I’ve never attended a Catholic school of any kind, only secular schools, so I can’t comment on that angle. The only professors I’ve ever had are non-Catholics. And I agree that obviously, a properly-disposed person can take the good and leave the bad when dealing with someone, including a professor.
That said, I think any school going out of its way to call itself ‘Catholic’, does owe its students an experience different from a secular school. A coherently Catholic education and environment would be my own expectation of a school claiming ‘Catholic’ identity, and I don’t think that’s unfair. Also obviously, many students show up to college not properly disposed, and realistically (unfortunately) we can’t assume they’re all capable of sifting through their professors’ subtly problematic lenses.
And about the ‘It’s just literature, what harm can he do there’ thing… If we were talking math, I’d agree with you. But actually I think literature is different. A literature instructor plays with words. He may subtly shape the way his students interpret words, how they assess texts, how they approach language itself (which shapes their subsequent thoughts, which has an impact on later prudential and possibly even moral judgements). And PB is clearly so confused in his own moral and theological lens (to the point that he’s so twisted up he approves of abortion and euthanasia) that I don’t trust him to ‘help’ students develop a ‘good’ lens instead of a ‘bad’ lens, through which to look at what they read.
Again, it’s no guarantee he’ll do a bad job. But it’s certainly not equally good or fruitful as hiring a competent Catholic academic to do the same job. Unless he’s literally there to give the students exposure to a non-Catholic lens, and that’s explained to the students upfront.
Edited for spelling.
