, how does the First Commandment bear on portfolio growth goals? Is there a point at which pursuing a larger and larger endowment becomes the pursuit of “a strange god?”
While there is significant research to indicate that a morally screened portfolio does not necessarily lead to reduced market performance, questions of potential return shortfalls (short term and/or long term) should be considered. Is there a consensus on Proverbs 16:8, “Better a little with justice, than a large income with injustice”?
Just as the Ten Commandments are a wonderful guide to the avoidance of evil, so the Beatitudes are a wonderful guide to the promotion of good. As human experience demonstrates, prohibitions are easier to enact than commitments to pursue the good, the true, and the beautiful. Still the followers of Jesus should not settle for less, just because it is more difficult. Catholic nonprofit investment committees should be willing to spend the time and energy to wrestle with these challenges on a regular basis. Achieving acceptable rates of return while avoiding evil is commendable but insufficient. We are called to both hate the sin and love the sinner.
Here are some simple initial steps that might be taken to implement these commitments:
Ultimately, a commitment to “Catholic morally responsible investing” is a call to accepting the reality of natural moral law and the truth of Catholic moral principles. Investing in companies that ultimately kill their customers are clearly bad investments: abortion kills the child, and pornography kills the man. Investments in businesses that promote what is good in man’s nature should prosper with proper corporate management. Of course, all of this requires professional investment expertise, but it also requires an unrelenting passion for aligning talents with the two Great Commandments.
There is no one moral theologian who has all the answers, just as there is no one asset management company that has all the answers. An enormous amount of prayer, study, discussion, and analysis needs to be done. It is worth the effort. The impact can be enormous.
It is now estimated that over one third of all investment assets under management are managed with some kind of socially responsible screening. As these policies grow in influence on Wall Street, they will have a tremendous impact on endowment portfolios and retirement plans. Will these policies foster a culture of life or detract from it? The answer is dependent upon how vigorously Catholic institutions commit to morally responsible investing. Ten talents could turn into ten cities.
J. Patrick Kearns joined Morgan Stanley as a Senior Investment Management Consultant in 2014 and now serves as an Investing with Impact Director. He began his career on Wall Street in 1977, after graduating magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. degree in Finance and Business Economics. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he founded Fulcrum Advisory Services, Inc. and Fulcrum Securities, LLC. in 2003. He has spent a majority of his past 40 years in the financial services industry managing branch offices and maintaining key client accounts for firms such as Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and Prudential Securities. As a former branch manager, he successfully supervised and guided more than 500 professional investment advisors who were responsible for more than 250,000 client accounts. Kearns has earned the distinguished designation of Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and continues to attend advanced training programs on critical aspects of the securities industry. He serves on the boards of several charitable organizations, including The Cardinal Newman Society.
Graduation Honor for Cardinal Newman Society
/in Blog Latest/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffOn Saturday, May 14, Patrick Reilly, president and founder of the Cardinal Newman Society, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Benedictine College.
The award is in recognition of the Cardinal Newman Society’s work for 29 years in promoting and defending faithful Catholic education. Benedictine College is recognized in The Newman Guide for its fidelity and Catholic formation of students including Patrick’s oldest son, who graduated during the same ceremony.
College President Steve Minnis asked the graduating students to raise their hands if they were influenced by The Newman Guide.
“It is a great blessing to see the large number of students and families impacted by our work at the Cardinal Newman Society,” said Reilly. “I dedicated the award to the Society’s amazing staff, and I thanked all those who are working toward the renewal of faithful Catholic education. This special award is also a testament to our devoted members, who have prayed and sacrificed to support the Cardinal Newman Society’s vital efforts.”
Promoting Employee Faithfulness in the Face of Increasing Employment Regulation and an Increasingly Hostile Culture – A Guide for Cardinal Newman Society Institutions
/in Mission and Governance Public Policy and Legal (General), Research and Analysis/by Cardinal Newman Society Staff(Click here for Copy of the Guide)
On June 15, 2020, in Bostock v. Clayton Cty., Georgia, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court found that sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) discrimination were encompassed by “sex” discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”).
While Bostock was important, thirty-two states and the District of Columbia had previously adopted statutes protecting SOGI rights before the Supreme Court’s decision. These dramatic shifts, adopted at lightning speed compared to the laws’ ordinary pace of change, have created new questions and ambiguities that necessitate care and preparation by all institutions that seek to remain faithful.
This decision presents unique challenges to educational institutions that exist to integrate their Catholic faith and beliefs in all aspects of education and student formation, from academics to activities to relationships outside the classroom. As a result, The Cardinal Newman Society asked Samuel W. Diehl and Sharon A. Rose of the Cross Castle law firm to provide the guide, “Promoting Employee Faithfulness in the Face of Increasing Employment Regulation and an Increasingly Hostile Culture” to assist with this work.
The objective of this Guide is to provide Catholic institutions with a better understanding of the current statutory and regulatory frameworks that may impact their right to hire and fire employees based on faith, and practical tools and strategies to avoid lawsuits and government investigations and to extricate themselves quickly in the event an employment dispute arises.
The Guide proceeds in three parts. Part I sets out the pertinent federal equal employment statutes and exemptions and discusses state and local employment law and retaliation statutes. Part II describes the exceptions from discrimination statutes mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Part III provides strategies and best practices to strengthen faithfulness within an institution in order to minimize legal risk.
The Guide is focused on employee issues related to hiring, retention, and termination and does not address penumbral issues to religious employment, such as tax issues related to housing allowance or social security elections, employee benefits, or joint employment issues.
It is important to note that this Guide attempts to provide helpful suggestions regarding certain, limited legal issues. However, its brief length and general nature should prevent any reader from relying on these suggestions for legal advice concerning any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult a qualified lawyer concerning specific legal questions and issues that arise.
Click here for a pdf of the Guide.
‘Study with the Best’ at a Newman Guide College, Says Founder of Popular Catholic Website
/in Blog Newman Guide Articles, Profiles in FCE/by Veronica NygaardShaun McAfee
EpicPew.com—a Catholic website known for its humor and the creative approach it takes to share about the Faith—had its origin at a faithful Catholic college recommended in The Newman Guide. Now the founder of EpicPew recommends faithful Catholic colleges to families looking to “study with the best and grow deeper in the Faith.”
In 2013, when Shaun McAfee was enrolled online at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, which is recommended in The Newman Guide, he was classmates with a number of energetic friends who were interested in writing like he was. They were asked to resurrect the College’s “Dead Philosopher Society,” based on the “Dead Poets Society” from the popular film.
“The team assembled and wrote on various topics of theology, philosophy, and the defense of the Faith and morals,” he explained. “But soon we all graduated and didn’t want to disband, so we carried this to what became EpicPew.”
“The idea was the same,” he continued. “Write about the Church, apologetics, and culture, but in a fun and enthusiastic style. So, with these friends, most of them classmates, like Abby and Doug Johnson, Chloe Langr, and others, we launched the site in 2014.”
This successful website has been even more fun to maintain. “It’s been a hoot, and we’ve evolved the style, approach, and model. It’s a really fun group to be part of, and I’m still thrilled when someone mentions EpicPew or when a person I meet around the internet or real-world raves about the site.”
This website wouldn’t be possible without the stellar education offered by Holy Apostles, where McAfee earned a master’s degree in dogmatic theology. As he explained, “I had a wonderful time, semester to semester, exploring the rich teachings of the Church on several subjects such as Mariology, systematic theology, the sacraments, and the Church Fathers.”
Even though McAfee has a day job, he has continued to apply himself to personal study and writing. “[Since graduation], I have written about 800 articles online and 11 books to date. It’s been a whirlwind, but I rest my success on the great methods and resources I discovered at Holy Apostles, not to mention all the networking I was able to do.”
“Holy Apostles showed me that although I had mastered some subjects, there is no end to the topics a Catholic can study (and write on) and perhaps even contribute some understanding to the field.”
McAfee praised the Newman Guide colleges: “One can spend all 12 years of primary school in a ‘Catholic school’ and be catechized but not evangelized. I know there is something special, then, about these Newman Guide schools and how the entire approach to studies is oriented to conversion and intellectual discipleship. I have been asked several times, ‘How do I choose a good Catholic school?’ and I always say, ‘Read the Newman Guide online.’ It’s good advice if you want to study with the best and grow deeper in Faith.”
For McAfee, what sets Holy Apostles apart from all others is the “flexibility and high quality of online students. I earned my degree with a full-time job and several young kids. Others have even greater life demands to overcome and Holy Apostles routinely satisfies the demand for even the toughest schedules. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that it’s very affordable!”
Catholic Identity Must Be Clearly Stated
/in Blog Latest/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffOne week before Easter, we sent to you the latest article written by Patrick Reilly – 10 Key Takeaways From the Vatican’s New Instruction on Catholic Education.
The article summarized the latest document from the Congregation for Catholic Education and said the document could help tremendously, “if dioceses take to heart its demands for truly faithful Catholic teaching across all subjects, hiring teachers who profess and witness to the Catholic faith, and intervening meaningfully when a school or teacher fails to provide faithful Catholic formation.”
It didn’t take long for a telltale case to appear in the news. A Jesuit-run middle school in central Massachusetts has been flying a “Black Lives Matter” flag and a rainbow flag beneath the American flag outside its school building. The local Bishop directed the school to take the flags down, but the school refused. In an interview for National Catholic Register, Reilly shares some ways these conflicts can and should be resolved in the future.
Continue reading at the National Catholic Register…
10 Key Takeaways From the Vatican’s New Instruction on Catholic Education
/in Blog Latest/by Patrick ReillyRecently, the Vatican issued a call for stronger Catholic identity in Catholic education. But will it do any good?
The short answer: Yes, I think it will. The Congregation for Catholic Education’s new instruction on schools, “The Identity of a Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue,” published March 29, could help tremendously, if dioceses take to heart its demands for truly faithful Catholic teaching across all subjects, hiring teachers who profess and witness to the Catholic faith, and intervening meaningfully when a school or teacher fails to provide faithful Catholic formation.
Catholic families have been waiting more than 50 years for such firm commitment to Catholic identity, and already we have seen some exciting examples of dioceses and parochial schools overcoming the poor catechesis, poor formation and high costs that eroded much of Catholic education in past decades. We have also seen the growth of lay-run independent schools, homeschool programs and hybrid home-and-school programs that are serving a wide range of Catholic families.
All dioceses can build upon these models to ensure a strong backbone of fidelity and authentic Christian formation in parochial schools and especially schools affiliated with religious orders — or if necessary, shut them down.
Here are 10 key takeaways from the Vatican’s instruction.
1. Human Right to Education
The instruction echoes the Vatican II declaration on Christian education (Gravissimum Educationis) that “education, as the formation of the human person, is a universal right.” That’s because human nature is always inclined toward truth and has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding of oneself and reality.
2. Catholic Education Is Better Education
Any education should be “aimed at the integral education” of its students — which means not only intellectual but also moral, social and cultural formation. Catholic education participates in the “evangelizing mission of the Church” by upholding and teaching the truths of the Catholic faith. When “reason enters into dialogue with faith,” students are better able to “transcend the mere data of the empirical and rational sciences” and rise to a better knowledge and understanding of the world, themselves and God.
3. ‘Every Act in Accord With Catholic Identity’
The Congregation for Catholic Education declares that “every official act of the school must be in accordance with its Catholic identity.” Importantly, this runs across all academic subjects, not just religion class. And Catholic moral and social formation are also entwined with all the activities of Catholic education. The congregation says, “… there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom.” The school must “order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation.” For educators wishing to further explore Catholic identity according to the congregation’s past documents, I recommend Principles of Catholic Identity in Education.
4. Catholic Education Is for Catholic Families
According to the Vatican instruction, Catholic education is primarily intended for Catholics, or at least Christians, for the growth and evangelization “of those who are already walking towards the fullness of Christ’s life.” The document encourages inclusive policies to help those on the margins and warns against excluding those who are not deemed “totally” Catholic, while stressing that there can be no compromise to the truths of Catholic teaching or the purpose of Catholic formation.
5. Parents Direct Their Child’s Education
While the Church has the duty of evangelizing all people, the primary responsibility for the Catholic education of a child rests with the parents. Parents are “bound by the obligation” to provide a Catholic education, the congregation says, but “they have the right to choose the means and institutions through which” that education is provided. This explicit acknowledgment will be a comfort to homeschoolers.
6. Catholic Schools Need Clear Policies
The congregation rightly instructs schools to establish formal guidelines, mission statements, employee policies, etc. to ensure fidelity and faithful evangelization. I find this especially gratifying and of the greatest importance. Convinced of the necessity of clearly stated and consistently implemented policies that protect schools from false ideologies, lukewarm faith and threats to religious freedom, the Cardinal Newman Society has been working with education experts these last few years to provide recommended standards for every aspect of Catholic education — from academics to athletics to sexuality policies.
7. Obligations of Every Employee
The Vatican affirms also that every member of the school community “has the obligation to recognize, respect, and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school.” This includes “the non-teaching personnel,” for whom schools should “formulate clear criteria for discernment regarding the professional qualities, adherence to the Church’s doctrine, and consistency in the Christian life of the candidates.” This is a pleasant surprise! Two years ago, we thought it might be controversial when my colleague Dan Guernsey, senior fellow at the Cardinal Newman Society, argued for a “deep, permeating unity of purpose and conduct” among both teaching and non-teaching employees and urged moral standards for non-teaching employees.
8. Obligations of Every Teacher
As for teachers, the congregation says that everyone (not just religion teachers) must be equipped with the “secular and religious knowledge” necessary to relate Catholic doctrine to their teaching. This is another surprise, challenging schools to hire well-formed teachers in all subjects — ideally, I would argue, graduates of the faithful Newman Guide colleges. The instruction says that, “by their life as much as by their instruction,” teachers must “bear witness to Christ, the unique Teacher” — which seems a clear note of support for schools dismissing teachers in same-sex civil unions. These teacher expectations are repeated elsewhere in the instruction.
9. Teachers Hold Ecclesiastical Offices
Moreover, the Vatican affirms that the work of all Catholic school teachers “is in the real sense of the word an apostolate.” It later establishes the teacher — again, not only the religion teacher — as an ecclesiastical office according to Canons 145 and 936. This is a huge development with relevance to the “ministerial exception” that protects American Catholic schools from anti-discrimination lawsuits by ministers of the Church.
10. Bishops Have Great Authority Over Schools
Because every Catholic school teacher holds a divine office, the bishop has the right to demand the removal of a teacher even at a school not controlled by the diocese, such as a Jesuit school. The Congregation’s instruction clarifies that even non-diocesan schools are obligated to follow all of the bishop’s precepts regarding Catholic identity in education. A bishop cannot remove the “Catholic” label from a school affiliated with a religious order, which is de facto Catholic by its affiliation, but the bishop could expel the school or the order from his diocese. (Expect a Vatican ruling on the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School scandal soon.)
There is much more to ponder in the congregation’s instruction, but it seems appropriate to end on the same hopeful note as the document, which reminds us of Catholic education’s evangelical mission: “… it is vitally important for the Church today to go forth and preach the Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance, or fear.”
In this quote from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis sounds a lot like Pope St. John Paul II, who was devoted to the task of renewing faithful Catholic education. May St. John Paul II pray with us, that this renewal comes to fruition, for the glory of God and the good of his children.
This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.
Catholic Education Scandal on April Fool’s Day
/in Blog Latest/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffImagine the irony: Today, April Fool’s Day, a Boston high school named Catholic Memorial will bestow an award on a pro-abortion politician. You might think this is just part of the day’s hijinks, a calculated prank, but sadly, this scandal is all too familiar and real.
Patrick Reilly, founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, appeared as a guest on The Catholic Current with host Fr. McTeigue, S.J., to discuss the scandal of honoring people who publicly oppose the very teaching that lies at the heart of true Catholic education, and what can be done to courageously renew our Catholic schools.
If a Catholic school is going to give an openly pro-abortion politician an award, what does “Catholic school” even mean at that point? As Fr. McTeigue ponders, “One has to wonder what people think they are paying for with Catholic education.”
As Reilly explained, we’ve lost a sense of who is responsible for the education of children, and ultimately, it’s the parents. “Education is fundamentally a lay function. The Church is supposed to be upholding, teaching, and preserving the faith, and therefore, education has to be done in full partnership with the Church to be fully Catholic.”
“Unfortunately, another trap we’ve fallen into is the idea that “Catholic” is just a label that is given, and an institution can do whatever it pleases, even if those actions contradict Church teaching. Catholic Memorial is an example of such an institution, controlled by the Christian Brothers, but sending a clear message of encouragement for pro-abortion activism.” Reilly added.
Reilly goes on to demonstrate that such an action presents a scandalous image of the school. “You are making a decision to choose one person out of the millions of people in the world, out of the good Catholics whom you could choose. When you choose someone who is deliberately working for the death and slaughter of millions of babies, working for the destruction of marriage and the complete misunderstanding of gender, what are you doing? There is a deliberate aspect to that decision, and that’s what really needs to be condemned.”
When Catholic schools are making such decisions as these, parents have the obligation to look elsewhere. And while they don’t always get the support they deserve, Reilly points to many examples that are upholding the Catholic faith, including renewed parochial schools, homeschooling, independent schools, and even new hybrid model programs.
“As Catholics, we keep putting things back on the bishops. But as lay Catholic people, we need to be holding schools to account. We should be confident in that authority. Stop putting our kids in places like Catholic Memorial. It’s very deliberately and very publicly signaling to the world where it’s at. Why would we put our kids in a place like that?”
As a positive conclusion, Reilly explained, “Today, Catholic schools have a great opportunity. Americans are fed up with how far the Left has taken the culture, and a school that strongly asserts its Catholic identity does very well. It’s a sign of opposition to the craziness of the culture.”
Listen to the whole episode here!
10 Ways to Strengthen Athletics in Catholic Education (Bonus: Anticipated Questions One Might Encounter)
/in Student Formation Athletics, Commentary/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffThis list is drawn from The Cardinal Newman Society’s new “Policy Standards on Formation of the Human Person in Catholic School and College Sports”.
Possible Questions
Question: Could we just let sport be sport, run a competitive program like our peers, and leave the rest to theology class or Sunday school?
Response: Catholic schools and colleges are educational evangelical communities of faith. Sports in our communities are a part of something much bigger than simply competition and athletic glory. Because Catholic education is different, with a more comprehensive integrated approach to student formation, our sports programs are different. They are orientated to integral formation of mind, body and spirit within a Catholic understanding of the human person.
Question: Isn’t it a violation of good taste and religious freedom to offer a specifically Christian or Catholic prayer before a game? Is that proselytizing? Shouldn’t we choose the most generic and universal sentiments to avoid offending others?
Response: In athletic events, the home team is responsible for the pre-game program. When we invite guests into our “home,” it is a Catholic home. We have a chance to show our guests who we are: a community of faith and part of the Catholic Church, and in this instance the Church at play and prayer. While we respect our guests and should never choose a Catholic prayer that might lead to confusion, we also respect them enough to assume they are capable of the virtue of tolerance and respect incumbent upon guests in another person’s home or Church. We should never shy away from the name of Jesus in any prayer or circumstance out of a false sense of inclusivity or a fear of appearing pious. See John 14:13-14: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in my name, I will do it.” Also see Matthew 10:33: “But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.”
Question: Don’t laws and athletic associations require a school or college to provide students access to the team of their choice according to their declared sexual identity?
Response: Local, state and federal laws in the United States and athletic association policies are changing rapidly on this subject, and there is no national consensus. A Catholic school or college must carefully review applicable laws and affiliations. Regardless, there is no option for a faithfully Catholic institution to deny or cast doubt upon the God-given biological sex of any person, including students and employees. This would violate the mission of Catholic education to teach and witness to truth. Faced with a legal challenge, a Catholic institution’s best defense may be to assert religious freedom by claiming exemption from the law, seeking relief under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or appealing to the First Amendment or provisions in a state constitution. A school or college has the strongest claim to religious freedom protections if its policies and actions are directly explained by Catholic teachings, consistently faithful and consistently applied over time and across situations.
Sport Is More Than a Game for Catholic Schools
/in Student Formation Athletics, Commentary/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffIn Catholic education, athletes like to win competitions as much as anyone else—but sport has an even higher purpose that should take priority for students and coaches.
Sport done rightly aids the development of character and virtue. Catholic sport allows for the integral formation of body and soul, to work toward the fulfillment of athletic and intellectual prowess and excellence. Sport builds school community, reinforcing bonds among students and between students, faculty and staff. Sport forges bonds among parents and the larger community.
Sport in Catholic education is not only for the physically talented. Because it has so much to offer the human person, all capable students should have the benefit of participating in athletics and sporting competitions. What student hasn’t missed catching or hitting a ball? It’s not only about learning handeye coordination, but also about how to emotionally respond and behave in a way that leads to virtue formation.
As stated in The Cardinal Newman Society’s new standards on sports in Catholic education, a Catholic institution should be concerned not only with “physical skills and strength” but also developing social skills and “Christian character and virtue.” The standards discuss the outlook of Pope St. John Paul II, who spoke of the importance of sport in the development of the human person as well as the danger if sport is simply “reduced to mere effort and to a questionable, soulless demonstration of physical strength.”
Sport can help students recognize their physical and mental capacities and limitations. For some, it’s the acceptance of their skill; for others, it’s the determination to improve, which motivates them to understand who they are or who they are called to be.
Some believe gender is a social construct, and that athletic policies should invite students who express a gender different from their biological sex (“transgendered athletes”) to compete alongside or against athletes of a different biological sex. But science tells us there are chromosomes within each human person that exist at conception defining one’s sex as either male or female. The Church teaches that the human person grows as a unified body and soul, not as “two natures united, but a single nature” as male or female. As our standards explain, “Through integral and holistic Catholic education, student-athletes will Sport Is More than a Game for Catholic Students NEWMAN SOCIETY EDITORIAL come to understand who they are as unified persons of body and soul [and] as sons and daughters of God.” Sport can be important to upholding the perennial teachings of the Church and the mission of the Catholic school or college.
Catholic institutions of integrity will recognize natural law and Catholic teaching, refusing to capitulate to contemporary ideologies that negate the basic binary principle of human sexuality. Faithful Catholic institutions will participate in like-minded athletic associations or sports leagues that do not usurp the rights of students to compete with students of the same biological sex. This is a matter of justice. Our standards state, “By nature, men are typically bigger, faster and stronger than women and so should not play against them in competitive interschool athletics.” Any athletic competition should protect the safety and dignity of all participants.
It is important that educators ensure that students are not degraded by unsportsmanlike behavior, such as name-calling or hazing, and “coaching that is physically, emotionally or spiritually abusive, harmful or degrading.”
Sport in a Catholic school is the extension of the school’s academic and religious mission—to transform students into persons who will live their earthly and eternal lives as humble servants of God. It should be seen as an evangelical and formative program.
Catholic Educators Rise to Defend Women’s Sports
/in Student Formation Athletics, Commentary/by Patrick ReillyIn December 2021, the witness of faithful Catholic educators helped persuade the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to include broad protection for the mission of religious colleges in the Association’s new constitution.
Although the NCAA also took new steps to embrace gender ideology, the accommodation to religious colleges was a surprising concession showing the great importance of Catholics standing firm against gender ideology and in defense of women’s sports.
Awareness is growing in American society about the errors of gender ideology, originally embraced out of compassion for a very few people who are born with ambiguous sexuality. Now the false ideology threatens to erase gains made in recent decades for women’s athletics and protection from sexual assault. Men declaring themselves female and choosing to compete in women’s sports or use women’s private facilities is corrupting sports at all academic and professional levels, from high school swimming to Olympic events
Faithful Catholic education respects not only the biological sex of students but also Catholic teaching which affirms God’s creation of humans as male and female. Catholic schools and colleges, then, must firmly resist demands that they admit biological men to women’s sports and should set an important example as faithful witnesses to the truth.
Catholics challenge the NCAA
In December, I went public at the National Catholic Register with concerns raised by leaders of several faithful Catholic colleges that we recommend in our Newman Guide, and which participate in Division II or III of the NCAA. The presidents of Belmont Abbey College, Catholic University of America, University of Dallas, University of Mary, University of St. Thomas (Tex.) and Walsh University had been fighting proposed changes to the NCAA constitution that seemed intended to push out religious colleges with traditional 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. The language seemed designed to ban Catholic colleges from membership in the NCAA, if at any point they go to court to assert exemption from state and federal laws and to defend their mission.
This amendment to the NCAA constitution was the result of lobbying by activists including the anti-Catholic Human Rights Campaign. It would have set up a legal showdown between the NCAA and faithful Catholic colleges that refuse to accept biological males on women’s teams.
“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 in our new standards for sports at Catholic schools and colleges. “The issue is bigger than just 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.”
GENDER IDEOLOGY THREATENS TO ERASE GAINS MADE FOR WOMEN’S ATHLETICS AND PROTECTION FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT.
Thankfully, the faithful Newman Guide colleges 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 Cardinal Newman Society made the issue public and endorsed the new 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.”
My column in the National Catholic Register was widely distributed on social media, and it was cited by Catholic and other Christian media. A few days later, the NCAA added new language to its constitution recognizing the mission priorities of religious colleges. Apparently, the NCAA governors decided losing Catholic and Christian colleges as members would harm the association and would be patently unfair to student-athletes.
Faithful Catholic education is worth fighting for, and it was the smaller but most faithful colleges that helped achieve this valuable protection, even while large institutions like Georgetown University instead advocated the “woke” agenda of gender ideology.
Tough road ahead
The added language to the NCAA constitution does not mean religious colleges will not face difficulties in the future. The association has signaled acceptance of gender ideology, allowing each sport’s national governing body to determine its own approach to competition by students who claim an opposite gender, subject to review by an NCAA committee. It remains to be seen whether the NCAA will honor its statement of respect for religious education.
In college sports generally, the challenge of gender ideology faces women in multiple sports. University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who is undergoing hormone therapy, has made headlines by setting pool records in the Ivy league swimming championship.
The problems are also reaching into high school athletics. The fastest female runner in Connecticut high schools was forced to file a lawsuit in 2020, together with other student-athletes, because of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s decision to allow biological males to race against girls. The lawsuit was deemed moot by a federal court last year, since the girls had graduated, and it was dismissed—but the girls have appealed the ruling.
Often Catholic schools and colleges belong to such athletic associations, and these are likely to continue presenting challenges for Catholic educators. Whether on gender identity, prayer before games or other concerns of Catholic institutions, secular society is increasingly unwilling to respect the needs of Catholic education. But compromising on fundamental truths of human nature and a school or college’s mission is not an option.
On the other hand, witnessing to the truth is itself a valuable education for students—not only when we win, but also when we lose. Ultimately, we can trust in the Holy Spirit to protect the Church and open new doors to Catholic formation if we only stay faithful.