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Holy Eucharist Adored at Faithful Catholic Colleges

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For one student, visiting prospective colleges left her feeling “uncertain and worried.” Brigid Ambuul of California toured five secular universities, but she wasn’t convinced by their sole focus on “worldly success.”

Then she visited a faithful Catholic college and ducked into the perpetual Adoration chapel to say a prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It was there that she knew her college decision was made.

“It’s funny how things start to turn around, once you put God in the center of a situation,” she explains. 

On this campus, “God wasn’t just an afterthought,” but rather He permeated all aspects of student life from the classroom to the chapel. The college seemed especially committed to spiritual formation, and it gave her a “newfound sense of hope and excitement” for her future.

As a result, Brigid is heading to Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, this fall to begin her studies.

A recent Pew Research study found that only 26% of U.S. Catholics under the age of 40 believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the most Holy Eucharist. Clearly there has been a breakdown in forming young people in the Faith. But if we are looking for hope for the future, we need look no further than America’s most faithful Catholic colleges.

“Though it is tragic and deeply troubling that so many young people… do not believe or do not know that the Eucharist is Jesus, there is great hope in seeing young people who do believe this doctrine with their whole being,” says Austin Schneider, director of campus ministry at John Paul the Great Catholic University in California. The college offers Eucharistic Adoration every weekday during the school year.

“These fervent young Catholics not only inspire me, but I believe they have the capacity to draw many others into a deeper, intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ,” he continues.

Since the 1960s, there has been a decline in fidelity at many Catholic colleges. In response, the Church urges every college to “give a practical demonstration of its faith in its daily activity, with important moments of reflection and of prayer.” Students and employees should be “encouraged to participate in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist” (Ex corde Ecclesiae §39).

Dr. George Harne, president of Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in New Hampshire, takes the directive seriously. He promotes the “centrality of the Eucharist” on campus in a variety of ways, including the college’s beautiful and reverent celebration of the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter.

Another president, Dr. Bill Thierfelder of Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, built an Adoration chapel on campus as one of his first initiatives at the helm.

Students participate in Eucharistic processions at the University of Dallas in Texas, and Adoration is included in outdoor camping trips at Wyoming Catholic College. These Eucharistic activities attend to students’ spiritual formation as well as their intellectual education. 

In Virginia, Christendom College is devoting its time and resources to building a magnificent new Christ the King Chapel, which will have double the seating capacity of the current chapel. 

The Pew Research study found that most Catholics who attend Mass weekly do believe that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Catholic families should know, then, that students at faithful Catholic colleges are more likely to attend Mass regularly. The colleges recommended in The Newman Guide provide strong faith communities that support daily Masses and well-attended weekly Masses, and most have plentiful opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration — some even offer it perpetually.

A faithful Catholic education reinforces the fundamentals of the faith and forms students for sainthood as well as earthly success, with Christ at the center. The spiritual difficulties facing young Catholics today are enormous, but there are places where college students can love and adore Jesus Christ in the Eucharist while preparing for life and the challenges ahead.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul

Yet Another Lawsuit Against the Church

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The Archdiocese of Indianapolis is the target of yet another lawsuit — this one from a guidance counselor whose contract to help form students at Roncalli High School was not renewed for the coming school year, because she entered into a same-sex marriage.

With this and other similar disputes in Catholic schools, Archbishop Charles Thompson is clearly under assault. And the same fight is coming to every bishop and every Catholic school and college that courageously upholds the mission of Catholic education — as well as those schools and colleges that carelessly go forward without clear and consistent Catholic policies, thereby opening the doors wide to ideological activists and legal trouble.

Just last month, the Indianapolis archdiocese settled a lawsuit by a teacher who was dismissed from Cathedral High School for his same-sex marriage.

That teacher is legally married to a man who still teaches at Brebeuf Jesuit College Preparatory School, where leaders refuse to comply with archdiocesan policy requiring Catholic school teachers to avoid scandal. Now the school’s leaders have filed a canon law suit with the Vatican, challenging Archbishop Thompson’s episcopal right and duty to determine whether the school may be called Catholic.

In the latest lawsuit filed in federal court last week, plaintiff Lynn Starkey accuses Roncalli High School of discriminating against her because of same-sex attraction. But Starkey was employed at Roncalli for 39 years, and even after she violated her contract by entering into a scandalous, permanent, same-sex commitment, Roncalli did not fire her. Instead, it chose not to renew her contract.

Another counselor at Roncalli, Shelli Fitzgerald, is expected to sue in the next month or two. Fitzgerald was placed on administrative leave last fall, following (you guessed it) her same-sex marriage.

These suits join a growing number of attacks against Catholic schools and colleges across the country, because the Church prescribes morality standards in Catholic education. Why are so many Catholic school and college employees eager to challenge such standards? It may be that the standards are not stated clearly enough, or that they are not consistently applied, so that employees are genuinely surprised to lose their jobs. Surely there is also the hope that courts today are willing to support discrimination claims instead of upholding religious freedom. In Starkey’s case, it is especially astounding that a guidance counselor at a Catholic school could fail to appreciate that teaching and witnessing to Catholic moral principles are essential to her job.

Catholics should not be naïve in thinking that there is anything substantially unique about Indianapolis. Catholic education nationwide faces serious threats from within and without, and too many schools and colleges are insufficiently prepared for the legal battles.

The best thing that school and college leaders can do — immediately, without hesitation — is to ensure that every internal policy and practice is consistent with the formation of students in complete fidelity to Catholic teaching, and that employees embrace this mission without compromise. That makes lawsuits unlikely, resists the corruption of Catholic identity, and allows for a vigorous defense of religious freedom in court.

In the weeks and months ahead, there will be more lawsuits. We must pray for our bishops and school leaders to have the fortitude to make a strong stand for faithful Catholic education. Only if Catholic educators get back to their roots and defend their foundations, will they preserve their most important mission of forming students in the faith.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Threats to Catholic Education

EWTN Video: Newman Society Discusses Latest Threats to Catholic Education

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Hu74hWE5tmc&feature=emb_title

Newman Society President Patrick Reilly was recently hosted on EWTN News Nightly to discuss the latest threats facing Catholic schools and colleges.

“We’ve been seeing many exciting things happening in Catholic education,” Patrick Reilly shared with EWTN News Nightly host, Wyatt Goolsby. “But because our culture is going in a different direction, we’re seeing many lawsuits. Some of them are even coming from teachers within Catholic schools who lose their jobs because they’re not witnessing to the faith.”

“Catholic schools have to be very careful that in their Catholic identity they are consistent across the board,” Patrick explained. “They need to have very clear policies and ensure that everyone understands what is required from a Catholic institution.”

Preparing Medical Professionals Who Reject Planned Parenthood

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The ouster of Planned Parenthood’s president, who disappointed activists for not being aggressive enough on abortion despite her defense of horrific state laws, should be a wake-up call to Catholics to better educate future health care professionals about the reality of abortion and what true health care means. It’s a strong reason why renewing faithful Catholic education is so important to our Church and society.

Before students even arrive at medical school, the indoctrination that teaches that abortion is acceptable has already begun—and it even creeps into some of our Catholic schools and colleges. Just recently, a Catholic school teacher in South Carolina posted pro-abortion posts on her Facebook page and was appropriately removed from her teaching position. The school she was employed by is excellent—one of several recognized for strong Catholic policies by the Cardinal Newman Society. But still the teacher seems not to understand her responsibility to witness to the faith inside and outside of the classroom, and she has filed a lawsuit against the school.

Faithful Catholic schools are devoted to forming students in truth, beauty and goodness. Students learn that “reason, revelation, and science will never be in ultimate conflict, as the same God created them all” (Catholic Curriculum Standards). Catholic teachers play an important role in helping students understand moral issues like abortion and should educate them properly so that they are convicted by the truth.

In our Catholic colleges, sadly, this is not always the case. Several years ago, The Cardinal Newman Society reported on the close connections between Planned Parenthood and Catholic colleges across the country. Earlier this year, Georgetown University allowed for an abortionist to be hosted on campus who tried to justify his practice with his Christian faith. Several Catholic colleges honored pro-abortion politicians at commencement. And if we look at the Jesuit college graduates who are serving in Congress, a large majority of them are pro-abortion. 

With mostly secular options for medical training, Catholics have a tough time of it. One Catholic high school student from Pennsylvania, Natalie Hyrcza, told me that while “there are many great nursing schools out there… a lot of them are not Catholic and do not even touch on ethics in nursing.”

Still, there are some good options. Natalie is excited to be going to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., this fall to begin her nursing studies, where she hopes to “learn how to treat each and every patient… as a child of God.” She cites an example of when she volunteered at a hospital and came across a patient who was “very lonely and just wanted somebody to talk to.” After some time together, Natalie noticed the patient’s rosary, and they ended up praying it together.

Another nursing student, Kaelyn Adolph, is headed to Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, this fall. She said that it’s so important for her to “gain a solid education that reflects my Catholic values.”

“Attending a Catholic nursing school gives the nurses confidence that comes with a complete education, which includes the moral stance on modern issues,” she said. “This beautiful profession enables you to glorify and praise God through your work of caring for others.”

Over the last few decades, many Catholic medical schools have closed, but there are still many pre-medicine, nursing, biology, health care administration, physical education and related programs at faithful colleges like those recommended in The Newman Guide. With solid education not only in health care but also ethics, theology and other liberal arts, these can provide a great formation for Catholic leaders in health-related fields.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Who Will Defend Catholic Education?

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Recent lawsuits by teachers fired from Catholic schools are part of a growing threat to Catholic education. Our schools and colleges increasingly face harmful lawsuits, legislation, the loss of accreditation, and social rejection if they do not fall in line with ideologies that deny the nature of marriage, sexuality, even human life itself.

Catholic education is the Church’s most important means of evangelization. Is every Catholic educator and bishop prepared to defend it?

America once had arguably the world’s strongest network of Catholic education, but enrollment and Catholic identity suffered greatly in recent decades. Many Catholic schools today are easy prey for those who would hollow out Catholic education altogether. In many cases, the danger comes from within the Church.

It was four years ago, when a firestorm erupted in San Francisco, California, as Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone insisted that Catholic school teachers in the Archdiocese publicly uphold the faith, inside and outside of the classroom. He updated teacher contracts and faculty handbooks and created a new Office of Catholic Identity Assessment. Morality language in teacher contracts came as a shock and disappointment to some teachers, but it was applauded by Catholics who value the unique mission of Catholic education.

Now more dioceses are coming under fire from their own school leaders and teachers. A teacher fired from Bishop England High School in Charleston, South Carolina, for publicly defending abortion is suing the school, which is recognized by The Cardinal Newman Society for faithful Catholic education. The leaders of Brebeuf Jesuit College Preparatory School have filed a canon law complaint against Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson, appealing his declaration that the school cannot call itself Catholic. Brebeuf refused to dismiss a teacher in a same-sex marriage; but nearby Cathedral High School, which properly removed a teacher for the same scandal, is now being sued by the teacher.

The Lyceum, a faithful Catholic school also recognized by the Newman Society, successfully fought back a local government threat that could have severely compromised its Catholic identity, based on false claims that Catholic teaching discriminates against people who claim same-sex attraction.

Even the federal Education Department and accrediting agencies pose dangers to Catholic colleges — especially those that are committed to orthodoxy — because of poorly devised diversity and nondiscrimination requirements.

In faithful Catholic education, there can be no compromise on the role of Catholic teachers as witnesses to the faith and the key elements that are expected in Catholic schools. Catholic schools are about the integral formation of students, and teachers play a key role in witnessing and providing a faithful example. Catholic teachers are called to prepare students for sainthood.

According to the bishops’ National Directory for Catechesis (pp. 231, 233), Catholic schools are required to “recruit teachers who are practicing Catholics, who can understand and accept the teachings of the Catholic Church and the moral demands of the gospel, and who can contribute to the achievement of the school’s Catholic identity and apostolic goals.”

If the role of the Catholic teacher is so essential, then it must be protected — not only by fighting lawsuits and legislation, but by doing everything possible internally to ensure that a school or college always acts consistent with Catholic values, which is essential to asserting protection for religious freedom under the First Amendment and various federal and state laws.

A good starting place is for Catholic school leaders to review model language for “morality clauses” in teacher contracts. The Newman Society compiled examples after reviewing the policies of more than 125 dioceses.

Much can be done by lay Catholics also, to help defend and renew faithful Catholic education. When Archbishop Cordileone made strong efforts to change the direction of the schools in his diocese, he faced significant backlash but also had strong and valuable support. When a secular San Francisco newspaper put up an online poll asking if Archbishop Cordileone should be removed from his position — no doubt expecting the majority of respondents to display outrage toward the Archbishop — Catholics turned the poll overwhelmingly in favor of his efforts.

The road ahead for Catholic educators will not be easy, but Catholics everywhere should rally behind and pray for these faithful school leaders. Pray that our bishops and Catholic educators will have the fortitude to insist upon faithful Catholic education, which, when done well, is a great blessing for young people and for our Church.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Educators Need More than ‘Male and Female He Created Them’

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The Vatican has reasserted one of the most basic facts of Christian anthropology: “Male and Female He created them,” which is good as far as it goes. The question for Catholic educators is, ”Now what?” They are being challenged by the relentless march of “gender theory” or “gender ideology”—a deception that claims that sexual orientation and gender are fluid and self-determined—and they desperately need a path forward.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, has described Male and Female He Created Them as a “practical” document, in contrast to the deeper theological reflection expected soon from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But the education document does not give practical guidance to educators on the thorny particulars of admissions, personnel and student policies.

And educators urgently need such guidance, because every week brings another activist, lawmaker or attorney accusing Catholic educators of discrimination for refusing to comply with the dictates of the new gender ideology and a parade of related causes that are wholly contrary to the traditional Catholic understanding of human nature. This is a grave threat to faithful Catholic education.

Consider cases similar to the one in Kansas City, where the Archdiocese turned away a kindergarten student because of same-sex parents. What are the principles that guide Catholic school and college admissions policies? Can Catholic educators and administrators articulate them? Is a student always admitted out of concern for the child, regardless of the parents’ actions and ideology, or should educators consider the influence that adults can have on other children and protect against scandal? Does a school or college accept a child struggling with gender confusion? If so, what message does this send to other students and what pronouns are used, and when? Answer these questions the wrong way, and a school could compromise its Catholic mission or be the target of a lawsuit.

With regard to personnel policies, how does a Catholic school or college respond when a teacher or professor announces a same-sex marriage, declares a new gender identity, or simply insists on embracing aspects of gender ideology? At the Cardinal Newman Society, we have heard from well-intentioned academic leaders who refuse to spell out their policies, instead leaving each situation to their own discretion. That is a recipe for disaster.

In all of these examples, clear standards consistent with traditional Catholic moral and theological norms are key and will help ensure fidelity, compassion and justice.

But there’s another sense in which the truths taught in Male and Female He Made Them need to be developed further to address the practical needs of educators. As noted above, the document’s teaching addresses one of the most basic aspects of human anthropology, the fact that we are created male and female.

Following from that truth and over the centuries, Catholics had developed tried-and-true lessons and habits that helped young people preserve chastity, respect marriage and celebrate children. But in many ways, our culture has forced us to start again from scratch, re-learning simple habits and patterns of male-female relationships.

That means that Catholic educators need to recover and teach to young people these habits and patterns.

For example, not a single faithful Catholic from any generation prior to the 1960s would have doubted that coed dormitories and closed-door visits by the opposite sex in student bedrooms would result in premarital sex, mortal sin, STDs and even sexual assault. Yet most Catholic colleges, with notable exceptions at a few Newman Guide colleges, allow a student to have their boyfriend or girlfriend in their bedroom with the door closed, often after engaging in binge drinking that lowers inhibitions. How many souls have been damaged by these visitation policies that clearly invite near occasions of sin?

Yet when I and my Newman Society colleagues raise the concern of Catholic college dorm policies and near occasions of sin, we are looked upon as relics of a bygone age. I am entirely certain that near occasions of sin are still quite real. What has been lost is our sensitivity to man’s fallen nature and the grave importance of preserving chastity for the good of families and for the good of our souls.

Yes, God created us male and female. It is very good that the Vatican has reasserted this basic truth.

But like mathematicians reasserting fundamental arithmetic, we ought to also understand much more about the natural and moral implications of our sexuality and human nature—and Catholic educators especially need to teach these to the young.

Our problem, of course, is that we Catholics got comfortable compromising on little things when the culture was still reliably Christian. In today’s militantly secular culture, we had better get serious about consistently teaching the truth and remembering fundamentals like 2+2=4, that God created us male and female, and that concupiscence is real. And we had better be able to articulate the principles behind the policies we develop, to uphold Catholic identity before it is too late.

This article was first published at The National Catholic Register.

Lockers in hallway

Fake News About Brebeuf Jesuit School

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According to secular news reports about Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indianapolis, which Archbishop Charles Thompson declared to be no longer Catholic, you’d think the decision was all about the Church’s eagerness to fire a “gay” teacher.

Likewise, articles about Cathedral High School in northeast Indianapolis, which upheld its Catholic identity by dismissing one of its teachers, also emphasize the teacher’s sexuality.

Such is “fake news”—it’s rooted in some fact, but not in truth. In fact, the Indianapolis situation is primarily about a Catholic school’s obligations to teach the faith clearly and without contradiction.

The Indianapolis Star proclaimed, “Indianapolis Archdiocese Cuts Ties with Jesuit School Over Refusal to Fire Gay Teacher.” FOX News claimed Brebeuf was “Stripped of ‘Catholic’ Label Over Gay Teacher.” Newsweek announced that Cathedral “Fires Gay Teacher,” and the USA Today headline likewise reported that Cathedral “Is Firing a Gay Teacher.”

And now, a New York Times contributor has lectured the bishops on the need to defend our “L.G.B.T.Q. brothers and sisters.” The article is titled, “How to Defy the Catholic Church.”

To be sure, at both Brebeuf and Cathedral the teachers under scrutiny are identified as “gay”—but what caused the controversy is not that directly, but instead their public actions contradicting what they are supposed to be teaching in a Catholic school. Both entered into civilly approved same-sex marriages. Such public scandal makes someone ineligible to teach in a genuinely Catholic school, and this would be true of scandal leading children into any type of grave sin, whether homosexual or otherwise.

Indeed, both teachers had been employed despite apparent awareness of their sexuality, so the claim of discrimination is ludicrous. Public identification as “gay” can be scandalous, if sexuality is touted in such a way as to lead young people into sin. But this is not why the Archdiocese of Indianapolis raised concerns about the teachers at Brebeuf and Cathedral, and apparently no employee’s job was at risk because of private struggles with sexuality.

Still, the secular media and activists like Jesuit Fr. James Martin have deliberately characterized the Archdiocese as targeting people for their “sexual identity.” This falsehood stirs up the crowd to persecute the Body of Christ, with claims of discrimination and attempts to erode religious freedom.

Witnesses to the Faith

Such discrimination claims are wrong. Central to Brebeuf’s tragic loss of Catholic identity are the school’s failure to insist that teachers publicly witness to the Catholic faith, its betrayal of families who rely on Catholic education to uphold Catholic teachings, and the school’s refusal to abide by the rightful authority of Archbishop Thompson to establish expectations for Catholic schools in his diocese.

A Catholic school exists for the purpose of forming young people for the fullness of humanity, all that God intends for them. This includes formation in the Catholic faith, indeed in all truth about God, man and reality.

It is essential, then, that teachers in Catholic schools present the truth clearly in both word and deed. Their witness can powerfully reinforce Christian formation—or it can be dangerously destructive by misleading a child into falsehood.

This can be a real challenge for Catholic schools in a highly secularized and sexualized society, in which even well-intentioned Catholic teachers are confused about moral truth and may be poorly catechized.

“In today’s pluralistic world, the Catholic educator must consciously inspire his or her activity with the Christian concept of the person, in communion with the Magisterium of the Church” (Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, 18). An authentic Christian anthropology, of course, recognizes only two sexes and understands sexuality in the context of chastity and matrimony between a man and woman.

While a Catholic school is a Christian community full of mercy and compassion for its members who may struggle to live good and holy lives, it is essential to the work of the school that teachers not publicly challenge or contradict the Catholic faith in which students are being formed.

Canon law is clear: “The instruction and education in a Catholic school must be grounded in the principles of Catholic doctrine; teachers are to be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life” (Canon 803 §2). It is essential that Catholic schools explain to employees precisely what that means, by including “morality clauses” in teacher contracts. The Cardinal Newman Society compiled model language here that can be adopted by individual schools and dioceses.

A lesson for teachers

In his announcement that Brebeuf is no longer Catholic, Archbishop Thompson has reaffirmed what the Church has always expected from Catholic schools. And Brebeuf’s consequence was not caused by the bishop: it was the school leaders’ decision not to comply with the Archbishop’s requirements for all Catholic schools, and they chose to stand with the teacher in public contradiction to the Catholic faith. Cooperating with such public contradiction implies dissent, whether or not the school’s leaders actually agree or disagree with Church teaching.

In the past, Catholic schools were largely staffed by clergy and religious. Although there remain some priests, brothers and sisters — notably the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist and the Nashville Dominicans who set such a wonderful example — they make up less than 3 percent of America’s Catholic school teachers.

Therefore, in the last several decades it’s been up to the laity to take up evangelization by Catholic education, serving as ministers of the faith in word and deed. Archbishop Thompson recognizes the influential role that teachers play in the formation of students.

No teacher in a Catholic schools is sinless. But teachers should do everything possible to grow in virtue and avoid scandal, with special attention to persistent, public scandals that are most damaging to students. Catholic schools should ensure that they have qualified teachers who are able to fulfill the job of aiding parents in the formation of young people in the Catholic faith.

Archbishop Thompson provides a good reminder for Catholic school teachers everywhere about the importance of their vocation. Teachers have a crucial role to play in imitating Jesus Christ, the true Teacher, to communicate Truth and sanctify the world.

This article was first published at The National Catholic Register.

Students Discerning Priesthood Find Support at Faithful Catholic Colleges

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A high school student who thinks he may be called to the priesthood faces a hostile culture today—sadly even in the secularized environment of many Catholic schools and colleges. But faithful Catholic colleges offer students the opportunity for a quality education while discerning a calling to the priesthood with the support and encouragement of professors, campus ministers and peers who share a love for Christ.

John Wuller is a homeschooled student from Texas who first began thinking about the possibility of the priesthood during a youth conference hosted by Franciscan University of Steubenville. One of the speakers invited participants who believed that God could be calling them to the priesthood to come to the stage.

“At that moment, I felt for the first time that possibly God was calling me to the priesthood. During the next four years, a college’s academics, student activities, and residence life are vital to my discernment process, my formation and my life,” Wuller explained.

Wuller wants to find a place where he will be “formed by the truth” and learn from faithful Catholic professors, especially in philosophy and theology. He believes that a liberal arts core curriculum will help him to become “well-rounded” and develop “critical thinking skills.”

Wuller also wants to attend a college which will allow him frequent access to the sacraments and to be surrounded by other students who are “striving for holiness” and can help hold him accountable. Wuller believes that he has found what he is looking for at Franciscan University of Steubenville and will be heading to Steubenville, Ohio, this fall.

Daniel Donovan, who attended a Catholic high school in New Hampshire, says that he first sensed the Lord’s call when he was 13 years old. Donovan didn’t receive much support from his high school peers, but he expects that to change when he also attends Franciscan University of Steubenville in the fall. “To the students at Franciscan, becoming a priest is embraced by the student body. It is not considered strange or a waste,” Donovan explained.

At Franciscan University, he will live, study and pray with other men who are also considering vocations through the Priestly Discernment Program. “These are the friends which I have dreamt of all throughout high school. These are men that are in love with Christ and have said yes to His call, like me.”

Choosing to pursue a vocation is counter-cultural, especially when young people are being told that “what matters in the end is money” and “there is no time to have faith,” according to Joseph Rice, who attended a Catholic high school in Texas and will be a student at the University of Dallas in Irving, Tex., in the fall.Catholic colleges should be all about helping students find their vocation, Rice believes. He quotes Blessed John Henry Newman: “God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.”

Vocations are “hope for the future of the Church,” says Rice. Faithful Catholic colleges can provide students with the “best education” and help students become “pious and virtuous citizens” who learn that life is “full of meaning.”

A key reason why Jacob Brown, a Seton Home School student from Idaho, will be attending Northeast Catholic College in Warner, New Hampshire, to continue to discern a priestly vocation is “easy and frequent access to the sacraments.” Brown cited his excitement for liturgy of the hours, daily Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Brown is attracted to a faithful Catholic education, because he wants to avoid the “propagation of opinions” in the classroom and instead learn the fullness of truth. Additionally, he is eager for a “community that is focused on the good of the other.”

These are just a few of the many students who will be attending faithful Catholic colleges this fall. They are open to God’s plan for their lives and believe that their college experiences can provide them a strong Catholic formation. This is good for the students and for the whole Church.

This article was first published at the National Catholic Register.

10 Years After Obama, Notre Dame Continues to Secularize

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It is hard to believe that already 10 years have passed since Notre Dame’s scandalous decision to honor President Barack Obama as its commencement speaker. The event drew a substantial outcry from faithful laity and bishops – but since then, sadly, the situation has not improved.

Patrick Reilly writes at the Catholic Herald:

Amid all of the scandals in the American Church over the past decade, nothing has provoked a more dramatic display of outrage and unity than the protest 10 years ago against the University of Notre Dame’s choice to honour President Barack Obama (pictured). Yet Notre Dame’s leaders seem not to have learnt their lesson. A decade later, America’s most well-known Catholic university continues to slide toward secularisation.

When a college chooses a commencement speaker or honorary degree recipient, it is a clear, public statement of a college’s values and the sort of person that the college admires – a role model for students. Whereas faithful Catholic colleges will often honour Catholic bishops, noted academics, pro-life advocates and other people with strong character, Notre Dame fatefully chose the most pro-abortion president in history to address graduates on May 17, 2009.

Notre Dame’s statement to the world was that the Catholic university – and by implication, the Catholic Church – honours and celebrates those who attack human dignity and threaten the lives of innocent babies. American Catholics were faced with a choice of their own: to tacitly condone this compromise or stand up to declare the truth.

Continue reading at the Catholic Herald…

graduation

“Seek the Truth, Do the Good, Love the Beautiful.”

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The following is adapted from the commencement address delivered by Mr. Thomas Cole, M.A., M.T.S., at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, Ga, on May 24th, 2019. Mr. Cole is the chairman of the theology department at Holy Spirit and was chosen to be the commencement speaker by the graduating class.

Be a Teacher

I am immediately struck by the responsibility and unique honor it is to deliver an address of this sort. Typically, from what I have observed, the speaker so honored is famous, and famous beyond the confines of their own community. A big name seems to impress and add to the solemnity of the occasion.

In my case, however, I am immediately reminded of a conversation in Robert Bolt’s brilliant play about St. Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons.  Those familiar with the work may recall the conversation between Thomas More, then Chancellor of England. and the man who would ultimately betray him and commit perjury to secure his execution: Richard Rich.  It begins with the saint urging the young man to a career in education:

“Why not be a teacher?” St. Thomas More asks, “You’d be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one.”

“And if I was, who would know it?”

“You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public that…” [1]

Not a bad public, this.  So much for my fame.

On the Shoulders of Giants

If I don’t have fame to add luster to this occasion, hopefully I have at least some wisdom to share to benefit the graduating class, at whose request I stand before you…

John of Salisbury, 12th-century Bishop of Chartres in France, in his medieval work, the Metalogican, recalls that, “Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature”[2]  Hence, if I have any real wisdom here, it is that I am like that dwarf on the shoulders of giants.

What is my advice, then, to this graduating class?

Seek the truth, do the good, love the beautiful.  In all things, love.  “Let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.”[3]

Truth

Let us begin with truth. “Quid est veritas?”[4]   In his interrogation of Jesus Christ, Pontius Pilate asks this question.  “What is truth?”  Many struggle to answer this fundamental question of reality.

Our Holy Spirit graduates are not so lost as to how to respond.  If I might take the liberty of putting them on the spot: graduates, what is truth?

St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, says the, “truth is defined by the conformity of intellect and thing.”[5]

This is absolutely essential to our understanding of the intellectual life and our meaning as human persons.  If we think about it, truth is conformity to the “thing,” that is, with the reality external to us.  Truth is not about bending reality to conform to our perspective, preferences, or priorities – it is about us having the humility to realize that to possess the truth is to come to understand and orient ourselves to the real world; to existence itself.

Our world tells us that we can be whatever we want; I fear that is the lie of the Garden of Eden, “you yourselves will be like gods.”[6]  I hate to be a downer on your graduation day, but the reality is that you can’t be whatever you want.  You can certainly choose your occupation – but you can’t choose who and what you are by nature.

In the end, you can either be what you are made to be – a creature conforming to the order of reality – or you can make of yourself a god, and set out in defiance of reality to be whatever suits your fancy.

The truth, which we know through both faith and reason, is that we are made to know and love God – in order to be saint.  Knowledge of the truth of Him who is “the Way, Truth, and Life”[7] makes it possible for us to achieve our purpose and ultimate happiness.

Class of 2019, seek the truth.

Goodness

Now for goodness. “It belongs to every virtue to do good and avoid evil,”[8] St. Thomas Aquinas informs us with his customary clarity.  Virtue!  A word we mention here at Holy Spirit – indeed, we speak of our core virtues of Faith, Prudence, and Magnanimity.  Faith, a theological virtue whereby we believe in God and what He has revealed; Prudence, the cardinal virtue whereby we know what ought to be done, and do it; and Magnanimity, that part of the cardinal virtue of fortitude whereby we have the courage to strive after moral greatness.

As wise men back to Aristotle note, virtue is a habit of right moral action.  The Catechism calls it, “an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.”[9]

As an aside, I rather object to imprecision like we find on the bumper sticker that reads, “practice random acts of kindness.”  Random acts of kindness?  Who wants to be randomly kind?  If it is worth being kind, we need to be consistently and habitually kind.

Do remember that even little things add up – consider the $4 of a cup of coffee.  That cup 300 days of the year – taking off two months – costs $1,200.  Repetition does make a difference.  And repetitive goodness makes a difference.

The goodness I want in you, class of 2019, is that habitual goodness; goodness that is second nature.  It is only with such goodness that you will have the character to become that saint that, in truth, you know you are meant be.  As St. Robert Bellarmine notes, “a good death depends upon a good life.”[10]

Let me tell you a story about goodness: back in Northern Virginia, where I finished my education and taught for ten years, I knew a devoutly Catholic family, the Vander Woudes.  The father of that family, Thomas Vander Woude, was a good man.  Good in that rich sense of which I have spoken.

Let me read the opening of a Washington Post article about him:

If you ever ran into Nokesville dad Thomas S. Vander Woude, chances are you would also see his son Joseph. Whether Vander Woude was volunteering at church, coaching basketball or working on his farm, Joseph was often right there with him, pitching in with a smile….[11]

I remember seeing them around, myself.  Joseph, or Josie, is the most cheerful fellow you will ever meet; Josie has Downs Syndrome.  He was about 20 years old in 2008 when this article was written.  It continues,

Vander Woude, 66, had gone to Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville on Monday, just as he did every day, and then worked in the yard with Joseph, the youngest of his seven sons, affectionately known as Josie. Joseph … fell through a piece of metal that covered a 2-by-2-foot opening in the septic tank.…

At some point, Vander Woude jumped in the tank, submerging himself in sewage so he could push his son up from below and keep his head above the muck, while Joseph’s mom and the workman pulled from above.

When rescue workers arrived, they pulled the two out, police said. Vander Woude, who had been in the tank for 15 to 20 minutes, was unconscious. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

… For those who knew him, Vander Woude’s sacrifice was in keeping with a lifetime of giving.[12]

I remember the multitudes that passed by during the viewing of Mr. Vander Woude at Holy Trinity parish to pay respects to this hero.  I know, because I was among them.  This was a good man.  A virtuous man.

What gave him the strength to jump into such filth?  When faced with the moment of crisis, he was able to draw on what was already a habit – a virtue – of self-sacrifice, of goodness.  This was no random act!

Class of 2019, do the good.

Beauty

Why do I bring up such a sad story on such a joyous occasion? Quite simply, because – to the Christian – it is a beautiful story.  With the eyes of Faith, we see the sorrows and sufferings of this world in their larger context.  Why is Good Friday so good?  Easter.  Have you ever wondered why we typically celebrate the feasts of saints on the day that they died?  Actually, come to think of it, did you know that we typically celebrate the feasts of saints on the day that they died?  The Roman Martyrology refers to that day as their “birthday.”  Why?

It is on that day that they were born into the glory of the Beatific Vision – ultimate happiness and the very purpose of our lives!  A beautiful is the soul born to eternal life.  We are able to echo St. Paul, “Where then, death, is thy victory; where, death, is thy sting?”[13]  For only sin gives death its power, as St. Paul reminds us; only our free will choice to reject God in sin do we find in death nothing more than punishment and despair.

Our world is intoxicated with pleasure and self-gratification; enslaved to the false promises of sin.  You can see it too often in our arts; when reduced to nothing more than self-expression or as monuments to our own pride, they become ugly and signs of despair.  When we look to ourselves for the meaning of reality, we fall back into the error of Eden.  There is nothing beautiful about narcissism, and too much of modern art proves that point so eloquently.  Our world is awash in ugliness.

On the other hand, where you find truth and goodness together, where you find them in a way that is whole and proportional, you find something that is striking and pleasing: you find real beauty, even in the midst of suffering or hardship.

Beauty, especially the beauty of truth and goodness, but also, in a particular way, beautiful art – like what we saw in abundance in Rome — beautiful music, or beautiful literature conveys something true about our world in a manner that compels; it teaches us goodness in a way that inspires.  Our world is starved for beauty!  In the end, “our hearts are restless until they rest” in God, to paraphrase St. Augustine of Hippo.[14]

Class of 2019, love the beautiful.

Love

In the end, truth, goodness and beauty find their fulfillment in love.  Our Divine Lord instructs us: “This is my commandment, that you should love one another, as I have loved you. This is the greatest love a man can shew, that he should lay down his life for his friends; and you, if you do all that I command you, are my friends.”[15]

We are called to love.  This is not the love of sappy sentimentality, the pop song, or the selfie.  This is the self-sacrificial love of keeping the commandments in a life of virtue; the love of a parent that tends to a sick child in the middle of the night, a friend who cancels his social plans to visit a buddy in the hospital, a missionary who leaves home and family to preach the gospel to strangers, a martyr who offers up his life for the faith.  A Thomas Vander Woude, who dies to save his son.

If your love is authentic, it will be true, good, and surely beautiful.

Class of 2019, love!

Models and Humor

I leave you with two final practical points in living this out:

First, find heroes, find role models, and spend time with those that will build you up, not break you down.  The great biographer of the saints, Fr. Alban Butler, rightly notes that:

The method of forming men to virtue by example is, of all others, the shortest, the most easy way, and the best adapted to all circumstances and dispositions…[i]n the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the gospel reduced to practice, and the most heroic virtue make the object of our sense, clothed as it were with a body, and exhibited to view in its most attractive dress. [16]

Finally, never forget to have a sense of humor; a humble and joyful sense of humor – not a sneeringly cynical one!  St. Teresa of Avila, the Spanish Carmelite and Doctor of the Church is said to have prayed, “From silly devotions and sour faced saints, deliver us, O Lord.”

Conclusion

I will close by quoting Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary of Los Angeles, who gave a commencement address earlier this month focused on the virtue of magnanimity:

You are meant to go forth, carrying what you have received and cultivated here, in order to sanctify our suffering world. Is this an arduous task? Yes! But magnanimous people like arduous tasks, for they are ordered to the moral work that will give the highest honor. [17]

Holy Spirit class of 2019, go, take the light of what you have learned and begun here at Holy Spirit Prep into our increasingly dark world.  Our world needs those that in living sacrificial love, manifest the true, good, and beautiful.  Those who seek to serve and not be served.  I mean it most sincerely when I say: I know that you are up to this sublime challenge!

Come Holy Spirit and congratulations to the class of 2019!

[1] Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons, Act One, pg. 8.

[2] John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, Bk III, (translated by Daniel McGarry, UC Press, 1955), 167.

[3] Line from the motion picture, The Princess Bride.

[4] John 18:38.

[5] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 16, a. 2.

[6] Genesis, 3:5.

[7] John 14:6.

[8] Aquinas, STh, II-II, q. 79, a. 1.

[9] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1803.

[10] St. Robert Bellarmine, The Art of Dying Well (Sophia Institute edition), 5.

[11] Jonathan Mummolo, “Father Who Died Saving Son Known for Sacrifice,” Washington Post, 10 Sept 2008.

[12] Ibid.

[13] 1 Corinthians 15:55.

[14] St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk I.

[15] John 15:12-14.

[16] Alban Butler, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Introduction, (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics, 1956), xiii-xiv.

[17] Bishop Barron, Commencement Address at Thomas Aquinas College (CA), 11 May 2019.  https://thomasaquinas.edu/news/bishop-barron-commencement-address-2019