Address to Award Dinner at University of Mary, Bismarck, N.D.
Given October 23, 2018
One of the many reasons I appreciate this award is that it provides a welcome opportunity to consider all of God’s blessings to me and The Cardinal Newman Society over 25 years. Although it’s the Newman Society’s 25th anniversary, we haven’t had much time to celebrate. So, this is our celebration.
And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with our good friends at the University of Mary. What the University of Mary has achieved in recent years is incredible, and the Newman Society has been compelled not only to recognize this success but to promote it to Catholic families across the country. The University of Mary today is an inspiring example for the renewal of faithful Catholic education and a beacon of light in the otherwise dark landscape of Catholic higher education that has been largely secularized.
Our patron, Blessed John Henry Newman, was ultimately unable to see his splendid “idea” of an authentic Catholic university come to fruition in Dublin. But Msgr. Shea, leaders, and faculty of the University of Mary, you are truly building it right here in Bismarck!
In my 25 years with The Cardinal Newman Society, I have seen God bring about wonderful improvements in Catholic education. It’s so exciting! Several of the colleges that we recommend in our Newman Guide today weren’t in the initial guide more than a decade ago. Today the Newman Guide colleges are the gold standard for families seeking faithful Catholic education, and many Newman Guide colleges enjoyed record enrollment numbers this year, despite the fact that other private colleges around the country had a very tough year.
There is good news also in Catholic elementary and secondary education. While many parochial and diocesan schools are still closing, many of the schools that have a strong focus on mission and intentionally form saints have done very well. You’ll find many of these schools on our Catholic Education Honor Roll. Catholic homeschoolers and lay-led independent schools continue to increase. Their devotion to Christian formation and their ability to test both classical and innovative methods of teaching have been a boon to the Church. The widespread adoption of the Common Core in Catholic schools, which the Newman Society opposed, opened many eyes to the flawed practice of simply adopting secular state standards to guide Catholic education. Now the Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards are being used by 20 dioceses and other Catholic schools serving more than a quarter million students.
So in the past 25 years, God has truly blessed the renewal of Catholic education. And for The Cardinal Newman Society specifically, I am so grateful for all the marvelous ways God has brought such good out of our humble work.
I am sure that Monsignor Shea can attest to the many times a new idea or program begins with a stumble, and then God does such incredible things with it. It’s happened to the Newman Society so many times. And that, to me, is what this Lumen Vitae Award most importantly honors: the Grace of God, and what He has wrought through our service to Him.
That service depends heavily on some quite amazing people who advise me on our board of directors and those on my staff who do the work I’m not qualified to do. Two of them—Tom Mead and Cindy Laird—have been with me for well over a decade and during the Newman Society’s most productive years. Two of my other staff heroes are here tonight: our Vice President Bob Laird and his wife Gerri Laird, both of whom have done enormous work for the Newman Society in a variety of roles—and they have done so much for the Church in other ways as well. There are others back in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and elsewhere, who helped carry the Newman Society through these 25 years and also have been great inspirations to me because of their personal example.
Our donors, too, have been such a blessing, and not only for the obvious reason that their generosity is incredibly important to the Newman Society’s success. Even more, I’ve met many of them from all walks of life, and universally they have impressed me by their extraordinary goodness and devotion to the Church. They have been role models for my own personal and spiritual growth. That couldn’t be more true than it is of Deacon George and Marilyn Loegering, whose presence here tonight is yet one more demonstration of their kindness and friendship for so many years. Thank you!
It is also certainly true of the many educators with whom we work closely, including Monsignor Shea and several others among you here at the University of Mary. These are some of the most impressive people I know. I thank God for raising up such devoted and faithful educators.
Last but most, there are some people here who made a long trip because they love me and care for me so much, and I have depended on them for strength every day. My mother Mary Kay is here, and I know that my dad is here also in spirit. They gave so much of themselves for my own formation, and they were and always will be my models of Catholic education.
And my wife Rosario, teacher to my children and the light in my crazy life: her extraordinary insight about Catholic education and her example in founding and persevering with the Aquinas Learning hybrid program shapes my work with the Newman Society in every way. God has also wrought great things from her work. She has been with me and the Newman Society since its earliest days.
And my kids—Ana, Daniel, Nicholas, Joseph, and one more, Ian, who couldn’t be here—I am so proud of them and what they have taught me and their mom, even as we have tried to teach them.
So, you can see that God has surrounded me with magnificent people, which makes it difficult to fail. When Monsignor Shea offered me the Lumen Vitae award for my work with The Cardinal Newman Society, I was overwhelmed as always by the generosity and encouragement that he and the University of Mary have shown for our work to renew faithful Catholic education. But I asked his permission if I might at least verbally share this award with all those by whom God has brought about The Cardinal Newman Society’s 25 years of success.
And so I do want all those I mentioned to share in it, because you are such an important part of this work.
I don’t want to speak too long, but given these times we live in, I want to just add some brief observations concerning scandal and Catholic education’s response to it.
Jesus said that His own generation was an “evil generation.” But we too have come through such an awful year for the Church. I have found myself at times having difficulty working, because the bad news was flooding in so fast, and the betrayal by many of our priests and bishops is so depressing.
The Youth Synod this month was also disappointing. It exposed an astonishing lack of confidence among some Church leaders in the ability of the Church to teach the Faith to our young people. This lack of confidence in the teaching mission of the Church among perhaps most Catholic adults today is, in itself, a scandal to the young.
Scandal, of course, is nothing new to The Cardinal Newman Society. I founded the organization based on my own experience at a large Jesuit university. As editor of the student newspaper, I wrote about the scandals, eventually getting the attention of the local Cardinal. When a university official locked me out of the student newspaper office, I sent letters to top alumni donors, forcing the university to end its support of two radical student organizations.
A few years later, in Washington, D.C., I met several other young Catholics who felt the same anger and betrayal that I experienced, because of similar scandals at their Catholic colleges. But we didn’t lack confidence or hope in the Church, and we weren’t content to leave other young people in harm’s way. Instead, we worked together to establish The Cardinal Newman Society.
My point is that scandal deserves a bold and confident response. I was raised in the Saint John Paul II generation, and I take to heart his reminder of Jesus’ words, “Be not afraid!” Today’s scandals in the Church may be different in kind from what we experienced at wayward Catholic colleges. But still, I believe the response must be the same: a strong show of confidence in the Church that Christ established, and a renewed effort to propose and defend her teachings. A faithful Catholic university like the University of Mary can play a significant role in that.
Indeed, I would say that faithful Catholic education is the key solution to the challenges facing the Church. We need new generations of wise and virtuous Catholics who know and love Jesus in the Faith and traditions of His Church. We need them to renew the priesthood, renew the Church, and renew the culture.
But to get there, we adults can’t lack confidence in the truth of Christ’s teaching.
We can’t lack confidence in the role of parents as primary educators of their children.
We can’t lack confidence in Christ’s promise that the Church will prevail.
And we can’t lack confidence that God will reward those who stand firmly in the Faith.
On the other hand, we can’t doubt Christ’s words, that he who scandalizes young people would be better off “if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Believe it! And if we believe it, then we will stand as adults should and protect our young people from the harm that seems to await them on all sides.
Faithful Catholic education is the strength and the shield that we need to provide them. Forming them in both truth and love – in the skills of reasoning and the knowledge of Christ – is what young people need today to resist temptation to hopelessness and relativism.
If young Catholics cannot think reasonably, they will be unable to withstand the lies that our secular culture feeds them. Catholic education must return to its emphasis on forming the minds of young people, not just filling their heads with information.
But even more, Catholic education must lead young people to Christ. We must understand formation in the Catholic school or college as guiding young people into sainthood.
I am reminded of the 12th-century dispute between St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard, just as the first modern universities were on the rise. St. Bernard championed a “theology of the heart” that sought understanding of God not by reason but by prayer and adoration. Peter Abelard was an early scholastic who sought understanding of God by using reason to study the truths of the Faith. It was Abelard’s approach and the wisdom of scholastics like Thomas Aquinas that gave prominence to the great Catholic universities.
But can we claim that reason remains truly central to education today at many universities? Are young people prepared to recognize and understand truth? A Catholic school or college that truly forms young people in reason is a gift that our Church and culture sorely need today.
Still, Pope Benedict XVI warned American Catholic educators in 2008 that the “contemporary crisis of truth” which so deeply affects our young people is, at its heart, a “crisis of faith.”[1] In the 12th century, St. Bernard warned that there is “grave danger” in becoming too focused on reason in matters of faith. The result, he said, would be “intellectualism, the relativizing of truth, and the questioning of the truths of faith themselves.”[2]
Isn’t that an apt description of much of what ails Catholic education today? The irony is that while we do suffer these consequences, it can’t be because there is too much emphasis on rationality in our Catholic schools and colleges; if anything, reason is lacking. Instead, we find ourselves in an odd time when universities still lay claim to being the intellectual centers of our culture—and indeed there may still be valuable and reasoned dialogue among bright lights on college faculties—but young people are not being formed to carry on the conversation. At the same time, under the guise of rationality, God Himself is excluded.
Saint John Paul II said that “a Catholic university’s privileged task is ‘to unite existentially by intellectual effort two orders of reality that too frequently tend to be placed in opposition as though they were antithetical: the search for truth, and the certainty of already knowing the fount of truth’.”[3] Rediscovering the fount or source of truth in God, as well as recommitting to the scholastic ideal of rational exploration of our Faith with skilled reasoning and complete fidelity to the Church, are essential to the renewal of Catholic education.
Seeing this renewal play out at exceptional institutions like the University of Mary is, for me, the greatest gift after 25 years of promoting and defending faithful Catholic education. I see in the University’s leaders true love and devotion for God, and understanding that He is the source of wisdom and all reality. From that foundation, a great Catholic university is built.
I was thrilled to see on the University of Mary website a quote from Blessed John Henry Newman that I have cited many times, and it is as fitting now as ever to conclude with this thought:
“This is our hour, whatever be its duration: the hour for great hopes, great schemes, great efforts, great beginnings. We may live indeed to see but little built, but we shall see much founded. A new era seems to be at hand, and a bolder policy is showing itself… to recommence the Age of Universities.”[4]
[1] Pope Benedict XVI, “Address to Catholic Educators at The Catholic University of America” (Washington, D.C., April 17, 2008); retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080417_cath-univ-washington.html
[2] Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience (Vatican, Nov. 4, 2009); retrieved from https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091104.html
[3] Pope Saint John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae (Vatican, 1990), 1; retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html
[4] Newman, Historical Sketches: Volume III, 251.
After Synod, Faithful Schools Ready to Lead
/in Student Formation Commentary/by Dr. Denise Donohue Ed.D.Over at Catholic World Report, check out this article on the great value of faithful Catholic schools as an example of true “accompaniment”—a key theme during October’s Synod on Young People.
The Newman Society’s own Dr. Denise Donohue, associate director of K-12 education programs and manager of the Catholic Education Honor Roll, writes:
Dr. Donohue highlights Honor Roll schools including Academy of Our Lady in Marrero, La.; Bishop Machebeuf High School in Denver, Colo.; Detroit Central Catholic High School in Michigan; Frassati Catholic High School in Spring, Tex.; Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Md.; and Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Read more here at Catholic World Report.
On Receipt of the Lumen Vitae Medal
/in Blog Latest/by Patrick ReillyAddress to Award Dinner at University of Mary, Bismarck, N.D.
Given October 23, 2018
One of the many reasons I appreciate this award is that it provides a welcome opportunity to consider all of God’s blessings to me and The Cardinal Newman Society over 25 years. Although it’s the Newman Society’s 25th anniversary, we haven’t had much time to celebrate. So, this is our celebration.
And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with our good friends at the University of Mary. What the University of Mary has achieved in recent years is incredible, and the Newman Society has been compelled not only to recognize this success but to promote it to Catholic families across the country. The University of Mary today is an inspiring example for the renewal of faithful Catholic education and a beacon of light in the otherwise dark landscape of Catholic higher education that has been largely secularized.
Our patron, Blessed John Henry Newman, was ultimately unable to see his splendid “idea” of an authentic Catholic university come to fruition in Dublin. But Msgr. Shea, leaders, and faculty of the University of Mary, you are truly building it right here in Bismarck!
In my 25 years with The Cardinal Newman Society, I have seen God bring about wonderful improvements in Catholic education. It’s so exciting! Several of the colleges that we recommend in our Newman Guide today weren’t in the initial guide more than a decade ago. Today the Newman Guide colleges are the gold standard for families seeking faithful Catholic education, and many Newman Guide colleges enjoyed record enrollment numbers this year, despite the fact that other private colleges around the country had a very tough year.
There is good news also in Catholic elementary and secondary education. While many parochial and diocesan schools are still closing, many of the schools that have a strong focus on mission and intentionally form saints have done very well. You’ll find many of these schools on our Catholic Education Honor Roll. Catholic homeschoolers and lay-led independent schools continue to increase. Their devotion to Christian formation and their ability to test both classical and innovative methods of teaching have been a boon to the Church. The widespread adoption of the Common Core in Catholic schools, which the Newman Society opposed, opened many eyes to the flawed practice of simply adopting secular state standards to guide Catholic education. Now the Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards are being used by 20 dioceses and other Catholic schools serving more than a quarter million students.
So in the past 25 years, God has truly blessed the renewal of Catholic education. And for The Cardinal Newman Society specifically, I am so grateful for all the marvelous ways God has brought such good out of our humble work.
I am sure that Monsignor Shea can attest to the many times a new idea or program begins with a stumble, and then God does such incredible things with it. It’s happened to the Newman Society so many times. And that, to me, is what this Lumen Vitae Award most importantly honors: the Grace of God, and what He has wrought through our service to Him.
That service depends heavily on some quite amazing people who advise me on our board of directors and those on my staff who do the work I’m not qualified to do. Two of them—Tom Mead and Cindy Laird—have been with me for well over a decade and during the Newman Society’s most productive years. Two of my other staff heroes are here tonight: our Vice President Bob Laird and his wife Gerri Laird, both of whom have done enormous work for the Newman Society in a variety of roles—and they have done so much for the Church in other ways as well. There are others back in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and elsewhere, who helped carry the Newman Society through these 25 years and also have been great inspirations to me because of their personal example.
Our donors, too, have been such a blessing, and not only for the obvious reason that their generosity is incredibly important to the Newman Society’s success. Even more, I’ve met many of them from all walks of life, and universally they have impressed me by their extraordinary goodness and devotion to the Church. They have been role models for my own personal and spiritual growth. That couldn’t be more true than it is of Deacon George and Marilyn Loegering, whose presence here tonight is yet one more demonstration of their kindness and friendship for so many years. Thank you!
It is also certainly true of the many educators with whom we work closely, including Monsignor Shea and several others among you here at the University of Mary. These are some of the most impressive people I know. I thank God for raising up such devoted and faithful educators.
Last but most, there are some people here who made a long trip because they love me and care for me so much, and I have depended on them for strength every day. My mother Mary Kay is here, and I know that my dad is here also in spirit. They gave so much of themselves for my own formation, and they were and always will be my models of Catholic education.
And my wife Rosario, teacher to my children and the light in my crazy life: her extraordinary insight about Catholic education and her example in founding and persevering with the Aquinas Learning hybrid program shapes my work with the Newman Society in every way. God has also wrought great things from her work. She has been with me and the Newman Society since its earliest days.
And my kids—Ana, Daniel, Nicholas, Joseph, and one more, Ian, who couldn’t be here—I am so proud of them and what they have taught me and their mom, even as we have tried to teach them.
So, you can see that God has surrounded me with magnificent people, which makes it difficult to fail. When Monsignor Shea offered me the Lumen Vitae award for my work with The Cardinal Newman Society, I was overwhelmed as always by the generosity and encouragement that he and the University of Mary have shown for our work to renew faithful Catholic education. But I asked his permission if I might at least verbally share this award with all those by whom God has brought about The Cardinal Newman Society’s 25 years of success.
And so I do want all those I mentioned to share in it, because you are such an important part of this work.
I don’t want to speak too long, but given these times we live in, I want to just add some brief observations concerning scandal and Catholic education’s response to it.
Jesus said that His own generation was an “evil generation.” But we too have come through such an awful year for the Church. I have found myself at times having difficulty working, because the bad news was flooding in so fast, and the betrayal by many of our priests and bishops is so depressing.
The Youth Synod this month was also disappointing. It exposed an astonishing lack of confidence among some Church leaders in the ability of the Church to teach the Faith to our young people. This lack of confidence in the teaching mission of the Church among perhaps most Catholic adults today is, in itself, a scandal to the young.
Scandal, of course, is nothing new to The Cardinal Newman Society. I founded the organization based on my own experience at a large Jesuit university. As editor of the student newspaper, I wrote about the scandals, eventually getting the attention of the local Cardinal. When a university official locked me out of the student newspaper office, I sent letters to top alumni donors, forcing the university to end its support of two radical student organizations.
A few years later, in Washington, D.C., I met several other young Catholics who felt the same anger and betrayal that I experienced, because of similar scandals at their Catholic colleges. But we didn’t lack confidence or hope in the Church, and we weren’t content to leave other young people in harm’s way. Instead, we worked together to establish The Cardinal Newman Society.
My point is that scandal deserves a bold and confident response. I was raised in the Saint John Paul II generation, and I take to heart his reminder of Jesus’ words, “Be not afraid!” Today’s scandals in the Church may be different in kind from what we experienced at wayward Catholic colleges. But still, I believe the response must be the same: a strong show of confidence in the Church that Christ established, and a renewed effort to propose and defend her teachings. A faithful Catholic university like the University of Mary can play a significant role in that.
Indeed, I would say that faithful Catholic education is the key solution to the challenges facing the Church. We need new generations of wise and virtuous Catholics who know and love Jesus in the Faith and traditions of His Church. We need them to renew the priesthood, renew the Church, and renew the culture.
But to get there, we adults can’t lack confidence in the truth of Christ’s teaching.
We can’t lack confidence in the role of parents as primary educators of their children.
We can’t lack confidence in Christ’s promise that the Church will prevail.
And we can’t lack confidence that God will reward those who stand firmly in the Faith.
On the other hand, we can’t doubt Christ’s words, that he who scandalizes young people would be better off “if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Believe it! And if we believe it, then we will stand as adults should and protect our young people from the harm that seems to await them on all sides.
Faithful Catholic education is the strength and the shield that we need to provide them. Forming them in both truth and love – in the skills of reasoning and the knowledge of Christ – is what young people need today to resist temptation to hopelessness and relativism.
If young Catholics cannot think reasonably, they will be unable to withstand the lies that our secular culture feeds them. Catholic education must return to its emphasis on forming the minds of young people, not just filling their heads with information.
But even more, Catholic education must lead young people to Christ. We must understand formation in the Catholic school or college as guiding young people into sainthood.
I am reminded of the 12th-century dispute between St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard, just as the first modern universities were on the rise. St. Bernard championed a “theology of the heart” that sought understanding of God not by reason but by prayer and adoration. Peter Abelard was an early scholastic who sought understanding of God by using reason to study the truths of the Faith. It was Abelard’s approach and the wisdom of scholastics like Thomas Aquinas that gave prominence to the great Catholic universities.
But can we claim that reason remains truly central to education today at many universities? Are young people prepared to recognize and understand truth? A Catholic school or college that truly forms young people in reason is a gift that our Church and culture sorely need today.
Still, Pope Benedict XVI warned American Catholic educators in 2008 that the “contemporary crisis of truth” which so deeply affects our young people is, at its heart, a “crisis of faith.”[1] In the 12th century, St. Bernard warned that there is “grave danger” in becoming too focused on reason in matters of faith. The result, he said, would be “intellectualism, the relativizing of truth, and the questioning of the truths of faith themselves.”[2]
Isn’t that an apt description of much of what ails Catholic education today? The irony is that while we do suffer these consequences, it can’t be because there is too much emphasis on rationality in our Catholic schools and colleges; if anything, reason is lacking. Instead, we find ourselves in an odd time when universities still lay claim to being the intellectual centers of our culture—and indeed there may still be valuable and reasoned dialogue among bright lights on college faculties—but young people are not being formed to carry on the conversation. At the same time, under the guise of rationality, God Himself is excluded.
Saint John Paul II said that “a Catholic university’s privileged task is ‘to unite existentially by intellectual effort two orders of reality that too frequently tend to be placed in opposition as though they were antithetical: the search for truth, and the certainty of already knowing the fount of truth’.”[3] Rediscovering the fount or source of truth in God, as well as recommitting to the scholastic ideal of rational exploration of our Faith with skilled reasoning and complete fidelity to the Church, are essential to the renewal of Catholic education.
Seeing this renewal play out at exceptional institutions like the University of Mary is, for me, the greatest gift after 25 years of promoting and defending faithful Catholic education. I see in the University’s leaders true love and devotion for God, and understanding that He is the source of wisdom and all reality. From that foundation, a great Catholic university is built.
I was thrilled to see on the University of Mary website a quote from Blessed John Henry Newman that I have cited many times, and it is as fitting now as ever to conclude with this thought:
“This is our hour, whatever be its duration: the hour for great hopes, great schemes, great efforts, great beginnings. We may live indeed to see but little built, but we shall see much founded. A new era seems to be at hand, and a bolder policy is showing itself… to recommence the Age of Universities.”[4]
[1] Pope Benedict XVI, “Address to Catholic Educators at The Catholic University of America” (Washington, D.C., April 17, 2008); retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080417_cath-univ-washington.html
[2] Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience (Vatican, Nov. 4, 2009); retrieved from https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091104.html
[3] Pope Saint John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae (Vatican, 1990), 1; retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html
[4] Newman, Historical Sketches: Volume III, 251.
Arlington Bishop to Homeschooling Families: “Thank You”
/in Blog Latest, PR Register Column/by Patrick ReillyAn American bishop stood strong last week in support of Catholic homeschoolers, just days after some bishops at the Youth Synod in Rome reported comments that were offensive to homeschool parents.
On Friday, Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington celebrated his second annual Mass for homeschooling families. The Diocese reported “hundreds” in attendance.
“Dear parents thank you so much for taking seriously that responsibility of being the first teachers of the faith,” Bishop Burbidge said during his homily at Holy Trinity Church in Gainesville, Virginia, according to the Arlington Catholic Herald.
His words were especially welcome, after an unnamed group of English-speaking bishops at the Youth Synod questioned in their interim report on Oct. 9 whether parents are “qualified” to teach their children. The bishops claimed an “ideological basis” to homeschooling and noted that the U.S. bishops are “not united” in support of the practice.
Bishop Burbidge, however, clearly sees how important homeschooling has been to Catholic families in his diocese. More from Saturday’s article in the Herald:
“You may not always see the visible and immediate results that you want as homeschool teachers, but you can be assured that the seeds you are planting God will use miraculously. Thank you for the gift you are to the diocese and to our church,” Bishop Burbidge said.
Throughout the day, organizers of the event and parents expressed their gratitude for his presence.
“It really shows the commitment of the bishop to Catholic education. Whether it is in the schools or in recognizing the importance of the homeschooling community, in both ways he supports parents as the primary educators of their children,” said Diocesan Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Bigelow.
Mary Beth Balint, a homeschooling parent of six children, was thrilled about the Mass, too.
“I was so excited that Bishop Burbidge wanted to offer a Mass for homeschoolers,” said Balint, a key organizer for this year’s event as well as last year’s. “It is just great to have the support and prayers from him. I was eager to jump in and help organize the outdoor activities for the kids after the Mass.”
The support shown by Bishop Burbidge and other bishops holding similar events is a great encouragement to Catholic homeschoolers, who can feel disconnected and even disliked by priests and fellow parishioners. Bishop Burbidge also celebrated an annual homeschool Mass while bishop of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Hopefully such expressions of support are just the beginning of a healthier perspective on Catholic education. While the renewal of faithful parochial and diocesan schools should be among the highest priorities for the Church, so should the growth of Catholic homeschooling and lay-run independent schools that teach the Catholic faith. A corporate mindset that sees these alternatives as competition with the diocesan “brand” is not looking out for the needs of all Catholic families.
When every bishop and diocesan education office actively supports all forms of faithful Catholic education and withdraws support and recognition from institutions that fail to form young people in virtue and faith, we can expect a renewal of Catholic education, the family and the Church.
“Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area: they are educators because they are parents,” affirmed Saint John Paul II in his Letter to Families. God has blessed homeschooling in many ways, and I pray that it continues to gain the support of the Church’s shepherds.
This article was first posted at The National Catholic Register.
College Student to Synod Organizers: Don’t Listen to Me!
/in Student Formation Commentary, Youth Synod/by Kelly SalomonEven as the bishops attending this month’s Youth Synod in Rome strive mightily to demonstrate that they hear the wishes and concerns of young people, I was surprised when a Catholic college student told me that he doesn’t much care if the Church listens to him.
Isaac Cross first heard about the Youth Synod when he was asked to participate in the preparatory survey. One of the opening questions has stuck with him: “As a young person, do you feel that the Church listens to you?”
Isaac didn’t like the question.
“What really matters is if I listen to the Church and learn from its wisdom,” he told me. “The Church is built upon thousands of years of tradition and doctrine, and I have especially found at college how striving to understand that doctrine of the Church is a vital means of strengthening [one’s] faith.”
Isaac is a student at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, which is recommended in The Newman Guide for its strong Catholic identity. So he’s serious about the Faith and his need for authentic Catholic education.
“Saint John Paul II always called upon the youth to lead the charge of evangelization, but many bishops and priests misinterpreted that idea and started to look toward the youth for guidance in forming the traditions and liturgy of the Church,” Isaac said. “Young Catholics have vitality, which is what St. John Paul saw as so important for spreading the faith, but being young myself, I can tell you we do not have wisdom.”
Providing youth with an education and formation in the truths of the Church is so important, especially given the scandals facing the Church today.
“Without understanding the true foundations of the faith and recognizing the divine source of Catholicism, many young men and women will not be able to distinguish between the corrupt men in the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Church itself,” he said.
Thousands of young people who attend faithfully Catholic colleges across the country are being formed in the truths of the Faith. In my experience, many of them share Isaac’s humility and fidelity. They know that they don’t have all the answers, and they look to the Church to teach them.
It may be helpful to the Synod fathers to know what young people are thinking. But it’s far more important that young people know what the Church is teaching. We all need some of whatever Isaac is getting at his faithful Catholic college.
This article was first published at the National Catholic Register.
Synod Report Displays Ignorance About Homeschooling
/in Blog, Mission and Governance Commentary, Commentary, Independent, Home, Hybrid School, Youth Synod Latest, PR Register Column/by Patrick ReillyAt the Youth Synod in Rome this week, one of the bishops’ discussion groups made some disappointing and ignorant comments about Catholic homeschoolers.
It’s a sad reminder that, while homeschooling seems to be gaining support from many bishops in the United States, other bishops here and abroad have yet to embrace one of the most promising developments in the Church today. Earnest and faithful homeschooling parents deserve encouragement and not derision from their shepherds.
The report from the English-language Group C bishops—whose names have not been published—reads:
It is certainly true that the American bishops are not united in supporting homeschooling, and that is a shame. But what’s the “ideological basis” for homeschooling? Do the bishops perceive some absolute opposition to organized education? It’s not true; many homeschooled students have, at one time or another, attended schools or participated in collaborative programs.
More likely, Group C’s “ideological” comment means something else. It’s what faithful Catholic homeschoolers endure frequently from fellow Catholics, priests and even bishops—the charge that they are too “conservative” and too “moralistic.”
In my experience, those are code words for simply being faithful—for practicing the “old” ways of prayer, sacrament and moral discipline.
As a father of five homeschooled children, teacher at a weekly hybrid Catholic program for homeschoolers that is directed by my wife, and full-time advocate of faithful Catholic education, I have come to know hundreds of Catholic homeschooling families. They are trying to be faithfully Catholic in all that they do. And a key reason for not attending local Catholic schools, aside from the cost, is that too many of the schools lack strong moral and religious formation.
That’s not ideological. It’s responsible Catholic parenting.
In my homeschool community—and in the growing number of parochial, diocesan and lay-run, independent Catholic schools that have embraced the Church’s vision for Catholic education—I see primarily parents who are deeply concerned for the Christian formation of their children. They make great sacrifices to provide the education that their children deserve. And they do so, despite the often demoralizing sneers and snickers of too many in the Church.
As for the Synod bishops’ question whether parents are “qualified to homeschool” their children, it’s not clear whether the question refers to all children or only those with “special needs.” Regardless, the question shows disrespect toward parents. Every parent who is faithfully Catholic and truly loves their child is “qualified” to homeschool by the grace of God. If they lack certain skills or expertise, a loving parent will get the help their child needs, without yielding parental authority and oversight.
Trusting parents to form and care for their children is Catholic teaching! It is inherent to matrimony, reinforced during child baptism, and follows from the Fourth Commandment. And it can be made easier if parishes and dioceses actively support—not control or direct, but support—parents who choose to homeschool.
God has clearly blessed Catholic homeschooling with extraordinary results for children, families and the Church. The academic, financial, and social benefits of homeschooling have been well-documented in many studies. Moreover, homeschooled families are often represented at daily Mass, regular Sunday Mass, Confession, Eucharistic adoration and many parish activities. One recent study found that homeschooled students account for about 10 percent of priestly vocations today.
This isn’t a well-kept secret! But some of the Synod bishops have some learning to do.
Meanwhile, if America’s bishops and other Catholics are truly divided over homeschooling, then they ought to get over their discomfort. The Church should embrace faithful Catholic education in whatever form successfully leads young people to Christ and helps them become fully human—whether at home, online or in a brick-and-mortar school.
Support for homeschooling and for lay-run schools may be new to dioceses that have historically relied on schools owned and directed by priests and bishops. But we can’t confuse method for mission, which is amply served by the growing alternatives in Catholic education. All we need is to trust parents to do the job that God has already entrusted to them.
This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.
7 Key Things Lacking in Youth Synod
/in Student Formation Commentary, Youth Synod/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffYesterday the Vatican convened its first session of the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment. But judging from the working document that will guide the month-long meeting, seven key things essential for its success are lacking.
Instead of guiding young people along the narrow but rewarding path of Christianity, the Synod working document seems to favor “accompanying” young Catholics on the wide, treacherous pathways of secular culture.
Below are seven essentials that appear to be lacking at the outset of the Synod. Faithful Catholics will be praying that the bishops can steer the Synod back to the Church’s familiar and sure pathways that lead young people to Christ.
1. Credibility
Under the circumstances, there is something simply offensive about Catholic bishops gathering to discuss how they can appeal to young people to stay in the Church. Meanwhile, the crisis of clergy sex abuse and poor judgment and corruption among certain bishops remains unresolved.
Restoring credibility among Catholic families and young people will require years of effort. But transparency from the Vatican regarding Archbishop Viganò’s claims would be a good start, instead of the Synod’s apparent approach of befriending young people by softening moral judgment.
2. Truth
Astonishingly, the Synod’s working document places little emphasis on teaching young people the Truth of Christ—the liturgy, traditions, and doctrines that are the great treasures of the Church. Instead, it focuses on guiding them by personal example and nonjudgmental companionship.
Pope Benedict rightly lamented the “educational crisis” among young people who despair because they do not know Christ and His teachings. We cannot soft-pedal the Truth of the Gospel and leave young people drowning in the relativism of “liquid modernity.”
First and foremost, youth need Truth!
3. Confidence
The Synod organizers seem to lack confidence in young people today, doubting that they would respond positively to appeals to reason. Instead of teaching Truth and moral precepts, the Synod document promotes the subjective experience of a mentor to attract youth.
We need to be bold in calling on young people to study the Faith and make it their own. Many will respond to this call. To be advocates of beauty, seekers of truth, and architects of freedom is a task and adventure worthy of their youthful restlessness and idealism. They are looking for answers.
The simple fact is, our Catholic Faith is not subjective. We can’t abandon young people to the influence and temptation of relativism. Without binding truth claims, our teaching is not Catholic.
4. Courage
The Synod document encourages frank discussions with young people about sexuality, but it lacks a sense of alarm about the moral crisis among our youth and avoids confrontation with the popular culture. The Synod organizers seem comfortable with accommodating the culture’s erroneous assumptions about sexuality and has adopted the culture’s language of identity, instead of reminding young people that we all have one orientation as children of God, to and through Him Who is the Way and the Truth and the Life.
The lives of many young Catholics have become fragmented, incoherent, and indifferent to truth and meaning. The Church needs to stand strong against today’s culture of dissent and radical autonomy, which corrupts the souls of our youth. That includes rooting out scandal in Catholic universities and removing the “Catholic” label from the worst offenders!
5. Formation
The Synod document uses the term “formation,” but it rarely speaks of morality, God’s commandments, and the development of virtues and moral discipline in young people. It warns against appearing “authoritative” or “hyperprotective” but not against permissiveness, which is the real problem today in many of the Church’s schools, colleges, and youth programs.
Young people today need formation—which is harder but much more rewarding than simple companionship—to develop into saints and even martyrs. We encourage the bishops to observe the students at America’s most faithful Catholic colleges (which are recommended in our Newman Guide) or talk to the growing numbers of Catholic families who have deliberately chosen schools and homeschool programs that offer serious formation in mind, body, and spirit.
6. Family
The Synod working document acknowledges the importance of families in faith formation, but parents and families have had a minor role in the Synod’s deliberations, despite the fact that they are the key to reaching young people. Good parents have unique insight as to what young people need to stay strong in the Faith.
Despite the alarming fact that the Church is losing young people, there are places where the Faith is being handed down successfully, and where young people are on fire for Christ and the Church’s timeless mission of saving souls. These families aren’t hiding! They are readily found in parishes with traditional devotions, in families who pray the Rosary together, in homeschools and lay-run Catholic classical schools, and in families who sacrifice everything to send their children to Newman Guide colleges. The Synod could learn much from the very people who are doing it well today.
7. Catholic Education
All this points to a key solution for the bishops: the renewal of an authentic Catholic education, genuinely forming youth and upholding the Faith of good Catholic families. Catholic education is critical to the Church’s evangelization of young people and deserves to be the primary emphasis of the Youth Synod.
Instead, Catholic education gets weak attention in the Synod working document, which overly focuses on it as a means for addressing the world’s problems from a humanistic standpoint. The document places too little emphasis on Catholic education’s role in evangelizing young people and leading them to Heaven.
The working document’s brief section on catechesis is helpful, but this too falls short of embracing the full promise of Catholic education: the formation of the human person, the development of a Christian worldview, an experience of Christian community, and a daily encounter with Christ in prayer and Sacrament.
The Synod fathers would be wise to renew the Church’s commitment to authentic, faithful Catholic education. For decades, weak Catholic schools, colleges, and youth programs have failed to deeply form young people in knowledge of the Faith, tradition, moral discipline, virtue, and wisdom. Such formation should be a top priority for the Synod.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that the Church has every tool it needs to reach young people, and it has two thousand years of experience leading people, young and old, to Christ in very different cultures and historical realities. Catholicism works. We don’t need “new” and softer approaches; to the contrary, we need greater commitment to educating and forming young people well. We hope and pray that the Synod fathers will take heed and avoid the easy temptation to simply flow with the times.
Editorial: Youth Synod Goes Forward, Seemingly Headed on a Wide and Dangerous Path
/in Student Formation Commentary, Youth Synod/by Cardinal Newman Society StaffIt’s underway. Despite Archbishop Chaput’s call for a delay or cancellation—which the Newman Society supported—the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment is proceeding in Rome.
We have grave concerns that too many Synod organizers and gadflies with the ears of powerful officials are using it to advance their agenda to dilute Church teachings and, instead of calling young people to join the Church on the narrow path to Christ, are plotting to have the Church move to meet them on the secular world’s easy, wide path.
How so? By seemingly discarding centuries of wisdom about formation and how to evangelize young people under the guise of offering a listening ear, “meeting them where they are,” and attention to “practical realities,” which would appear to be code for giving in to worldly concerns.
But isn’t that precisely what has brought about today’s crisis in the Church?
Accompanying young people down the secular world’s wide path is not the way to God. Permissiveness and dependence on human relationships is tempting, but it is treacherous and full of deceivers, thieves, and (yes) predators who strive to ruin souls. Young people don’t need the Church to walk with them on this dangerous path, they need to the Church to show them the way to Christ!
Christ’s way is the narrow path. It is Truth, and it is hard, except for God’s grace and mercy. A formation that gives young people the tools, knowledge, and moral discipline to help carry the Cross is the true path of holiness.
Synod organizers don’t seem to believe this is possible today. But they only need look at thriving parishes with traditional devotions, the growing Catholic homeschool movement, the examples of faithful Catholic schools like those recognized by the Society’s Catholic Education Honor Roll, and, of course, the counter-cultural Newman Guide colleges that take their Catholic identity seriously.
These places prove that the traditional way of forming young people works! This is precisely why The Newman Society proposes faithful Catholic education as the best response to the “contemporary ‘crisis of truth’ [that] is rooted in a ‘crisis of faith,’” as Pope Benedict explained to American Catholic educators 10 years ago.
It is a shame that the organizers of the Synod ignore this success.
Bad Timing, Bad Direction
And it’s hard to imagine a worse time for the world’s bishops to gather for a Synod on Young People.
Too many Church leaders have demonstrated an appalling lack of concern for the safety of children and young adults from predator priests and bishops. How do the Synod fathers assure parents, educators, youth ministers, and others that they speak with authority—the authority of Christ—if key Synod participants and even Pope Francis himself will not respond forthrightly and decisively to the scandals and accusations that have rocked the Faithful?
Moreover, as The Cardinal Newman Society and others like the intrepid Robert Royal have warned for months, the Synod organizers seem disinterested in taking the necessary steps to bring the authentic Truth of our Faith to young people.
Our reports on the Youth Synod’s preparatory documents have exposed serious flaws in the Synod organizers’ favored approaches of attending to youthful desires and permissive “accompaniment.”
But even a cursory glance at the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for the Synod exposes a social-progressive mindset that clouds the importance of Christian formation. The document seems more about “taking care of young people” than teaching them Truth.
The “realities” for young people that are considered by the Synod’s working document include globalization and diversity, social and economic inequalities, war and violence, injustice and exploitation, jobs and unemployment, intergenerational relationships, digital media, sports and entertainment, immigration, and so on.
To the extent that sexuality is discussed, there is no sense of crisis. Instead, the document seeks more “practical” conversation about fundamental teachings on sexuality.
Education gets far too little attention. When it is discussed, it is primarily in the secular context of academics and career, not with the mission of evangelization.
Narrow Path Forward
We hope that some of the faithful bishops attending the Synod, and there are a number of them, are able to redirect the discussions and outcome. But assuming that not much good will come out of it regarding effectively leading young people away from the secular world’s siren call, families—in partnership with faithful educators and trusted priests and bishops—must go all-in on the renewal of Catholic education.
A renewal of Catholic education—by which we mean the Christian formation of young people in the home and in schools—is critical to the renewal of the Church’s mission of evangelization.
The disastrous results of prior generations’ rebellion against authority and moral discipline—against Truth itself—have reached a culmination in the horrific scandals among so many unfaithful priests and bishops. At least, we hope and pray this is the turning point.
Now is the time when our message of fidelity and responsible formation can resonate. It is for this reason that now—in our 25th anniversary year—the Newman Society is refocusing and redoubling our efforts on recognizing faithful Catholic education and holding it out as a model for the Church.
By setting more and more young Catholics on the narrow path, the true Way of Christ, we will once again see the heroism and the holiness of the saints. And by their example, and by the sacrifice of true educators, and with God’s grace, we will see the renewal of the Church and Catholic life.
Youth Synod Needs Good News from Faithful Catholic Colleges
/in Blog, Mission and Governance Assessing Higher Ed, Commentary, Commentary, Youth Synod Newman Guide Articles/by Kelly SalomonOctober’s Synod on Young People comes amid growing awareness of the Catholic Church’s many failures to teach, inspire, and even protect its young. But if the synod fathers are looking for good news, there’s plenty to be found at America’s most faithful Catholic colleges—and these can be examples for the entire Church.
Papal biographer and columnist George Weigel recently urged that “Success stories in youth ministry should be persistently, even relentlessly, lifted up” at the synod. He specifically noted the “intellectual and spiritual achievements of orthodox, academically vibrant Catholic liberal arts colleges and universities in the United States.”
As editor of The Newman Guide, I couldn’t agree more! The faithful Catholic colleges recommended by The Cardinal Newman Society are accomplishing much, for the good of their students and for the Church. And since the mission of the Church is evangelization, and Catholic education is a key means of evangelization, it would only make sense that faithful Catholic colleges would be held up as examples for the Synod on Young People.
Just recently, the U.S. News and World Report rankings were released, and many Newman Guide colleges earned high marks in various categories. But more important than secular rankings, faithful education help provide the formation that young Catholics deserve and which is lacking across much of the Church today.
This formation is offered through faithful theology courses, strong liberal arts core curricula, the witness of faithful leaders on campus, the focus on reverent liturgy and prayer, a healthy campus culture, athletic programs that encourage virtue, and so much more.
Dr. John Grabowski, associate professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., explains that studying philosophy and theology “enables the young adult to ‘own’ the faith which their parents, priests, and other teachers had passed on to them.” He recalls, “One of the most rewarding and humbling things that has occurred in my years of teaching is to have students enter the Church or come back to the faith after taking a class and tell me that the course helped them to make that decision.”
That’s a far cry from the scandal and confusion sown by wayward Catholic colleges, such as those that hosted seminars earlier this year on Amoris Laetitia with theologians who are well-known for their attempts to change the Church’s teaching and traditions.
The core curriculum and faculty at a faithful Catholic college are focused on a student’s formation in the light of faith, not in opposition to it. “All students, Catholic and non-Catholic, deserve an education that awakens wonder and is oriented to an integrated wisdom, both theoretical and practical,” says Dr. Josh Hochschild, professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. A strong curriculum is “crucial to help students experience the unity of truth,” he says, but just as important is “the character of the faculty.”
“In any discipline, faculty can help embody confidence and humility of the pursuit of truth, and the example of Christian witness in faculty is a profound grace to students,” Hochschild explains. “The whole campus culture has a role in supporting this vision.”
The faithful colleges held up for example in The Newman Guide often go above and beyond to ensure that students have good role models on campus. Steve Minnis, president of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, told us: “I interview every job applicant on campus, and I ask them to explain to me how they see themselves contributing to our mission—not just accept that we have a mission, but how they will support it. I want every man or woman who works for Benedictine College to be someone I hope our students will aspire to be like.”
Another thing that is at the heart of a faithful Catholic college is the liturgy, which is something that George Harne, president of Northeast Catholic College in Warner, New Hampshire, has often emphasized. And when asked how the College is forming young people in the truth of our faith, several students noted the liturgical life on campus.
Sophomore Rose Phelps says, “Most importantly, the way the liturgy is celebrated at NCC has truly helped me deepen my relationship with God. The reverence of the priests and altar servers along with the beautiful chant and polyphony music make it so easy to lift ones heart to God.”
Senior Rebecca Stolarski agrees. “The spiritual resources available to students [on campus]—daily Mass, Rosary, Adoration, Confession—should not be underestimated: there are few things more spiritual restorative than an evening before the Blessed Sacrament, and nothing more strengthening to faith than convenient access to daily Mass.”
Faithful colleges attend to the entire campus culture. Some great examples are the wholesome activities offered through the outdoor adventures program at Wyoming Catholic College, the Rome campus program offered through the University of Dallas, and the “household” systems at Ave Maria University and Franciscan University of Steubenville that invite groups of students to live and pray together. Benedictine College’s Minnis says the key is to make it “contagious to live the good life” and to let the “good things run wild.”
Formation extends into the realm of athletics. At Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, President Bill Thierfelder is a former Olympian who stresses virtue in all athletic programs. It’s no surprise that student athletes have helped the College earn the sportsmanship award from its Division II athletics conference in four of the last seven years.
All areas on campus should help form students, according to Michael McMahon, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota “Through academics, residence life, and even athletics—all seeking truth, students understand that truth is not disjointed or that our lives can be compartmentalized,” he says. “If it is true in the theology course, it needs to also be true in the residence life halls. If the faculty and administration of a university are not faithful to the Church’s teachings why would our students be inspired to be?”
Joseph Nemec, a junior at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, says, “I am grateful to God for the opportunity to study at an institution that values the very things young people want and need.”
Often when parents and students think of college, they think of education. But an education at a faithful Catholic college is about so much more: it’s about formation. This formation shapes a student’s body, mind, and soul and prepares a student for his or her vocation, as well as a career.
The impact of faithful Catholic colleges is impressive! In just 40 years with an enrollment of 500 students, Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, has helped foster 158 religious vocations. Additionally, there have been 419 alumna-to-alumnus marriages. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, was once asked by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education to give an account for why so many priestly and religious vocations come from the College.
Maybe it’s time for the Synod on Young People to ask Newman Guide colleges to give an account for their success in youth formation. These joyfully Catholic institutions provide an example of fidelity and success that can be a shining light to anyone who is trying to bring Christ to new generations.
This article was originally published by National Catholic Register.
Youth Need Truth! A Better Way for the Synod
/in Student Formation Research and Analysis, Youth Synod/by Dr. Dan GuernseyThe Vatican’s “working document” that will guide the discussions and directions of October’s Synod on Young People is flawed.1 It puts tremendous emphasis on personal experience and accompaniment as the primary means for reaching young people today. But what young people most need—what, deep down, they most desire—is the Truth of Christ boldly proclaimed. And what the Church desperately needs to help young people is a thorough renewal of faithful Catholic education as its primary means of evangelization.
There is little sense in this working document of the important role that strong and faithful education—whether in schools, parishes, or homes—should play in teaching truth and virtue to young people. Instead, there is great danger that the Synod will continue the now commonplace tendency of too many Church leaders and programs to soft-pedal the Truth of the Gospel and leave young people lost and drowning in the relativism of “liquid modernity.”
The Synod on Young People will fail if the Synod fathers do not confront the common culture that champions radical autonomy and a false concept of freedom that satisfies desire and a thirst for power instead of conforming to reality. The lives of many youth have become fragmented, incoherent, and indifferent to truth and meaning. The Church must address this crisis head-on, confident that—underneath this culturally sanctioned indifference—every person knows that truth is what they were made for. At their core, youth need truth, and youth want truth!
Confidently Proclaim Truth
The Catechism reminds us, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to Himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.”2 In other words, the game is rigged in our favor, if we can break through the anesthetizing effects of many elements of modern life. Even though the common culture seems to have the upper hand at the moment, we need not cower in despair. Instead, we need to take our advantage and teach the truth boldly.3 “Man tends by nature toward the truth,” but he is also “obliged to honor and bear witness to it.” The Good News, confidently proclaimed, is what the youth need to hear—and to what we are obliged to give witness!
Some parts of the synod document assist toward this end, but its meager and disjointed musings on the critical issue of truth need more robust development. This is even more necessary amid the crisis of the age, in which the dictatorship of relativism has entranced and enslaved so many people, young and old. The document’s main reflection on truth is limited to two paragraphs (out of more than 200), and they merit scrutiny. Here is the first:
This short section is titled “New Inquiring Paradigms and the Search for Truth.” However, neither the youth nor the modern Church has discovered any new paradigms in the search for truth. We can relax, go about the hard work of every age before us, and join them in the grand conversation, unburdened by any special enlightenment tied to youth or the modern age.
The section unhelpfully clouds the philosophical and theological pursuit of truth with the shallow political reality of “fake news” in “public debate.” The paragraph ends with a more helpful notion of this age being “post-truth” and lacking a “hierarchy of truth.” Unfortunately, these insights are just left hanging, without reflection, resolution, or guidance, as if there is nothing we can or should be doing about them other than to acknowledge them and silently surrender.
This seems to be pattern in other parts of the sprawling 61-page document: stumbling articulation of a challenge (often using the language and lens of sociology), acceptance of the situation as an irrefutable reality to which we must submit, and a sense that the youth are a superior foreign species beyond our ability to educate, rather than our children requiring confident teaching and parenting.4
Young People Want Truth
We see this unfold in the second paragraph:
To unpack what is disconcerting about this paragraph, first consider the quote from the pre-synodal meeting that is cited in the second sentence above. The pre-synodal meeting was intended to gather the input of young people. The full paragraph from the meeting report is as follows:
All the more, the Church draws the attention of young people by being rooted in Jesus Christ. Christ is the Truth which makes the Church different from any other worldly group with which we may identify. Therefore, we ask that the Church continue to proclaim the joy of the Gospel with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.5
Contrary to the conclusions drawn by the authors of the working document, there is no indication in this quote that young people today need the Church to abandon past methods of evangelization. They ask the Church to “continue to proclaim” truth. There is no suggestion that the statement, “Christ is the Truth,” has any “different significance compared to earlier ages.”
If we accept the guidance in the working document, we might falsely conclude that Saint John Paul II’s inspiring World Youth Day VI message (the very theme was “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”) is incapable of resonating with this generation:
In fact, this message still speaks—perhaps even especially—to this generation. As the darkness increases, so does the brightness of these words.
Young People are Capable of Reason
Paragraph 55 of the working document states that “truth has a relational basis,” and we only discover it when we “experience it from God.” This leads to the problematic advice to primarily evangelize with personal experiences, “since they cannot be called into question”—as if calling things into question was a bad idea or inimical to evangelization or to the pursuit of truth!
The advice relates to the pre-synodal meeting report, where the participants state, “We also desire to see a Church that is empathetic and reaches out to those struggling on the margins, the persecuted and the poor. An attractive Church is a relational Church.” But that is far from suggesting—as the working document appears to do—that a relational approach to evangelization is the primary approach worth pursuing in this “post-truth” age.
In fact, youth need and want so much more. In the pre-synodal meeting report, young people call for the use of “modern communication and expression” to proclaim truth with “answers which are not watered-down, or which utilize pre-fabricated formulations.” The Church, they say, should frankly address gender and sexuality issues and “dialogue with the scientific community.” So young people want, as they have always wanted in every age, the use of contemporary tools of communication, forms of expression, and topics of discussion. But this does not—as the working document argues—alter the “significance” of the Christian message to young people today or suggest changes to the Church’s approaches to evangelization. Instead, young people need and even want the Church to continue to appeal to reason and to explain Catholic teachings—not to retreat from Catholic education, but to better help today’s youth know and understand truth.
We can and must do more than just share personal opinion and experience; we must share truth itself. In Catholic philosophy, truth has an ontological (reality-based) nature. A primarily relational basis for knowledge is the seed of relativism, by which truth is seen as a social construct or based on a relationship of power.
The working document does not itself embrace relativism, but it does read as if the authors have lost confidence in this generation’s response to appeals to reason, which abandons young people to the influence and temptation of relativism. It is false to claim that we need to experience truth to know it. We know many truths by reason, revelation, and trust in the wisdom of others: we will die; Washington crossed the Delaware River; there are atoms; murder is wrong; a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time in the same location; there is the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The crisis of this age persists because the secular world limits truth to personal experience and denies our ability to make binding truth claims on others. This denial of the ontological basis of truth is not Christian.
The Synod’s approach, then, risks giving into the post-truth world, rather than rescuing our youth from it. The Church has a remedy and way out. It is the same remedy that we have always had, if we only remain faithful to it.
Restore Conviction, Renew Education
Catholic thinking, as philosopher Curtis Hancock reminds us, holds that when our senses are in good condition and functioning properly under normal circumstances, and when our reason is functioning honestly and clearly, we can come to know reality and have the ability to make true judgments about reality. We know that through study, reflection, experimentation, argument, and discussion—and especially divine revelation—we can know real things about the world, Man, and God. Of course we must share our personal compelling stories of conversion and belief; they are among the most powerful means of persuasion to be sure. But we must not surrender reason or objective truth in the process. This is precisely what the common culture already demands of our youth.
St. John Paul II, in addressing this crisis of truth, noted that:
Contrast this with the working document’s brief section on catechesis (paragraphs 190-193), which indicates no apparent concern about “the educational crisis” that Pope Benedict XVI so often lamented, describing it to American educators as a “‘crisis of truth’ rooted in a ‘crisis of faith.’”8 9 The “religious illiteracy” of young Catholics and the exodus of young people from the Catholic Church are alarming, yet the working document makes no call for extensive, much-improved catechetical instruction. Instead, it claims that catechesis has a bad reputation among many young people as “compulsory and unchosen,” invites a review of catechetical programs with respect to their “validity for new generations,” and encourages “experience-based” as well as “content-based” catechesis.
The entire working document says little about Catholic education, as if the truths of our faith are not the keys to human happiness. To the extent that Catholic education is mentioned, the document fails to emphasize its traditional role as the Church’s primary means of evangelization. The document repeats Pope Francis’ ambiguous warning “not to proselytize” in Catholic schools, which was first made in 2015 and provoked some controversy—yet still, no clarification is offered.
This is no way to go forward with a Synod on Young People, especially amid the scandals in the Church and the secular assault on Christianity. We must be ready to restore conviction and actively uphold the truth. Modern culture is not infallible, and our youth are not oracles; both are subject to confusion and manipulation. Our job is to help young people find their way.
If we only tell youth what they already know or believe as driven by the common culture and their limited experience, they will rightly ignore us, because we have nothing new to say or different to offer. To effectively reach them, we must be faithful and authentic in making radical truth claims. Since the youth are wired to be bold, we must be bold; since youth is daring, we must be daring. They are attracted to misunderstood underdogs like us, as long as we are personally authentic and proud about who we are. It is radical and appealing to stand athwart this culture and proclaim that there are truths that exist, that hold true in all times and places, and that we must bear witness to for the good of all.
Many idealistic Catholic youth, eager to help change a world they know is in absolute shambles, will respond to this call. Because their world is already a mess, they do not need our permission or encouragement to make it messier. We can authentically challenge them to be more. To be advocates of beauty, seekers of truth, and architects of freedom is a task and adventure worthy of their properly oriented youthful restlessness and idealism. They are looking for answers, not confirmation of their confusion. They know the world they live in. They know it does not satisfy. It was not made to satisfy.
We, however, can play to our strengths by renewing faithful Catholic education and formation. We can embrace the human reality, “Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.”
October’s Synod on Young People must reject dependency on experience as the primary means of knowing and learning, and instead strengthen the Church’s appeal to youth by reason and divine revelation. Young people, like all of us, need our Holy Mother Church to boldly and confidently proclaim the Gospel. Youth need truth.
Authentic Accompaniment: A Better Way for the Synod
/in Student Formation Research and Analysis, Youth Synod/by Dr. Dan GuernseyThe working document guiding the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment focuses on encouraging adults to accompany youth as they face new experiences and challenges. Regrettably, its accompaniment/discernment model falls short in three respects:
As the bishops prepare to discuss the best ways to accompany youth in their October synod, they may benefit from the following insights from Monsignor Luigi Giussani, a modern master on the accompaniment of youth.
Accompaniment Properly Understood
Giussani (1922-2005) influenced the last three popes, especially through his teaching on the pedagogy of encounter and accompaniment. Giussani was a Catholic priest in Italy who was both a high school and seminary teacher as well as the founder of the influential Communion and Liberation movement. Pope Saint John Paul II named him Honorary Prelate to His Holiness. Cardinal Ratzinger, two months before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, presided over Giussani’s funeral Mass with more than 40,000 people in attendance. Although Pope Francis never personally met Giussani, he said of him, “For many years now his writings have inspired me to reflect and have helped me to pray. They have taught me to be a better Christian.”10
Giussani’s impact on these three popes is in part due to his insight that relationship and witness are among the best ways to stimulate the youth to commit to Christ. Giussani also emphasizes that the way to break through the cynicism and despair facing youth is to offer them an education that speaks to the deepest needs of the human heart, as God made it, and with an eye on the transcendent. He warns that errant cultural influences and the teen’s own impulsivity and impatience might obscure Nature’s original reality, power, and beauty. This rejection of reality, he warns, can then allow the teen to be fooled into creating his own standards and thus be at the mercy of whims and outside forces.
Giussani’s solution is to ensure that Catholic teachers and ministers act as stabilizing witnesses of a lived Catholic worldview and culture. This interpretive framework helps provide meaning to all reality and gets young people to commit to Christ as they progress into ever greater autonomy and authentic freedom based in truth.
His process works like this:
In presenting this Catholic worldview in word and deed, the adult must not be indecisive, indifferent, neutral, or hesitant but offer it simply, clearly, and naturally, in full knowledge that the adolescent may still exercise his freedom to reject what he is offered. This is what Giussani calls “the risk of education.”11
Adult Guidance and Discipline
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, remarked in January that the Vatican seeks “a new relationship between the Church and young people, based on a paradigm of responsibility exempt from any paternalism.”12 Paternalism seems to be used here as a pejorative term referencing any attempt to limit a person’s autonomy to promote their good.
For an adult, paternalism is usually inappropriate, but by its nature youth is a time when responsibility is not yet fully developed. Providing young people with structure and rules while they grow in freedom and responsibility is something that teachers, coaches, and parents do all the time, as they strengthen young people for success in academics, athletics, and adult life. To abandon the Church’s role as mother and leave youth to their own designs is just abandoning them to other forces.13 Youth will get those standards and ends from somewhere.
Giussani reminds those who work with young people that youth can be fooled into thinking they have created their own standards, when in fact they are at the mercy of their desires, whether by prejudices dictated by youthful narrowness or ignorance or by outside forces leading them to harm. Freedom requires the use of guiding standards and a clear understanding of proper ends. The role of Catholic mentors is to present and live another way, so as to provide the youth with compelling options counter to the world.
The Synod’s working document describes a mentor in part as “a confidant without judgment” who “should not lead young people as passive followers but walk alongside them” (132).
However, “a confidant without judgment” is a role better played by a young person’s casual friend than by a mentor. Lack of input by adults in the life of youth may be interpreted as approval or indifference to a situation, precisely when the adults’ gifts and wisdom are most needed and even expected. The adult must discern the best way to help the mentee grow in the truth. That need not preclude offering definitive guidance in the right place and time, and even definitive judgment.
It is also helpful to remember that “following” is not necessarily passive. Graduate students follow the guidance of professors in conducting their own research, and professional athletes follow their coaches. Radical autonomy is rare, even in adult life. Adults often need to follow other adults on the path to greater health, holiness, and wisdom. Caring guides walk beside, before, or even behind those they lead, depending on the situation at hand.
Clear Church Teaching
From the get-go, the synod document seems so intent on emphasizing the need to meet youth where they are, that the more important reality of “where do youth ultimately need to be?” goes unstated.
It is a best practice to start with the end in mind; in this case, the goal is for young people to be free and intentional disciples. The document, however, simply emphasizes a generic three-step discernment process—1. Recognize, 2. Interpret, 3. Choose—and the document itself is structured this way. But without clarifying a specific end, the process could be used in driver’s training or in career training, as much as in spiritual direction. Instead, a spiritual discernment process always needs to keep the goal of salvation in Christ clear and compelling, while acknowledging that salvation cannot be forced and can be freely rejected.
Earlier we saw how the document suggests adults walk beside and not judge youth, and in other places the document advises that mentors “do” rather than “say.” Specifically it tells adults “to realize they are a model that can influence others through what they are, rather than for what they do or suggest” (130, emphasis added). But this is not a “rather than” situation; it requires “both and.” It may be that the mentor is the instrument the Holy Spirit has sent to speak the words of eternal life to the young person. That must not be preemptively ruled out.
Self-imposed silence of God’s Word in the face of the real needs of youth could be akin to the story of the Good Samaritan, where the righteous pass by thinking, “Surely God or someone else will tend this wounded soul.” St. Paul explicitly exhorts us to “preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). Vatican II states, “nor is it enough to carry out an apostolate by way of example… they are to announce Christ to their non-Christian fellow-citizens by word and examples and to aid them toward the full reception of Christ.”14 Adults should ensure that the young have the truths of the faith and God’s Word before them. The youth have a right to know what we know and believe what we believe, which sometimes entails hearing the Word directly from us. Who else will tell them, if not us?
In other places the document seems to take a Rogerian non-directive and hands-off approach to discernment.15 Such an approach discourages offering clear guidance and, by extension, clear Church teaching or Gospel truth. It views discernment as:
Perhaps if we did not know the meaning or end of life, the salvific role of Christ, and the moral teachings of the Church, this approach might make unqualified sense. But we know that the door is closed to many things, not the least of which are “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness” (Mk 22) and everything else which defiles us. Each of these has a pre-defined answer with no alternative or opportunity other than the clear call to repentance and holiness.
Adults must be sure and stable guides to youth. We must provide and model real answers from a Christian world-view, otherwise we have no business assisting them in the discernment process. Giussani emphasizes that an adult working with youth must present the truth which inspires him and then step back behind its overshadowing presence and be a living witness of love. This is often the key that will engrave the teacher in the student’s memory and engender feelings of fondness from the student.
Patience Without Fear of Rejection
The mentor puts himself at emotional risk in working with the youth. It is only natural and human for the mentor to hope and expect that the youth will respond with fondness to him or her as a person. And it is only natural and human to hope and expect that once the truth is laid out before the youth and clearly modeled in the person of the mentor, the student will “get it.” But in fact, the young person must be free to reject it all—and that rejection may be humiliating and hurtful to the adult.
For Giussani, it is precisely the risk of confrontation and rejection that helps create the young person’s personality in his authentic relationship to all things; it is here that he develops his freedom. The reality of rejection provides a real and clear inflection point: the point of risk and freedom.
This risk of rejection by youth is at the heart of accompaniment; we should not give in at the end and surrender truth to avoid being hurt or abandoned by the youth. Like the father of the prodigal son, we remain sadly behind, hoping for a return after the loving seeds of truth have been planted. The father neither follows the prodigal into the peripheries with enabling moneybags nor, as Anthony Esolen has observed, does he allow the son to re-enter his home unrepentant with alcohol and whores in tow.16 Rather, the father waits patiently hoping for a free return to the fullness of truth and life.
Compare such Gospel confidence and acceptance of youthful rejection to the Synod document, which worries that if we don’t let youth do what they want, in their way, and without comment, then we must either be “unbending judges” or “hyperprotective parents” who are responsible for driving them away:
Again, the synod document seems to suggest a lesser role for adults; after all, the youth are the “true protagonists,” so it is supposedly necessary to shrink our role in the hopes they might decide to stay with us. But by definition a protagonist is simply a leading character, not the only character. In any good story the leading character will confront challenging realities presented by others that result either in growing in freedom and virtue or falling into vice and ruin. Adults must play their part, even if it risks ruin.
We have to at some point risk rejection and make “The Ask”: to speak the words of Christ, “Come follow Me.” We must lovingly show them that Christ and His Church present a different way—a path out of contemporary shallowness and despair. We enter their world, no matter what world they are in, to show them the beauty and wonder of God’s world and point the way to Christ. We accompany them, sometimes by their side, sometimes leading them, but always in word and example, pointing the way to truth and proposing meaning, so that they might come to love Him, know Him, and—in their own turn—share Him with the world, even at great risk.