The Comeback in Catholic Education
On August 31, Labouré College became the 24th Catholic college in America to shut down in the last decade. Three more colleges have also announced they will close in the coming months.
It’s one part of a bleak picture for American Catholic education, which has failed to retain the support of Catholic families – in part, because much of Catholic education has failed to provide the robust Catholic formation that families need.
But amid the overall decline, there is an exciting renewal underway that offers great hope to Catholic families. Several of America’s most faithful Catholic colleges, recognized in The Newman Guide, are growing in size and reputation. Many dioceses are strengthening their parochial schools, both academically and spiritually. Families are also finding new hope in Catholic home-schooling and lay-run independent schools.
These are signs of what our newest Doctor of the Church and Patron of Catholic Education, St John Henry Newman, might call a “second spring” for the Church in the United States.
Each of the Catholic colleges that has closed its doors has an inspiring history to tell: of founders who sought to evangelize America through faithful Catholic education, benefactors who generously supported the Catholic formation of thousands of young adults and teachers who cultivated minds and souls in contemplation of God.
But in the last few decades, devotion to distinctly Catholic education waned significantly at most of these now-defunct colleges. Facing growing competition from state-funded universities, they sought to recruit non-Catholic students by secularizing their programs, thus diminishing their value to the Catholic families for whom the colleges were originally established.
The Daughters of Charity founded Labouré College in Massachusetts in 1892, to form Catholic nurses to serve at nearby Carney Hospital in Boston. Labouré and Carney were the first Catholic nursing school and the first Catholic hospital in all of New England.
But in 2010, the Daughters handed over control of both the college and the hospital to a for-profit healthcare company, Steward Health Care System. The company separated from Labouré in 2013, but the college was still independent of its founders and focused on preparing a diverse student body for secular careers. Steward closed the hospital in 2024.
After closing on August 31, Labouré College’s nursing program will be transferred to nearby Curry College, a secular institution with more than 90 majors. It vaguely promises to turn each student’s “unique dream into a reality” – but Christian service and sainthood are probably not on the agenda.
This, sadly, is the story across much of American Catholic education. It is declining in number as well as conviction. Half of the college closures since 1997 occurred in the last three years. All US colleges are competing for fewer students, due to low birth rates and declining interest in higher education, but small religious colleges are especially struggling.
Meanwhile, the number of students in Catholic primary and secondary schools has plummeted 70 percent since 1965 – and 13 percent in just the last decade, according to annual data from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA).
This decline is often blamed on the betrayal of nuns, who in the 1970s quit Catholic schools after Vatican II. But in the ensuing decades, there have been many other factors eroding Catholic schooling: dissent and disaffiliation of many Catholics, infidelity and secularization within many of the schools, increased taxpayer funding for free public schools, declining academic standards in the US, smaller Catholic families, declining Catholic marriages and demographic shifts of Catholics away from inner-city schools.
The fall of Catholic education in the US – which at its height in 1965 enrolled 5.6 million students in parochial schools according to NCEA – is both a cause and a symptom of the broader decline of Catholic practice in America. Since 1970, even as the number of US Catholics increased 40 percent, infant baptisms have declined nearly 50 percent and Catholic marriages nearly 75 percent (compiled data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate).
Still, it seems appropriate to borrow Newman’s declaration of a “Second Spring” in reference to the exciting revival of faithful education that has begun to take hold in the US – even amid the larger collapse of institutions that voluntarily weakened their Catholic identity.
This revival in Catholic colleges began in the 1970s with the dramatic reform of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and the founding of Thomas Aquinas College in California, Christendom College in Virginia, Holy Apostles College in Connecticut and Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. They defied the trends across higher education by doubling down on the liberal arts and Christian formation.
Other new colleges have since followed, such as Ave Maria University in Florida, Catholic International University (which is entirely online), John Paul the Great Catholic University in California, Rosary College in South Carolina, College of St Joseph the Worker in Ohio and Wyoming Catholic College. The innovation is notable: for example, John Paul the Great is committed to forming New Media missionaries, and St Joseph the Worker is preparing students in skilled labor.
The reform of Catholic education has taken hold in several long-established Catholic colleges and universities. These have renewed their commitment to education grounded in the truth of the Catholic faith, including Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, Benedictine College in Kansas, the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, University of Dallas and University of St Thomas in Texas, University of Mary in North Dakota and Walsh University in Ohio.
All these are recommended in The Newman Guide, which helps families find faithful Catholic education at all levels, and Catholic families are rewarding these colleges with their support. Every small US college faces difficulties in the years ahead – especially, it seems, small religious colleges that are prevalent among colleges that have closed in recent years – but faithful Catholic colleges are doing better than most, because they have a niche market that is enthusiastic about them.
Among the 14 colleges recommended in The Newman Guide for the last 10 years, enrolment grew 21 per cent, according to data provided by the colleges. During the same period, the US Education Department reports a 2 per cent decline in undergraduate enrolment at all private four-year colleges in the US.
Meanwhile, there are also many hopeful signs in Catholic elementary and secondary education. American dioceses are adopting clear moral standards for teachers, and 52 dioceses serving about half a million students have embraced the Catholic Curriculum Standards of the Cardinal Newman Society, requiring integration of the Catholic faith across all subjects.
Reports indicate that Catholic homeschooling is on the rise, and it has had a significant impact on Catholic schools, families and the Church. Parents are taking charge of their children’s formation. Educators are finding new freedom to innovate while also recovering time-proven methods, curricula and textbooks, entwined with the classical education movement.
All this fulfils what Pope Leo proposes in his apostolic letter, Drawing New Maps of Hope. He envisions a “constellation” of Catholic education, with various methods and charisms, but revolving around truth. “The foundation remains the same: the person, image of God (Gen 1:26), capable of truth and relationship. Therefore, the question of the relationship between faith and reason is not an optional chapter: ‘Religious Truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge.’”
That final quote is from St John Henry Newman, who also gives hope to Catholic families in his new role as Patron of Catholic Education. His educational vision is a sure guide to Catholic educators and to parents seeking the best schools, colleges and homeschool programs. And by his intercession, we can hope for renewal across the US.
Patrick Reilly is president and founder of the Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education and publishes The Newman Guide.
(This article was reprinted with permission from The Catholic Herald, where it originally appeared. Consider subscribing to The Catholic Herald for Catholic news and commentary, including on faithful Newman Guide education.)
