Catholic Higher Education: October 2010 Archives

The Catholic University of Lueven, founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V is said to be entering into a process to re-consider their Catholic identity, even to the point of removing the adjective "Catholic" from their title, a news item on the Cardinal Newman Society's webpage said, reporting a Brussels-based news article on October 7.

The university's rector Mark Waer, 59, a trained physican and medical researcher in nephrology and immunology, has reportedly said, "The Catholic message is not appropriate for the university..." after the criticism from Catholics about the granting of the Nobel Prize to the instigator of IVF technology. Waer only began his term as rector of the university in 2009.

The University's mission statement can be read here.

UK's The Tablet ran a news piece today saying the seminary for the North of England dioceses, Ushaw College, is closing at the end of the school year in June 2011. Currently, 7 English dioceses are served by UC. Ushaw was first founded in Douai, France in 1568 and has been located four miles west of Durham City since 1808.

From its heyday of 400 men studying for the priesthood to 26 today, the Ushaw has a staff of 62.

The story of Ushaw is grim and it sounds like St Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie) which has fewer than 25 seminarians for the secular priesthood. For the time being SJS is working alone and is slated to merge with Huntington's seminary.