Catholic higher education

First woman named Rector of a Roman School

Sister Mary Melone, a Franciscan Sisters of Blessed Angelina, born in 1964, is the next Rector of the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical University Antonianum. The venerable Antonianum is run by the Order of Friars Minor.

In recent history of this Roman pontifical university, Sister Melone is the first woman to be appointed a dean, and now the first woman to become a rector of a pontifical university in Rome. Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education appointed Melone to a term lasting from 2014-2017. She is an expert on St. Anthony of Padua, and other points in Franciscan theology.

May Saint Anthony of Padua intercede for Sister Mary Melone’s intentions.

When Sr. Melone was elected the dean of the Antonianum she gave an interview to L’Osservatore Romano where she said:

The approach of a woman: “I don’t give much importance to these kinds of labels, female theology. Above all, I don’t like comparisons although I recognize that in the past there may have been a reason for making comparisons. Maybe there is one today as well, I don’t know. More space definitely needs to be given to women. The reference to female theology does not really fit with my vision of things: all that exists is theology. Theology as research, as a focus on mystery, as a reflection on this mystery. But precisely because this requires different sensitivities. A woman’s approach to mystery, the way in which she reflects on this mystery which offers itself and reveals itself, is certainly different from that of a man. But they do not contrast. I believe in theology and I believe that theology created by a woman is typical of a woman. It is different but without the element of laying claim to it. Otherwise it almost seems as though I am manipulating theology, when it is instead a field that requires honesty from the person who places him/herself before the mystery.”

More on women: “a reflection on this cannot be commensurate to the Church’s age as this reflects a development of thought that has gone on for hundreds of years. However, in my opinion a new space does exist and it is real. I also think it is irreversible, meaning that it is not a concession but a sign of the times from which there is no return. It is no pretense. I believe this depends a great deal on us women too. It is us who should get the ball rolling. Women cannot measure how much space they have in the Church in comparison to men: we have a space of our own, which is neither smaller nor greater than the space men occupy. It is our space. Thinking that we have to achieve what men have, will not get us anywhere. Of course, although the steps we take may be real, this does not mean the job is complete. A great deal more can be done but there is change, you can see it, feel it. I think that (my case aside) the election of a woman in a pontifical university is also proof this. The body who elected me was made up entirely of men!”

The Church does NOT need gender quotas? “No, it doesn’t need quotas, it needs collaboration. And collaboration needs to grow!”

Pope to Notre Dame: give unambiguous testimony to the Christ

Earlier today Pope Francis spoke to a large delegation from the University of Notre Dame. I think my alma mater can follow what the Pope is aiming at… don’t you think? In reading this address I am thinking and hoping that the UND does not explain away what the Pope really means.

I am pleased to greet the Trustees of Notre Dame University on the occasion of your meeting in Rome, which coincides with the inauguration of the University’s Rome Center. I am confident that the new Center will contribute to the University’s mission by exposing students to the unique historical, cultural and spiritual riches of the Eternal City, and by opening their minds and hearts to the impressive continuity between the faith of Saints Peter and Paul, and the confessors and martyrs of every age, and the Catholic faith passed down to them in their families, schools and parishes. From its founding, Notre Dame University has made an outstanding contribution to the Church in your country through its commitment to the religious education of the young and to serious scholarship inspired by confidence in the harmony of faith and reason in the pursuit of truth and virtue. Conscious of the critical importance of this apostolate for the new evangelization, I express my gratitude for the commitment which Notre Dame University has shown over the years to supporting and strengthening Catholic elementary and secondary school education throughout the United States.

The vision which guided Father Edward Sorin and the first religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross in establishing the University of Notre Dame du Lac remains, in the changed circumstances of the twenty-first century, central to the University’s distinctive identity and its service to the Church and American society. In my Exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel, I stressed the missionary dimension of Christian discipleship, which needs to be evident in the lives of individuals and in the workings of each of the Church’s institutions. This commitment to “missionary discipleship” ought to be reflected in a special way in Catholic universities (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 132-134), which by their very nature are committed to demonstrating the harmony of faith and reason and the relevance of the Christian message for a full and authentically human life. Essential in this regard is the uncompromising witness of Catholic universities to the Church’s moral teaching, and the defense of her freedom, precisely in and through her institutions, to uphold that teaching as authoritatively proclaimed by the magisterium of her pastors. It is my hope that the University of Notre Dame will continue to offer unambiguous testimony to this aspect of its foundational Catholic identity, especially in the face of efforts, from whatever quarter, to dilute that indispensable witness. And this is important: its identity, as it was intended from the beginning. To defend it, to preserve it and to advance it!

Dear friends, I ask you to pray for me as I strive to carry out the ministry which I have received in service to the Gospel, and I assure you of my prayers for you and for all associated with the educational mission of Notre Dame University. Upon you and your families, and in a particular way, upon the students, faculty and staff of this beloved University, I invoke the Lord’s gifts of wisdom, joy and peace, and cordially impart my Blessing.

Fr Michael Scanlan to retire from Franciscan University

After 11 years as chancellor and 26 years as president, Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, announced today that he’ll be retiring from Franciscan University. Scanlan is to move to the TOR motherhouse in Loretto, PA. The retirement is effective June 30, 2011.

More can be read here, included is a brief biography.

May Saint Francis of Assisi reward Father Michael abundantly for helping to rebuild the Church.

World’s “Oldest” Catholic university to reconsider “Catholic” identity

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.

Ushaw College Seminary to close in 2011

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.

Ave Maria University fires Fr. Fessio, again!

As it’s reported in a few places, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, the well-known and gifted teacher and leader was fired by Ave Maria University. The matter of his dismissal revolves around all things, financial matters of the university. Something mentioned here before. So, one must ask if the university is going to be able to make it in the long haul or is the pizza man’s dream over. All are called upon to pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for Father Fessio and, of course, for Ave Maria who once again makes an imprudent decision just because someone disagrees with their philosophy. Sounds like the roundheads are at it again. Read the news article on this event. Father Fessio’s email follows:

This morning, (Monday, July 20th) Dr. Jack Sites,
Academic Vice President of Ave Maria University, flew from Houston, where
he was attending a meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools,
to San Francisco, to inform me personally that I was being dismissed from Ave
Maria University. Our meeting was amicable and Dr. Sites, as always, acted as a
Christian gentleman.

He said that the reason for my dismissal stemmed from a
conversation I had in November of 2008 with Jack Donahue, then chairman of the
board of AMU. At that time I felt it an obligation to speak to the board
chairman before the upcoming board meeting, to make sure he was aware of the
urgency of the university’s financial situation. After I had informed him,
using projections based on publicly available documents and statements, he
asked me what I thought was the solution. I told him that there were policies being
followed that were at the root of the problem, that the present administration
was irrevocably wedded to those policies, and that without a change of
administration the university was at great risk.

Dr. Sites said that Jack
Donahue related this conversation to Tom Monaghan, and it was decided (I don’t
know specifically by whom) that the university could not have a faculty member
making these criticisms of the administration and thus undermining the
university.

Dr. Sites told me that there were unspecified others who had
similar substantive concerns that I was undermining the university.

I continue
to support the university. I pray for its success. I have great admiration for
the faculty, students, and many of the staff. I do disagree with some of the
policies of the administration. This seems to be the reason I was fired the
first time, in March 2007, since the official explanation was
“irreconcilable administrative differences”.

Nevertheless, I think it
is an accurate summary to say that I am being dismissed as a faculty member
because of a private conversation with the chairman of the board in which I
made known my criticisms of the university administration; and because of
allegations which have not been made known to me and to which I have not been given
an opportunity to respond.

I will continue to recommend AMU to students and
parents. And I will continue to think my dismissal is another mistake in a long
series of unwise decisions.

Fordham favors secular respectability instead of the Gospel

Yet another example of Catholic higher ed making foolish distinctions in order to justify their morally wrong actions and doing an end-run around the face of Christ and His Church. It is not merely as one headline reads: contempt for the bishops BUT contempt for Christ!

Fordham honors pro-choice secular leaders. Read for your self here and here.

Is Fordham really Catholic AND Jesuit? What is Archbishop Dolan going to do about this matter? Will the Jesuits sit back and capitulate to secular mediocrity?

It wasn’t too long ago that Fordham Law honored an abortion-approving Supreme Court Justice.

Reflecting on recent events in Catholic Higher Education: the Obama/Glendon craziness

Tonight’s TV
news on NBC drew the world’s attention to the fact that Mary Ann Glendon
declined Notre Dame’s famous Laetare Medal that is given at the commencement
exercises in May. By the way, 2009 marks the 126th year of the award. The medal
honors the distinguished work of Catholics; once reserved for the laity now
also given to the clergy and religious. These events have me thinking about the
meaning of these events surrounding the craziness of inviting the US president
who stands contrary to Catholic faith and Professor Glendon who is a faithful
Catholic to be on the same stage.

It seems to me
that when you pan the comments of academics at Catholic colleges and university
what you don’t see is rhetoric about Christ, faith as a way of knowing, truth,
the objectivity of the Church, the intersection of faith and reason, etc. What you will find are comments like:
“We don’t see a conflict with our Catholic identity if we have a speaker on
campus who may have views that are in conflict with Catholic teachings. We
consider the contributions the speaker has made to society as a whole, and that
doesn’t necessarily mean we endorse all of their positions or views. We’re
committed to a Jesuit tradition, which doesn’t suppress educational issues and
intellectual debate,” said Kristine Maloney, a spokeswoman for the College of
the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. But Ms. Maloney fails to understand that this
type of forum gives credence of equality to contrary views to Catholic faith.
Obama’s speech is a monologue not a dialogue.

Or, let’s take
the president of Trinity Washington University’s Patricia McGuire who reminds
us that Catholics have long struggled to get a place of respectability in the
market place of ideas and that to blindly follow the bishops would simply be
parochial. In her estimation, “The
diminishment of the idea of the university by [some critics] betrays two
centuries of intellectual advancement and real leadership by Catholic higher
education in this nation.” Really, I don’t think it is narrow-minded to stand
with the Church I profess to believe in and follow unto my salvation in Christ.

Let’s just take
the Jesuit college’s perspective since there are far more people memorized by
the so-called Jesuit tradition realizing neither the history nor the aim of
Jesuit, Catholic education. Let’s remember what many faculty members said at
the last search for a Holy Cross College president: we don’t want a lay person
as president because he or she might make the College too Catholic; a Jesuit is
freer to allow us to think and act the way we want. Hence, what you see
embedded in Ms. Maloney’s remarks about the Jesuit intellectual life of the
university is true now but historically that same Jesuit intellectual tradition
followed Christ unconditionally because it was rooted in the Spiritual
Exercises. In fact, contemporary Jesuit apostolates are said to exist “To
follow Christ bearing his Cross means announcing his Gospel of hope….” Jesuit
institutions stood for faithfulness to the Gospel, to Church teaching and the
dignity of the human person. The Jesuit educational apostolate explored the
limits of faith and reason but always came back to faith as the mother of
virtue and true knowledge. In a former time there was not a capitulation to
secular values that divorces Christ from reality, that removes the Church from
the public square or merely wants to fit-in at all costs.

I fail to see
why fitting-in is a value for academics at Catholic institutions: theirs is a quest for the reasonableness of Truth. Being like
the professors in secular universities in my estimation is a failed enterprise
and one that has lead away from Jesus Christ as Savior and reality. True to the
Ignatian heritage of Jesuit educational institutions it would be good if Holy
Cross College and 27 other Jesuit colleges and universities did the Examen according
to the mind Saint Ignatius of Loyola asking the Lord for the grace of
conversion while attempting to live in “that harmony with the Magisterium which
avoids causing confusion and dismay among the People of God” (Benedict XVI to
the Jesuits, 2008)

Many US
Catholics seem comfortable with beige Catholicism and a theology based on
sentiment. There is no arguing otherwise given Notre Dame’s honoring of
President Obama and now the growing list of “Catholic” institutions of higher
learning caving to political pressure and respectability with no significant
outcry from the bulk of 60 million Catholics in the US. When encountering Saint
Peter at the heavenly gates I hope the academics don’t get offended if Saint
Peter has a different view on what it means to be a Catholic and to labor at a
Catholic higher educational institution. Let’s be clear: Christ didn’t come to
found a Catholic university–He came to bring us to the Father with the distinct
claim that He, Christ, is the way, the truth, and the life. Anything short of
that is nonsense.

In world where
clarity of Catholic faith is “normal” Catholic education would not afraid of
differing theological or philosophical positions, especially those that may run
contrary to orthodox Catholic teachings; in fact, a Catholic ought to be
respectful of what others have to say, always proposing the Gospel and the
Church teaching as true and a place of encounter with Christ. Having said this, a platform at a
Catholic institution needs to sensitively, yet firmly follow Christ and the
teachings of His Church. Clearly, playing footsy with positions contrary to the
Church cannot not be presented as equally valid to what the Church holds or
teaches!

Let’s not grow faint of heart by following Christ and keeping in mind the motto of the Laetare Medal: Magna est veritas et prevalebit (Truth is mighty, and it will prevail).

Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, at Fordham Univ

The President of Fordham University, Fr. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. announced Tuesday Feb. 17, a Jaharis Family Foundation gift establishing the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture as part of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program of this renowned Roman-Catholic Jesuit University.

The announcement came at the conclusion of the Sixth Annual Orthodoxy in America Lecture given this year by Fr. Stanley Harakas, ThD, who is the Archbishop Iakovos Professor of Orthodox Theology Emeritus at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Fr. Harakas’ topic “The Future of Orthodox Christianity in America: A Normative Approach” captivated his diverse audience of academics, clergymen, students and laymen. He outlined the threats and pitfalls but also the opportunities of the social and cultural reality in America and suggested ways of what we need to do and ought to do, as Orthodox.

Following the lecture President McShane announced the establishment of the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture through a generous donation of two million dollars by the Jaharis Family Foundation. Fr. McShane welcomed Michael and Mary Jaharis as he expressed his great joy and gratitude. He further said that naming the chair after Archbishop Demetrios is a most deserving honor and that the University was “thrilled that his name (the Archbishop’s) and the name of the Jaharis family will forever be associated with Fordham.”

Newman Guide Profiles of Catholic Colleges Now Online

A new independent report on college costs published by The Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education–the research division of The Cardinal Newman Society–reveals that some of the most faithful Catholic colleges and universities in the United States also offer students significant cost savings.

Among the study’s key findings:

· Average tuition for students at the recommended faithful Catholic colleges is about $3,000 less than at other Catholic colleges and about $1,000 less than the average private college.

· The Newman Guide colleges provide students a larger portion of institutional aid (39%) than the average private college (29%).

· Students at the recommended Catholic colleges graduate with fewer loans and less debt–on average, about $2,000 less than at private colleges and $1,400 less than other Catholic colleges.

The study was conducted by Andrew Gillen, Ph.D., a leading expert on college affordability issues and the research director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. The study is available online at TheNewmanGuide.com.

In order to help families learn more about the Newman Guide’s recommended faithful and affordable colleges, beginning today their campus profiles are available online for the first time at TheNewmanGuide.com.

The recommended Newman Guide colleges are Ave Maria University, Aquinas College (Tenn.), Belmont Abbey College, Benedictine College, The Catholic University of America, Christendom College, The College of Saint Thomas More (Texas), DeSales University, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Holy Apostles College & Seminary, John Paul the Great Catholic University, Magdalen College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, St. Gregory’s University, Southern Catholic College, Thomas Aquinas College, The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (N.H.), University of Dallas, University of St. Thomas (Texas), and Wyoming Catholic College.