US bishops meet in closed session, discuss Catholic colleges [CWN]
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DOShea
Guest
I’m kind of curious why the President of the ACCU doesn’t think the Bishops can “pull the plug” on them? Why isn’t it “that simple?” They began as Catholic institutions - what, do they get to remain that regardless of what they say, teach, or do? No matter how heretical, disrespectful, or outright defiant?
How is the college/university situation any different than, say, an author who writes a book and goes through the process to merit the Imprimatur of a Bishop on the work. Then, years later, in a subsequent printing, he alters much of what is said regarding the faith to the point where it is at least borderline heresy - and prints that book under the original Imprimatur?
This is like OSAS… once a Catholic College, always a Catholic College no matter what we do.
I sure pray the Bishops understand how demeaning it is to try and live your faith each day while the people with the credentials to teach it at the graduate level insist we are wasting our time. And I also hope they prayerfully consider the erosion effect it has had on vocations.
King David in his famous Psalm 23 said that he was comforted byu both the rod and the staff of his shepherd. Maybe that’s because he trusted the shepherd to use that rod once in a while instead of trying to solve every issue with a staff. Some of these distinguished scholars have had years to consider their actions and remain defiant of anything but their own agendas.
How is the college/university situation any different than, say, an author who writes a book and goes through the process to merit the Imprimatur of a Bishop on the work. Then, years later, in a subsequent printing, he alters much of what is said regarding the faith to the point where it is at least borderline heresy - and prints that book under the original Imprimatur?
This is like OSAS… once a Catholic College, always a Catholic College no matter what we do.
I sure pray the Bishops understand how demeaning it is to try and live your faith each day while the people with the credentials to teach it at the graduate level insist we are wasting our time. And I also hope they prayerfully consider the erosion effect it has had on vocations.
King David in his famous Psalm 23 said that he was comforted byu both the rod and the staff of his shepherd. Maybe that’s because he trusted the shepherd to use that rod once in a while instead of trying to solve every issue with a staff. Some of these distinguished scholars have had years to consider their actions and remain defiant of anything but their own agendas.
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rep140
Guest
Perhaps someone can correct me or offer an explanation concerning “pulling the plug”. Many of these Catholic institutions are run by religious orders; Jesuit, Franciscan, etc. It is my understanding that the relation of these institutions to the bishop is different from the relationship between the bishop and a diocesan institution. The bishops are limited in dealing with these colleges.
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G01
Guest
This is true to the best of my knowledge.
A Jesuit university is the responsibility of the Jesuits (in the end the Superior General of the Jesuits.) The Bishop of the local diocese is not a part of the hierarchy of it’s administration.
That said, the Jesuit school I went to respected the local Bishop very much and has a very good relationship with the diocese.
I however could be wrong. (It could also depend on the school.) Someone please correct me if so.
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mdgspencer
Guest
The bishop can pull the plug in one way, by declaring that a college is not Catholic. That could be a serious matter if he makes his decision known among the Catholic population. That was the case a few years ago for example with Marist College in New York State. (This college then agreed with satisfaction that it is no longer Catholic.)
Catholic parents with college age children should carefully investigate any self-claimed Catholic university they are considering for their children. I have worked for 35 years at one of them, as a librarian, and I have seem many troublesome things. Five years or so ago a gay-approving university organization was institued, meeting at the campus ministry. One of the chief founders is a liberal nun who was made priesident of the university several years after this. Most of the professors are not Catholic and they fight like wild men at any chance of the university’s former Catholic identity being reasserted, something I have watched on several occasions with horror. In a self study of this and a group of other historical Catholic schools, the study itself showed that the students from the time there are freshmen to the time they are seniors are statistically far more often approving of one night stands between unmarried couples, gay marriage, and other dissenting views. This study compared what happened with students at these “Catholic” Catholic schools with what happened with students at state universities, and such a decline in student morals among the Catholic students did not occur at the statet universities. That is, these Catholic" schools destoyed the morals of many of the Catholic students there.
Such secularization is no doubt the reason the head of the Jesuit order said several years ago that most of the Jesuit universities in the United States seem permanently lost to the Church.
There are some good Catholic colleges, and not doubt someone posting here will identify them. But all the same the U.S. bishops are looking into the matter with very good reason. I hope that they can do much in this matter, though from what I have experienced, they will have a great struggle to deal with such troublesome colleges.
Catholic parents with college age children should carefully investigate any self-claimed Catholic university they are considering for their children. I have worked for 35 years at one of them, as a librarian, and I have seem many troublesome things. Five years or so ago a gay-approving university organization was institued, meeting at the campus ministry. One of the chief founders is a liberal nun who was made priesident of the university several years after this. Most of the professors are not Catholic and they fight like wild men at any chance of the university’s former Catholic identity being reasserted, something I have watched on several occasions with horror. In a self study of this and a group of other historical Catholic schools, the study itself showed that the students from the time there are freshmen to the time they are seniors are statistically far more often approving of one night stands between unmarried couples, gay marriage, and other dissenting views. This study compared what happened with students at these “Catholic” Catholic schools with what happened with students at state universities, and such a decline in student morals among the Catholic students did not occur at the statet universities. That is, these Catholic" schools destoyed the morals of many of the Catholic students there.
Such secularization is no doubt the reason the head of the Jesuit order said several years ago that most of the Jesuit universities in the United States seem permanently lost to the Church.
There are some good Catholic colleges, and not doubt someone posting here will identify them. But all the same the U.S. bishops are looking into the matter with very good reason. I hope that they can do much in this matter, though from what I have experienced, they will have a great struggle to deal with such troublesome colleges.
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Scoobyshme
Guest
Clearly, the bishops need to immediately “disenfranchise” these “Catholic” colleges until such time as they get back in line, if they ever do. To allow them to continue to function and advertise themselves as “Catholic” is an outright lie. We need more bishops with spines, like Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island, who just stand up to all this humbug! 
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