The mind is the seat of Christian belief and knowledge, and therefore it is the target of the Enemy’s lies and corruption, warned Monsignor James Shea, President of the University of Mary, in his keynote address to The Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide College Leaders Summit in June.
That is why Newman Guide education, with its faithfully Catholic understanding of the world and clarity about the deceptions that have confused most young people today, is best suited to helping students reject the lies and rebuild Christian culture.
Shea noted that, while The Cardinal Newman Society has high standards for recognition in The Newman Guide, Christ calls educators to the highest standard: to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” For all people, there is always a gap between who we are and who we are called to be. We lack perfection in our passions, senses, emotions, and will. Despite attempts to improve, our mediocrity only seems to deepen.
Citing St. John Henry Newman, Shea explained that difficulties with holiness are not found primarily in the lower faculties or even in the will.
“The defect actually is in the highest and the most noble of all of our faculties, which is in the mind,” said Shea. “Our problem is an intellectual problem. And our problem, first and foremost, is that we are confused about the meaning and the purpose of our lives; that we fundamentally miss the point.”
We ask too many questions about what Jesus would do or what our behavior should be, when the real question has to do with taking on the mind of Christ: What does Jesus think?
According to Newman, Shea said, the Cross is the triumph of what, by human standards, was an epic failure. By God’s standards, however, the Cross is the true measure of the world. Newman said if we want to understand our lives and measure them rightly, we must go to the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross puts its true value upon everything. Every other way of proceeding is defective because it is a worldly way of thinking.
The source of human mediocrity, then, is the intellect, and Catholic educators must strive to repair this defect in themselves and their students.
“Learning to be present, the way that the Lord was present, to the circumstances right in front of us; doing God’s will, come what may; and not making our success or our achievement the condition of our effort,” said Shea, “but truly doing God’s will and allowing the triumph of the Cross to be part of both our lives and our institutions, is essential to the question of education as evangelization.”
Defeating strongholds in the mind
Authentic Catholic education is evangelical, he said, because Catholic educators are “entrusted with the formation of the minds of our students. And we know that it’s not just information, and not even just knowledge, but it’s wisdom which we seek to impart, which involves a transformation of mind. …Jesus is described in the prologue to John’s Gospel as the light coming into the world which enlightened every man.”
Scripture tells us, in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” In 1 Corinthians 2:16, St. Paul says, “we have the mind of Christ.” And in Philippians 2:5, “have the same mind as Christ, who though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at.”
Conversion of the mind results in the conversion of the will and passions, Shea said, as they fall into place with the intellect. Jesus tells us: if you’re going to give testimony, don’t worry about when or what you will say. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need education or formation. It’s just the opposite. Jesus had already deeply formed the minds and hearts of His disciples before sending them out so that they wouldn’t have to worry tactically about what to say when they were brought to trial. Their defense would well up from within them, from their formed minds and souls, which were repositories of the Holy Spirit.
This is the work faithful Catholic education carries on, and at Newman Guide Recommended institutions, “we do it better than anyone,” Shea said. But educators must stay alert and focused on their task of evangelization.
Shea noted that the Desert Fathers in the fourth century discovered that there are different thoughts that the Enemy, the devil, uses to attack men. This understanding of men’s thoughts is the basis of the seven deadly sins. This is why conversion of mind is the essence of true and deep conversion, because the Enemy is fundamentally a liar, and the arena of spiritual warfare is the mind. While the tempter can get hold of our emotions and tries to affect our will, primarily he is a liar, a deceiver, a false accuser. The mind, then, is the arena of spiritual warfare.
Shea explained how, over time, the deceived mind can become a type of prison — strongholds, as St. Paul called them.
“Strongholds are deeply entrenched in human reasoning, corrupted by the enemy’s lies,” Shea said. “They build up over a lifetime, reinforced by repetition, deepened by emotion, and confirmed by culture. And strongholds cannot be torn down by human power. Divine power tears down strongholds.”
Both the spiritual and the intellectual formation of students, then, should teach them how to reject lies as much as receive truth. Shea frequently tells his students: “Your mind is not meant to be a prison. It is meant to be a fortress. There should be no safer place than retreating into your own thoughts, where you can remind yourself who you are and who God is.”
Leading the way forward
Educators in Newman Guide Recommended institutions, because they are on the front lines of this battle and do the best job of formation and enlightenment of the mind, are going to be under a similar attack by the Enemy all the time. This is especially true, according to Shea, in this post-Christian society and civilization. It has been noted that we are not living in an age of change but in a change of the ages.
Because of this shift, and because our culture is not Christendom anymore, Shea encouraged The Cardinal Newman Society to not only promote ways of doing Catholic education right, but also to help Catholic educators discern ways in which secular, materialistic, utilitarian, pragmatic, relativistic, and anti-human thought — today composing a type of competing religion in our post-Christian, post-truth age — may be seeping into even the most faithful Catholic institutions.
These elements are pervasive, so much a part of the air we all breathe, and they are especially so for students who may know no other way of encountering reality. Catholic educators need to look out for them and call them out when discovered. Unless Newman Guide educators do that, evaluating and measuring the problem carefully, we are losing ground.
Shea closed by praising The Cardinal Newman Society for doing great work and for not giving in to discouragement, but instead choosing a path of beauty and holiness in seeking out ways in which the Holy Spirit is working in good, wholesome, Catholic education and showing and encouraging a way forward.
“Let’s be bright and happy warriors in the midst of a difficult time which still challenges us,” said Shea, “because we know that in the end the victory has already been won — and so as long as we don’t give up, we’ll always win!”
This article is a summary of the address given at The Newman Guide College Leaders Summit by Monsignor James Patrick Shea, president of the University of Mary.
A Sign of Hope: Newman Guide Colleges March for Life
/in Blog Latest, Newman Guide Articles/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffThe faithful Catholic colleges recommended in The Newman Guide will be well-represented at the annual March for Life on Friday, January 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Students, presidents, and faculty and staff members from these institutions will peacefully march and pray for an end to abortion in our country.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Newman Guide Recommended colleges are a great source of hope for a culture in great need of pro-life, Christian witness. At these places, young people are receiving an education that integrates faith and science, teaches critical thinking, and deepens their understanding.
While many Catholic colleges are afraid to stand strong for innocent babies, and some even point students to abortion resources, Newman Guide colleges are proudly and steadfastly pro-life. You’ll find students at these colleges leading local pro-life activities throughout the year and praying outside of abortion clinics.
The Cardinal Newman Society upholds high standards for Catholic education and champions faithful Newman Guide education. Below are some impressive facts about Newman Guide Recommended colleges and the March for Life.
Christendom College has canceled classes every year since its founding in 1977, so that its entire student body can attend the March for Life.
These Newman Guide colleges cancel classes so students can attend the March for Life:
Students from these Newman Guide colleges travel more than 1,000 miles to attend the March for Life:
These Newman Guide colleges bring more than 400 students to the March for Life:
-Dr. Timothy Collins, President
Walsh University, North Canton, Ohio
These Newman Guide colleges have been chosen to lead the March for Life:
These Newman Guide colleges attend and lead the West Coast Walk for Life:
Keep an eye out for Newman Guide colleges at this year’s March for Life and Walk for Life:
Family of Pro-Life Leaders Formed at Newman Guide College
/in Blog Latest, Newman Guide Articles, Profiles in FCE/by Kelly SalomonHow can we build a pro-life culture in America? The faithful Catholic schools and colleges recommended in The Newman Guide are critical to the success of pro-life efforts.
Through Newman Guide education, students are taught about the value of all human life, from conception to natural death. They learn that faith informs science and medicine, and science and medicine must be in service of human dignity. They learn critical thinking and seek understanding.
It’s no surprise that pro-life leaders are being formed through Newman Guide education. One example is the Short family: Bill and Katie Short met at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., graduated in 1980, got married, and welcomed nine children. Today, Katie is Vice President Legal Affairs at Life Legal Defense Foundation, and her three daughters—Catherine (Thomas Aquinas Class of 2019), Sr. Gianna Marie (Thomas Aquinas Class of 2015), and Mary Rose (Thomas Aquinas Class of 2011)—are also leaders in the pro-life movement:
We spoke to each of them:
CNS: How did your education and formation prepare you for your work at Life Legal Defense Foundation?
Katie Short is Vice President Legal Affairs at Life Legal Defense Foundation.
Katie Short: It’s a no-brainer to say that four years of arguing with one’s fellow students in the seminar-style classes at TAC [Thomas Aquinas College] is a great preparation for the legal profession. But practicing law in the pro-life field brings its own set of challenges. In most jurisdictions, one has to be prepared to lose not just the losing cases, or the iffy cases, but cases where the court has to contort well-established law to rule against the pro-life side. As for getting fair rulings on evidence, the backdrop of every pro-life free speech case is that “everybody knows” that anti-abortion advocates are dangerous zealots out to terrorize abortion providers and their patients. Needless to say, this sharply tilted playing field can lead to discouragement, for which the surest remedy is the reflection that the justice of this world is not the final word.
CNS: What should Catholic schools and colleges do to help advance the pro-life cause?
Catherine Short is actively involved in volunteer efforts for the pro-life cause.
Catherine Short: No matter how faithfully Catholic a school tries to form young people, without an education directed toward clear-thinking in pursuit of truth, its students will likely fall away from their Faith when confronted with the lies and emotional confusion of the present day. Truly Catholic education teaches one to see beyond feelings and accidents, beyond decaying societal norms, and into the very essence of things… We can build a culture of life that views new life as a good despite hardships, only on a foundation of reason as well as Faith.
…I’ve been fighting abortion through education since I was 14. I’ve worked on three election campaigns, sidewalk counseled for hundreds of hours (the first baby saved when I was 15!), led dozens of classroom presentations on abortion and chastity, protested and shut down Planned Parenthood fundraisers, participated in hundreds of college educational outreaches, etc.
Actively fighting great injustice is, I believe, necessary for a life well-lived. I’m grateful for TAC’s strong emphasis on reason, which has helped me become a more clear-thinking and effective member of the Church.
CNS: Why is faithful Catholic education important to building a pro-life culture?
Sr. Gianna is currently serving at the SOLT mission in Benque Viejo, Belize, where she is the director of the Seed of Life Center, a pro-life pregnancy center.
Sr. Gianna Marie of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity: One reason Puritans left England was so they wouldn’t be around those awful worldly people who celebrate Christmas. They rejected celebrations of life and joy to focus on the hard, cold world of fallen human nature. A Catholic culture is a culture of celebration. Food is good! Family is good! Life is good! Yes, nations wage unjust wars, poverty grinds on in an ugly cycle, and the seeming escape of alcohol and drugs drags down to misery. How can we say life is good? Because that’s not all there is. Authentically Catholic schools exude joy, because they know the secret behind the evil that we see. We have a Savior! In a fully Catholic school, this truth is taught, defined, mulled over, experimented with, enjoyed, and ultimately lived. Before we can hope for a culture that protects life, we must have a culture that loves life. And to build a culture that loves life, we must first recognize that human life has been divinized by God becoming human.
CNS: How do we build a culture of life?
Mary Rose Short is the Director of Outreach for California Right to Life.
Mary Rose Short: Many people are pro-abortion simply because they have never questioned the mainstream pro-abortion narrative. If they honestly consider a few questions about their beliefs and why they hold them, they come to realize the truth. We have a duty to bear witness to the truth. Whether we reveal the brutal truth about abortion through conversations or images of its victims, we persuasively build on our shared principles about human dignity to lead people to a more genuine understanding of the value of all human beings. This is the heart of pro-life activism. This is how to build a culture of life.
Newman Guide Scholarship Contest Invites Applications
/in Blog Latest, Newman Guide Articles/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffLINK TO PRESS RELEASE
The Cardinal Newman Society’s Ninth Annual Scholarship Contest seeks to award one lucky recipient a potential $20,000 off college tuition at a Newman Guide Recommended college and is expanding the contest to include Catholic high school juniors and seniors this year.
Applications are due by February 18, 2025. All of the details about the contest can be found at this link: https://newmansoc.org/Scholarship
One winner will be randomly selected and will receive a $5,000 scholarship toward the cost of attending a Newman Guide Recommended college. While no essay is required, applicants must submit a short statement explaining his or her interest in a faithful Catholic education and formation at a Newman Guide Recommended college.
Most Newman Guide colleges have agreed to supplement CNS’s scholarship with additional $5,000 grants to the winner over three subsequent years, according to criteria established by each college.
Here are three simple steps to be eligible for the Newman Guide College Scholarship Contest:
A video interview will be conducted with the winner. The Newman Guide scholarship is made possible thanks to the generosity of Joe and Ann Guiffre, strong advocates of faithful Catholic education.
Last year’s scholarship winner, Dominic Kalpakgian, received a $5,000 scholarship towards his first year at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. The University has agreed to another $15,000 in scholarships over the next three years if he continues to meet the University’s requirements.
“The Newman Guide proved invaluable in my college discernment process,” said Kalpakgian. “With so many Catholic colleges compromising their mission, The Newman Guide served as a trusted resource to identify schools committed to forming students intellectually and spiritually in line with Church teachings. Moreover, the guide’s endorsement carried significant weight with my parents, who trusted the Newman Guide schools to uphold the values and principles they had instilled in me.”
Questions about this year’s Scholarship Contest can be directed to Programs@CardinalNewmanSociety.org.
Episode 35 (Pt. 2): Ave Maria University Introduces The Institute
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Rejoin Dan Schreck, director of The Institute at Ave Maria University, as he continues highlighting the university’s approach to integrating faith with academic and professional development. Learn how The Insitute connects students with Legatus mentors and delivers on the claim of forming leaders.
Episode 34: Ave Maria University’s Institute – Shaping Leaders with Faith and Innovation
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Join Dan Schreck, chief strategy officer, director of the Institute, and vice president of enrollment at Ave Maria University, as he discusses the vision behind the university’s innovative Institute. Discover how the Institute harmonizes faith, academics, and professional development to equip students with the tools and formation needed to lead and succeed in today’s world. Learn about Ave Maria University’s unique approach to creating well-rounded graduates who excel in their careers, embrace their faith, and contribute meaningfully to society.
Ep. 33: Catholic International University – Pioneering Accessible, Faithful, Online Education
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Rejoin Dr. Maria Sophia Aguirre, president of Catholic International University, as she delves into the transformative power of virtual Catholic education. Dr. Aguirre highlights Catholic International’s innovative early college program, affordable degree options, and mission-driven education. Discover how Catholic International combines academic rigor with the teachings of the Church to serve students worldwide.
Rosary College Recommended in The Newman Guide
/in Blog Latest, Newman Guide Articles/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffA growing Catholic community in Greenville, S.C., enjoys vibrant parishes with beautiful liturgies, faithful Catholic schools, and homeschool programs. Now there’s one more reason for Catholic families to love Greenville: Rosary College.
Rosary College opened in the fall of 2024, welcomed its first class of 20 students, and is now provisionally recommended in The Newman Guide. Once the College has graduated a first class, it will have the opportunity to receive full Newman Guide recognition. The College is dedicated to reviving the pursuit of wisdom rooted in Catholic liberal education and intellectual and moral virtues. With its Benedictine inspiration and hospitality, the College’s flexible and affordable model serves a wide variety of Catholic families.
Rosary College offers an Associate of Catholic Studies degree in Integrated Humanities, which is a two-year program composed of sixty credits. Students can take classes in-person or online. Six credits in Catholic theology and six credits in philosophy are required of all students pursuing the associate’s degree. Other courses include sacred art, Latin, Euclidean geometry, and more. Rosary College has articulation agreements with two other Newman Guide Recommended institutions, Ave Maria University and The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, where students can complete their full bachelor’s degree.
All of Rosary College’s faculty members are Catholic, and all make the Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity. The College’s two theologians have the mandatum, and this information is helpfully made available on the College’s website. The faculty members boast impressive Catholic work and include Joseph Pearce, Dr. Elizabeth L’Arrivee, Dr. Jared Staudt, and Dr. Alex Lessard.
Rosary College has strong Catholic policies governing all aspects of its operations and is poised for success. For a recent high school graduate, dual-enrolled homeschool student, or adult learner, Rosary College offers a faithful and affordable option. Catholic families in Greenville and across the country will benefit from the solid Catholic liberal arts foundation that Rosary College provides.
Ep. 32: Catholic International University – Pioneering Faithful Catholic Education Online
/in Podcast Blog/by Christopher ByrnePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Join Dr. Maria Sophia Aguirre as she discusses Catholic International University’s mission to make faithful Catholic education accessible worldwide. Learn about the university’s unique online approach to forming students in faith and intellect.
Newman Guide Ushers in New Era of Catholic Education
/in Blog, Student Formation Commentary, Newman Guide/by Kelly SalomonIn the early centuries, Catholic monasteries were the hubs of cultural transformation, and communities were built around them. Today, Dr. Marcus Peter argues that it’s the faithful Catholic schools, colleges, and graduate programs in The Newman Guide that are the new hubs transforming the culture.
Many Catholic schools and colleges in America have greatly secularized. Catholic school enrollment has declined two-thirds, and many colleges today face closure. But there is good news for faithful Newman Guide institutions, the next era in Catholic education.
At Newman Guide Recommended schools and colleges, the “sacramental life and Catholic intellectual tradition form the heart of the community,” says Dr. Peter. These places are “great forces of cultural change” and the “way forward” for the Catholic Church in America.
Dr. Peter, a Catholic biblical theologian, apologist, and preacher, was recently named host of a new international radio show, “Ave Maria in the Afternoon,” which is produced by Ave Maria Radio and syndicated through the EWTN Radio Network. His show “examines culture, Church, and current events through the lens of faith from the heart of the Church—to show how Jesus Christ is Lord over all facets of life.” Dr. Peter also serves as Director of Theology and Flagship Radio and TV Host for Ave Maria Radio.
Originally from Malaysia, Dr. Peter was an atheist who moved into Pentecostalism and then found his home in the Catholic Church in 2010. Mostly self-taught in theology, Dr. Peter wanted to find an institution where he could deepen his understanding, but he was disappointed overall with what he found.
“I desperately wanted to go somewhere where fidelity to the Magisterium was upheld,” said Dr. Peter. “In Asia, fidelity to the Magisterium is a rare thing, especially institutionally.” Even at a Catholic seminary, he was dismayed with the teaching.
But all that changed when he found Ave Maria University’s graduate program in theology, which is recommended in The Newman Guide.
Ave Maria University “made its hallmark stalwart fidelity to Christ’s teaching office,” said Dr. Peter, who completed his master’s degree in systematic theology in 2018. “It was a life-changing experience, and I’ve been grateful ever since.”
Dr. Peter’s views on education are impacted by his own time as a student and as a high school teacher. “I have seen how institutions of learning that are not devoutly Catholic, even some that claim to be Catholic, systematically work to break down the seeds and the heritage of the faith that the children bring from their homes.”
“There is no way that you could pay me to send my children to a university that will seek to attack or destroy their faith in Christ, no matter how established a name the institution has,” said Dr. Peter. “My bride and I are determined to send our children to Newman Guide universities. We want to give our children a fighting chance for their salvation.”
High Standards, National Recognition
Since 2007, The Newman Guide has recognized faithful Catholic colleges — and last year it expanded to also recognize elementary and secondary schools and graduate programs. To be recognized, an institution must provide substantial information and adopt policies for academics, student life, personnel, and more to give assurance that students will be formed in the Catholic faith and will be educated in fidelity to Catholic teaching.
The Newman Guide’s high standards are critical. It is the guide for Catholic families in a lost and hostile culture.
When Molly Metzgar and her family were planning a move to Virginia, she sought a faithful Catholic school for her children to attend. Molly’s first thought was to check with The Cardinal Newman Society.
It was on our website that she found information about Saint Rita Catholic School in Alexandria, Virginia, which is recommended in The Newman Guide.
“Your Guide has a big influence on Catholic families,” Molly told us, “probably even bigger than most school leaders recognize.” Among Molly’s Catholic friends, The Newman Guide is known as the guide to a faithful Catholic education.
Just recently, The Cardinal Newman Society helped two new colleges, The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio, and the Catholic Institute of Technology in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, earn provisional recommendation in The Newman Guide. Once these institutions have graduated their first students, they will have the opportunity to receive full Newman Guide recognition.
“The Newman Guide has been instrumental in connecting us with like-minded Catholics who share our mission to establish and grow authentically Catholic colleges and universities,” said Alexis Haughey, co-founder of the Catholic Institute of Technology.
Whether at an independent Catholic school, parochial school returning to its roots, hybrid program, new Catholic college, or innovative Catholic graduate program, leaders are invited to work with the Newman Guide staff of The Cardinal Newman Society to confirm the institution’s strong Catholic identity and connect with Catholic families across the country.
“I can’t stress enough that The Cardinal Newman Society should be on the radar screen of every parent,” said Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press, in a recent interview. He said The Newman Guide is “an invaluable tool serving the mission of the Church and serving so many families.”
From K-12 schools to graduate programs and beyond, The Newman Guide offers a path to a seamless, faithful Catholic education. If you’re looking for a bright light—the new era—in Catholic education, look no further than The Newman Guide.
Fighting the Battle for the Mind
/in Blog, Student Formation Commentary, Virtue/by Christopher ByrneThe mind is the seat of Christian belief and knowledge, and therefore it is the target of the Enemy’s lies and corruption, warned Monsignor James Shea, President of the University of Mary, in his keynote address to The Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide College Leaders Summit in June.
That is why Newman Guide education, with its faithfully Catholic understanding of the world and clarity about the deceptions that have confused most young people today, is best suited to helping students reject the lies and rebuild Christian culture.
Shea noted that, while The Cardinal Newman Society has high standards for recognition in The Newman Guide, Christ calls educators to the highest standard: to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” For all people, there is always a gap between who we are and who we are called to be. We lack perfection in our passions, senses, emotions, and will. Despite attempts to improve, our mediocrity only seems to deepen.
Citing St. John Henry Newman, Shea explained that difficulties with holiness are not found primarily in the lower faculties or even in the will.
“The defect actually is in the highest and the most noble of all of our faculties, which is in the mind,” said Shea. “Our problem is an intellectual problem. And our problem, first and foremost, is that we are confused about the meaning and the purpose of our lives; that we fundamentally miss the point.”
We ask too many questions about what Jesus would do or what our behavior should be, when the real question has to do with taking on the mind of Christ: What does Jesus think?
According to Newman, Shea said, the Cross is the triumph of what, by human standards, was an epic failure. By God’s standards, however, the Cross is the true measure of the world. Newman said if we want to understand our lives and measure them rightly, we must go to the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross puts its true value upon everything. Every other way of proceeding is defective because it is a worldly way of thinking.
The source of human mediocrity, then, is the intellect, and Catholic educators must strive to repair this defect in themselves and their students.
“Learning to be present, the way that the Lord was present, to the circumstances right in front of us; doing God’s will, come what may; and not making our success or our achievement the condition of our effort,” said Shea, “but truly doing God’s will and allowing the triumph of the Cross to be part of both our lives and our institutions, is essential to the question of education as evangelization.”
Defeating strongholds in the mind
Authentic Catholic education is evangelical, he said, because Catholic educators are “entrusted with the formation of the minds of our students. And we know that it’s not just information, and not even just knowledge, but it’s wisdom which we seek to impart, which involves a transformation of mind. …Jesus is described in the prologue to John’s Gospel as the light coming into the world which enlightened every man.”
Scripture tells us, in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” In 1 Corinthians 2:16, St. Paul says, “we have the mind of Christ.” And in Philippians 2:5, “have the same mind as Christ, who though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at.”
Conversion of the mind results in the conversion of the will and passions, Shea said, as they fall into place with the intellect. Jesus tells us: if you’re going to give testimony, don’t worry about when or what you will say. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need education or formation. It’s just the opposite. Jesus had already deeply formed the minds and hearts of His disciples before sending them out so that they wouldn’t have to worry tactically about what to say when they were brought to trial. Their defense would well up from within them, from their formed minds and souls, which were repositories of the Holy Spirit.
This is the work faithful Catholic education carries on, and at Newman Guide Recommended institutions, “we do it better than anyone,” Shea said. But educators must stay alert and focused on their task of evangelization.
Shea noted that the Desert Fathers in the fourth century discovered that there are different thoughts that the Enemy, the devil, uses to attack men. This understanding of men’s thoughts is the basis of the seven deadly sins. This is why conversion of mind is the essence of true and deep conversion, because the Enemy is fundamentally a liar, and the arena of spiritual warfare is the mind. While the tempter can get hold of our emotions and tries to affect our will, primarily he is a liar, a deceiver, a false accuser. The mind, then, is the arena of spiritual warfare.
Shea explained how, over time, the deceived mind can become a type of prison — strongholds, as St. Paul called them.
“Strongholds are deeply entrenched in human reasoning, corrupted by the enemy’s lies,” Shea said. “They build up over a lifetime, reinforced by repetition, deepened by emotion, and confirmed by culture. And strongholds cannot be torn down by human power. Divine power tears down strongholds.”
Both the spiritual and the intellectual formation of students, then, should teach them how to reject lies as much as receive truth. Shea frequently tells his students: “Your mind is not meant to be a prison. It is meant to be a fortress. There should be no safer place than retreating into your own thoughts, where you can remind yourself who you are and who God is.”
Leading the way forward
Educators in Newman Guide Recommended institutions, because they are on the front lines of this battle and do the best job of formation and enlightenment of the mind, are going to be under a similar attack by the Enemy all the time. This is especially true, according to Shea, in this post-Christian society and civilization. It has been noted that we are not living in an age of change but in a change of the ages.
Because of this shift, and because our culture is not Christendom anymore, Shea encouraged The Cardinal Newman Society to not only promote ways of doing Catholic education right, but also to help Catholic educators discern ways in which secular, materialistic, utilitarian, pragmatic, relativistic, and anti-human thought — today composing a type of competing religion in our post-Christian, post-truth age — may be seeping into even the most faithful Catholic institutions.
These elements are pervasive, so much a part of the air we all breathe, and they are especially so for students who may know no other way of encountering reality. Catholic educators need to look out for them and call them out when discovered. Unless Newman Guide educators do that, evaluating and measuring the problem carefully, we are losing ground.
Shea closed by praising The Cardinal Newman Society for doing great work and for not giving in to discouragement, but instead choosing a path of beauty and holiness in seeking out ways in which the Holy Spirit is working in good, wholesome, Catholic education and showing and encouraging a way forward.
“Let’s be bright and happy warriors in the midst of a difficult time which still challenges us,” said Shea, “because we know that in the end the victory has already been won — and so as long as we don’t give up, we’ll always win!”
This article is a summary of the address given at The Newman Guide College Leaders Summit by Monsignor James Patrick Shea, president of the University of Mary.