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Tonight’s TV It seems to me Or, let’s take Let’s just take I fail to see Many US In world where 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).<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading Reflecting on recent events in Catholic Higher Education: the Obama\/Glendon craziness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1936],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nnews on NBC drew the world’s attention to the fact that Mary Ann Glendon
\ndeclined Notre Dame’s famous Laetare Medal that is given at the commencement
\nexercises in May. By the way, 2009 marks the 126th year of the award. The medal
\nhonors the distinguished work of Catholics; once reserved for the laity now
\nalso given to the clergy and religious. These events have me thinking about the
\nmeaning of these events surrounding the craziness of inviting the US president
\nwho stands contrary to Catholic faith and Professor Glendon who is a faithful
\nCatholic to be on the same stage.
\nthat when you pan the comments of academics at Catholic colleges and university
\nwhat you don’t see is rhetoric about Christ, faith as a way of knowing, truth,
\nthe objectivity of the Church, the intersection of faith and reason, etc. <\/span>What you will find are comments like:
\n“We don’t see a conflict with our Catholic identity if we have a speaker on
\ncampus who may have views that are in conflict with Catholic teachings. We
\nconsider the contributions the speaker has made to society as a whole, and that
\ndoesn’t necessarily mean we endorse all of their positions or views. We’re
\ncommitted to a Jesuit tradition, which doesn’t suppress educational issues and
\nintellectual debate,” said Kristine Maloney, a spokeswoman for the College of
\nthe Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. But Ms. Maloney fails to understand that this
\ntype of forum gives credence of equality to contrary views to Catholic faith.
\nObama’s speech is a monologue not a dialogue.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe president of Trinity Washington University’s Patricia McGuire who reminds
\nus that Catholics have long struggled to get a place of respectability in the
\nmarket place of ideas and that to blindly follow the bishops would simply be
\nparochial. <\/span>In her estimation, “The
\ndiminishment of the idea of the university by [some critics] betrays two
\ncenturies of intellectual advancement and real leadership by Catholic higher
\neducation in this nation.” Really, I don’t think it is narrow-minded to stand
\nwith the Church I profess to believe in and follow unto my salvation in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe Jesuit college’s perspective since there are far more people memorized by
\nthe so-called Jesuit tradition realizing neither the history nor the aim of
\nJesuit, Catholic education. Let’s remember what many faculty members said at
\nthe last search for a Holy Cross College president: we don’t want a lay person
\nas president because he or she might make the College too Catholic; a Jesuit is
\nfreer to allow us to think and act the way we want. Hence, what you see
\nembedded in Ms. Maloney’s remarks about the Jesuit intellectual life of the
\nuniversity is true now but historically that same Jesuit intellectual tradition
\nfollowed Christ unconditionally because it was rooted in the Spiritual
\nExercises. In fact, contemporary Jesuit apostolates are said to exist “To
\nfollow Christ bearing his Cross means announcing his Gospel of hope….” Jesuit
\ninstitutions stood for faithfulness to the Gospel, to Church teaching and the
\ndignity of the human person. The Jesuit educational apostolate explored the
\nlimits of faith and reason but always came back to faith as the mother of
\nvirtue and true knowledge. In a former time there was not a capitulation to
\nsecular values that divorces Christ from reality, that removes the Church from
\nthe public square or merely wants to fit-in at all costs.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwhy fitting-in is a value for academics at Catholic institutions: theirs is a quest for the reasonableness of Truth. Being like
\nthe professors in secular universities in my estimation is a failed enterprise
\nand one that has lead away from Jesus Christ as Savior and reality. True to the
\nIgnatian heritage of Jesuit educational institutions it would be good if Holy
\nCross College and 27 other Jesuit colleges and universities did the Examen according
\nto the mind Saint Ignatius of Loyola asking the Lord for the grace of
\nconversion while attempting to live in “that harmony with the Magisterium which
\navoids causing confusion and dismay among the People of God” (Benedict XVI to
\nthe Jesuits, 2008)<\/span><\/p>\n
\nCatholics seem comfortable with beige Catholicism and a theology based on
\nsentiment. There is no arguing otherwise given Notre Dame’s honoring of
\nPresident Obama and now the growing list of “Catholic” institutions of higher
\nlearning caving to political pressure and respectability with no significant
\noutcry from the bulk of 60 million Catholics in the US. When encountering Saint
\nPeter at the heavenly gates I hope the academics don’t get offended if Saint
\nPeter has a different view on what it means to be a Catholic and to labor at a
\nCatholic higher educational institution. Let’s be clear: Christ didn’t come to
\nfound a Catholic university–He came to bring us to the Father with the distinct
\nclaim that He, Christ, is the way, the truth, and the life. Anything short of
\nthat is nonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nclarity of Catholic faith is “normal” Catholic education would not afraid of
\ndiffering theological or philosophical positions, especially those that may run
\ncontrary to orthodox Catholic teachings; in fact, a Catholic ought to be
\nrespectful of what others have to say, always proposing the Gospel and the
\nChurch teaching as true and a place of encounter with Christ. <\/span>Having said this, a platform at a
\nCatholic institution needs to sensitively, yet firmly follow Christ and the
\nteachings of His Church. Clearly, playing footsy with positions contrary to the
\nChurch cannot not be presented as equally valid to what the Church holds or
\nteaches!<\/span><\/p>\n