Help finding Orthodox College

[newf]

I’m a student at Boston College and I love it. It’s the sort of school where if you want to be serious about your Catholic faith, there are so many opportunities for you to do so.

St. Thomas More Society is a large student group on campus lead by priest and professors that meets once a week for an hour and a half of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, benediction, and the Rosary (and option to go to confession), followed by an hour of “Theology by the Slice,” where there is speaker and theology discussion.

Sons of Saint Patrick is a Catholic men’s group on campus that meets once a week for Evening Prayer followed by a speaker and theology discussion.

Gratia Plena is a Catholic women’s group on campus that meets once a week, I think for the same thing as Sons does (but I’m a man so I wouldn’t know!).

The Pro-Life club isn’t strictly Catholic (though most students in it are, and the adviser is a seminarian), but every year we go to Washington, DC for the March for Life and SFLA Pro-Life Conference.

There are groups that say the rosary separately on a weekly basis and there is a Catholic homeless ministry that goes into the city every week.

There is also adoration at St. Ignatius for four hours once a week.

There are 14 Sunday Masses each week. There are 44 weekday Masses each week. There are 4 churches/chapels on campus (open most of the time for private prayer as well) and this isn’t including the recently purchased Brighton Campus, next to which is St. John’s Seminary. Confession is available on 7 separate occasions each week.

The theology department isn’t perfect. For example, there are professors of other faiths who teach about world religions. I see no problem with that, and think it is important if you are to have dialogue with other religions. Some professors teach different points of view of theology, and I take it just as that - different points of view. I think it is vital to understand different theologies if you are to be a well-rounded student of philosophy/theology.

However, there are many holy and orthodox professors in the theology and philosophy departments (I have one of them right now), including Dr. Peter Kreeft who you may have heard of.

When I was looking for colleges I had the same dilemma as you. I wanted a school where I could grow in the Catholic faith, and I was skeptical of schools like Boston College that didn’t have the best reputation. But Boston College has given me so many opportunities to continue learning and growing as a Catholic. For example, we have hundreds of priests who live on campus, which is a great opportunity to find a good spiritual director.

The campus is beautiful, and yet we’re twenty minutes from the best city ever - not to mention academically Boston College is one of the best universities in the world.

So give it a second thought

Good luck in your search!

My husband and I sent one of our daughters to Boston College. She graduated in '06 and then went on and got her masters there, too. It was a fabulous experience for her. The friends she made there are still a part of her life. And Andy is right, there are many opportunities to pursue the faith. We even flew her BC philosophy professor home here in Michigan to marry her. He also baptized their first child at St. Ignatius on campus. And another baby is on the way and we know we’ll be back again for another baptism, as our daughter and her husband still live in the Boston area.

Attending Boston College helped strengthen our daughter’s faith, not diminish it.

 

[Bella85]

University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. www.udallas.edu Sophomores spend a semester in Rome at their Rome Campus. Solidly Catholic.

 

[Margarite]

I’m trying to find orthodox Catholic Universities in the US for my daughter. I have two for sure: Franciscan University of Steubenville and Ave Maria University in Florida.

Please help me with other choices, but only good orthodox schools. For instance, Notre Dame and Boston College do not qualify. Too secular.

I attend Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY it is a very conservative school focused on the Liberal Arts. It has a program similar to TAC’s but it also includes extensive hiking, horseback riding, and in my opinion it has a more well rounded education than TAC’s. And of course I am totally unbiased

The school is brand new and next year we will have about 100 students. If you have any interest, it is at least worth a look-see:thumbsup:
wyomingcatholiccollege.com/

 

[Rach620]

I wish you wouldn’t dismiss Notre Dame. I found it to be very faithful, and I met a number of very devout, orthodox Catholic friends there, including my husband.

Water rises to meet its own. If your daughter wants orthodox friends, solid liturgies, holy confessors, etc, she can find them at ND.

You’re brave to post this, after all of the recent news! I’m a 2009 graduate of ND, and I totally agree!

To the OP: Which schools have you visited so far? What does your daughter want to study? Each of the schools being recommended is SO different.

 

[Rach620]

I wanted to expand upon my previous post by answering a few concerns posted by others.

Do you know the percentage of ND professors who voluntarily take the Mandatum? I do not know myself. If few or none of the faculty members voluntarily take the Mandatum, does this indicate anything about the orthodoxy of the professors, as opposed to the institution?

I majored in theology and can say that the Mandatum is voluntary, but a large percentage of the faculty have sought it. (The 80% figure posted earlier is probably right on track). Also, ND does have non-Catholics on the theology faculty–at least one Jewish rabbi, and a couple of non-Catholic Christians who are experts in their fields AND sincerely try to teach their courses from a Catholic perspective. These non-Catholics might be the reason not 100% of theology professors have received the Mandatum.

Here is another vote for Stubie U. Back in the day (20 years ago) there were more Theology majors at this tiny school than ND and Catholic U combined. I bet that ratio is even greater today. I was there last month and the Orthodox vibe was alive and well.

ND’s Theology Department has truly had a renaissance under the current chair, John Cavadini. I believe there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 majors, not to mention those who minor in theology. Notre Dame also has a strong philosophy program and a rigorous joint major in philosophy and theology that several of my friends have completed. Theology is alive and well at Notre Dame, and the caliber of the department probably makes it the strongest [Catholic] theology department in the country.

I will say that ND was not the most wholesome place to socialize. Honestly, the drinking and the pressure to drink that goes on there is incredible. The Knights of Columbus house was well known as a party den, and the members would have their girlfriends sleep over in order to avoid following parietal rules.

It sounds like this was years ago, from your post. The KofC hall is not at all known as the ‘party den’ any more! In fact, it was central command for all of ND Response’s activities this past semester! And there are PLENTY of really wholesome Catholic social groups for those who seek them out–plenty of clubs with a spiritual focus have lots of social activities and you start to know people who participate in those that ‘overlap’. There’s a thriving orthodox Catholic student culture on campus that is just so life-changing for so many. I miss having my strong group of Catholic friends all together in one place!

 

[Wonderboo]

So I’m kinda sad no one’s said my fav. Catholic university of all time (well in this country anyway). The Catholic University of America. Its my old school but its a wonderful place and is fully fully Orthodox. Its the Bishop’s school so its pretty spiffy and it also means that it HAS to be orthodox in its teachings (well no really what it is is because it grants church degrees but you know what I mean, it has to be on the catholic boat).
You should check it out.
(www.cua.edu)
end plug

 

[HouseArrest]

So I’m kinda sad no one’s said my fav. Catholic university of all time (well in this country anyway). The Catholic University of America. Its my old school but its a wonderful place and is fully fully Orthodox. Its the Bishop’s school so its pretty spiffy and it also means that it HAS to be orthodox in its teachings (well no really what it is is because it grants church degrees but you know what I mean, it has to be on the catholic boat).
You should check it out.
(www.cua.edu)
end plug

You missed it! Roll back to post #34. My daughter’s class is going on a week long DC trip in September. They’re touring CUA. She’ll only be in 8th grade, but since it’s the closest solidly Catholic school to us, I’m hoping she takes a liking to it.

I see DeSales University is on some of the lists. Anyone have any experience with the school? I never hear much about it. It’s close, too.

JK - what don’t you like about Franciscan?

 

[Wonderboo]

You missed it! Roll back to post #34. My daughter’s class is going on a week long DC trip in September. They’re touring CUA. She’ll only be in 8th grade, but since it’s the closest solidly Catholic school to us, I’m hoping she takes a liking to it.

I see DeSales University is on some of the lists. Anyone have any experience with the school? I never hear much about it. It’s close, too.

JK - what don’t you like about Franciscan?

I hope she likes it too…I’m a HUGE CUA fan

 

[TAllan]

University of the Incarnate Word or Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio, TX.

 

[Tradcat89]

Gotta stump for my state: Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Super solidly Catholic!

Christendom is awesome! Very solid school which gives a person an excellent ability to reason and pursue a balanced, healthy, Catholic lifestyle.

 

[dakotagirl]

I’m about to graduate from Franciscan University with an MA in theology and I can still say that the best (and most traditional/orthodox) Catholic college experience I ever had was during my years at UCLA as a undergrad. I think you need to broaden your college search by a wide margin. Notre Dame is a great school but if their apostasy bothers you then why not send your kids to a good university that doesn’t abuse the Catholic name? Your kid will get a better education and probably pay a lot less if they opt to go to a good state school over any of the “conservative Catholic colleges”. I personally think that Franciscan is a TERRIBLE school, I would never send any of my children here (I’m a parent of one daughter).

At big state schools you can at least have the opportunity (simply because of the size) to meet like minded Catholics and share fellowship.

Also none of the “conservative Catholic colleges” are nationally ranked (or ranked very well). This could be very serious if your son/daughter has any ambition. They all claim to have great liberal art/great books programs, but this doesn’t translate well into graduate school, etc. Seriously, I you want them to read the Illiad and the Odyssey then just check it out at the library.

Also, the orthodoxy at these schools is grossly overstated. Plenty of my professors at Franciscan were lacking in this department and the friars on campus are MORE than just lacking in this department. They are pretty much typical TORs and not really plugged into the schools supposed mission.

Yes, do say more. I am shocked (and amused) to see anyone especially someone from there disrespect the Great and Impeccable Franciscan University of Steubenville. How is it possible to not like it there?? I am curious.

 

[Joseph629]

You might want to look at: Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy College

www.seatofwisdom.org

It is a wonderful college. It is the ***only ***college in Canada given the approval of the Newman Guide. Bishops from Vancouver to Quebec -and a Cardinal- have given their support. Many Americans have attended over the years.

I have 2 daughters attending currently. And a 3rd daughter that has completed her education.

Oh, and the price is right

 

[ald]

Mount St. Mary University in Emmitsburg, Maryland is an excellent school. My oldest graduated in May. The commencement speaker was George Weigel.

 

[catholicgirl333]

University of Dallas!!

Great curriculum, great people, faithful to the Magisterium, GREAT Rome program…I could go on and on.

I’m totally biased, since I’m an alumna, but here’s an article by George Weigel in which he calls it the best Catholic college in America:

udallas.edu/undergrad/whatotherssaycont.cfm

I’m always promoting UD!

 

[JKsoren]

Part 1

Oh man, I have commented on this topic a number of times already…but I will briefly re-state my case against the school. If you search my name on this forum you’ll find the other things that I’ve had to say as well.

Essentially my problem is this: the school isn’t what it claims to be. It sells itself as a beacon of Catholic spiritual/intellectual development. A religious community that is totally unwavering in its “dynamic orthodoxy”… yet it is not as it seems at Franciscan, despite what commercials on EWTN might say to the contrary. Many of my peers REFUSE to believe otherwise, even while they can see/admit the obvious glaring problems with the school. It seems that many of us (Franciscan students/alumni/some professors even) refuse to be honest with ourselves and others about what this place is actually like in person. I wish that we were more honest about it though, because if I had known what I know now, I would NEVER have opted to move my family to Steubenville and waste time and money studying for a the useless (and expensive) “masters in theology”.

Not all of the professors at Franciscan are in fact faithful Catholics. While the school pretty much implies that EVERY single professor teaching there is fervently devoted to Christ and his Church, a quick examination of the actual faculty (and their backgrounds) shows this not to be so. For instance, check out their business and education departments faculty profiles. You’ll find, as I did by experiencing it in person, that their faculties are not always made up of devoted Catholics but rather they are represented by Ohio/Pennsylvania locals that have an MA or PhD from one of the nearby colleges (typically Dusquesne). Many of these people are simply at Franciscan because its a job and they want to continue to live in the region that they’ve lived in their entire lives… not because of the school’s purported spiritual mission. Even worse, the same can be said of many of the administration and board members who actually run the school.

This might not be so bad, if this were just a local community college (the kind that hires under achieving locals), but Franciscan does not claim to be an expensive community college…it clearly implies in its advertisements, videos, campaigns, etc that the school is UNEQUIVOCALLY CATHOLIC… throughout, a veritable city on a hill! However, I’ve known a number of students in the counseling masters program for instance who are shocked to discover that a number of their professors don’t seem to care much about Catholicism or how Catholic teaching ought to be related to the field of counseling. That’s a pretty disappointing thing to find out when you sacrifice so much to move across the country and settle in the depressing Ohio steel valley!

During the presidential race last year we even had one professor, from the social work department (I think), boldly proclaim his support for Hillary Clinton…he did so by attending a local rally in her support/honor. When it became clear that he didn’t feel that Catholic teaching ought to affect his vote (though he was raised Catholic…like most of the other locals in Steubenville, who are mainly “cultural Catholics”, i.e. Notre Dame football fans) I was shocked! I thought that Franciscan was supposed to be a place that was unwaveringly committed to the Catholic mission, but here was a professor confused about Catholic life issues and their priority in American politics…and he was PUBLIC about it! While one of the philosophy professors wrote an excellent refutation of this social studies professors’ half baked position (and subsequent goofy defense of said position) in the school newspaper, literally NOTHING came of this event. Not a thing. No one so much as batted an eye, and I can’t really say why. Franciscan students just shrugged it off in fact, they would rather pretend that he was a single case and that the school was still overwhelming represented by the “dynamic orthodoxy” proclaimed in the ads.

However, this is shear blindness. Even within the beloved theology and philosophy departments (where most of us spend our intellectual energy) there are some very serious problems, problems that again are ignored. One professor in particular, whom I will not name, is a unabashed heretic who denies the physical ascension of Christ into heaven and the orthodox understanding of the inerrancy of scripture. Other less problematic professors often come close to this latter position more than I would have liked as well. While, for the most part, the faculty is indeed truly faithful to the Church’s teaching (especially the younger professors) there are a significant number who teach here who would only satisfy the maudatum in name. In fact, one should be reminded that such oaths are easily sworn by the those who are intellectually creative enough. For instance many arian heretics were able to say the Nicene Creed without hesitation for the simple fact that they interpreted the verbal content of the Creed differently than their rival Nicene Christians. Similarly, it seems that we have professors at Franciscan who are able to stand as “true believers” devoted to some “magesterium,” but often the magesterium they have in mind is whatever scrap or document that can aid them in circumventing specific traditional doctrines. (Vatican II comes to mind readily)

 

[JKsoren]

Part 2

Two for instance insist that the Islamic “Allah” is synonymous with the God of Judeo-Christian God of Scripture, thus making Islam in some fashion a semi-true religion because they are worshipping the very same God…are they not? This is not so. I could go on and on with various examples of this sort of thing, but I won’t. However, what really needs to be mentioned is my shock at the heresy engendered by the friars on campus. In the chapel (the shark fin building that gives Franciscan its logo) I have heard homilies just as bad (if not worse) as the kind of garbage being preached in some of our home parishes. I thought that we had come to Franciscan to learn sound doctrine, but it was not so. I heard one Friar denounce the “old testament” God as an “abusive father” whom Jesus had been able to transform/reinterpret for us as a gentle happy God that only “loves” us.(See marcionism). There was so much wrong with this that I couldn’t even believe it was happening, I literally felt like crying, and to this day I despise my whimsical and ill thought out decision to go to Franciscan. In fact, I retain the memory of this period in my life as being among the very worst.

To summarize, so that I am not misunderstood (as I am bound to be by someone reading this at some point), my specific problem and main problem with the school is that it is NOT what it advertises itself to be. It is NOT in fact what other faithful Catholics proclaim it to be. If the theology faculty, the regular faculty, and the TORs have overt and near overt heretics in their ranks, how then can we go on proclaiming the school as a pristine “safe place” for Catholics? How can we continue to call it what it is not? Yet we do, and whenever arguments erupt about going to or not going to schools such as Notre Dame or Boston College, there is always some group of people who present this school as a kind of simple solution. Yet, I think they fool themselves and that they are unfortunately only leading others astray about what I have come to consider more of a misguided “scam” than a real college. Don’t believe the hype/lie about this school and its “dynamic orthodoxy”. Save your money and go to a good in-state public university, if you’re thinking about college (or the very best school you can get into, if you can gain financial support). Further, I say save your time and your money, if you’re seriously considering attending this mess of a school for graduate work in theology… just pick up a copy of the Bible and the universal catechism and start reading. The classes at Franciscan often don’t go much further than doing just that.

 

[dakotagirl]

JK - Thanks for answering in detail! All I can say is Wow - and I can’t believe how many people are sold on it. I feel like I’ve sort of found a kindred spirit.

 

[HouseArrest]

JK - thanks for your perspective. It’s good to hear all opinions. My kids will be starting to look at colleges in four short years, and I will definitely keep this in mind.

 

[ORTIZA777]

The University of St. Thomas - Houston, TX.

I recommend the Newman Guide To Choosing A Catholic College. A couple of years was spent researching and visiting the 224 Catholic colleges/universities in the U.S. They focused on characteristics such as: Catholic Identity and a fidelity to Church teaching. You can learn more at cardinalnewmansociety.org/

They are sort of the watchdog for Catholic colleges and hold them accountable.

Good luck!

 

[anode]

Two of the best are College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph MN, which is affiliated with St. John’s Univ in Collegeville. Students can take courses at both. St. B is # 84 in rank of the highest tier of liberal arts colleges in US News & World Report. St. B is ranked as the best Catholic women’s college in the US. I think that there is a lot to be said for going to a women’s college.

The second is St. Catherine’s University, which used to be S. St. C at one time was the only Catholic college or university which qualified for a phi beta kappa chapter. It is ranked as one of the best regional schools by Princeton Review. It may still have the women’s college at its core.