Why Throw Good Money Away on This?

From Bad…

She replied that she was really looking for theological sources and asked if the Documents of Vatican II might be a place to look.

He replied that he couldn't say, but that he really needed to read them one of these days.

In desperation, she asked if Pope John Paul had written anything on the topic. The prof replied that he refused to read anything by “that man.”

My friend, who was shelling out fabulous amounts of cash for all this, went away feeling a just bit cheated by the advertising brochures of the school which billed itself as “Catholic.” However, since she was already deeply in their pockets, what with the astronomical cost, she persevered in both the Faith and her studies, and the day eventually came when she got her Master's and graduated. I went to the graduation ceremony, along with her Fundamentalist father (she and I are both converts to the Catholic Church).

…To Worse

The head of the Seattle University School of Theology came out and, by way of “Benediction,” urged us all to pray “however we felt comfortable” in these terms: “If you want to pray to Buddha or the Spirit of the Northwest, then that's okay.” Longtime Seattleites will recall that KIRO-TV's motto was the “Spirit of the Great Northwest.” The thought, “We're being urged to pray to the local television station?” crossed my mind. The next thought that crossed my mind was, “How on earth does my friend explain to her father, a man already highly suspicious of the Catholic Church, that this twaddle is not representative of Catholic teaching when the head of the School of Theology is saying it?”

Not an Isolated Incident

I wish such stories were rare on Catholic campuses, but in fact they are common. More recently, the University of Notre Dame declined an opportunity to participate in the advance promotion of Mel Gibson's Catholic film The Passion of The Christ — but did manage to announce its First Annual “Notre Dame Queer Film Festival” just days later (the Second Annual NDQFF was held in October 2005, with remarkably little comment). And, in case you were wondering, the aim of this festival was not to discuss the ways in which homosexual behavior is contrary to the teaching of the Faith, nor to discuss the ways in which gay “marriage” constitutes yet another attack on the institution of the family (not to mention a metaphysical impossibility and a desecration of the sacrament of marriage). Nope, the purpose of the Film Festival was to teach students that homosexual practice is A-OK and that the Church is full of beetle-browed Neanderthals who just love persecuting anybody who is different.

How Do They Do It?

How do schools get away with this kind of stuff? I suspect the fact that a lot of alumni are not humanities majors has something to do with it. Somebody who got a degree in engineering or business at Apostate U can spend a whole academic career never having to take classes designed to “raise consciousness” about reproductive rights for Nicaraguan lesbians. An MBA leaves you blessedly free from having to endure many hours trapped in a room with a ex-Jesuit Marxist bent on proving to you that Jesus' body was eaten by wild dogs and that all the stuff you dumb freshmen learned in Sunday School is just patriarchal claptrap invented to buttress Constantinian tyranny. (You think I'm exaggerating? The same friend with whom I endured the SU graduation ceremony had a prof there who openly boasted about his love of destroying the faith of incoming freshmen.) A number of the “hard science” disciplines tend to insulate students from having to endure what humanities majors have to face every day. So many graduates come out of Catholic schools blissfully unaware of the fundamental ways in which those schools have betrayed their mission.

Further, Golden Memories have something to do with it, too. Parents or grandparents who graduated a couple of decades ago simply don't know how much a school has declined. They have fond memories of the Way Things Were and simply don't know that when they send their kids to a Catholic school and write the checks for the Alum drive, they are now helping to fulfill the grim assessment of Boston College's Peter Kreeft, who bluntly said that Catholic colleges are excellent places to go to lose your faith.

Pull the Funding Plug!

It doesn't have to be so, however. And the first step is to deny the hogs their feed. Universities run on money and academics are, fortunately, deeply cowardly as a rule. One quick way to send them a loud message very fast is to empty the slop from the trough. I see no reason why any Catholic alumnus should support academic institutions which parasitically feed off the goodwill and trust of betrayed Catholics while working overtime to despoil their children of the Faith. I think that alumni and donors to schools which behave like Seattle University or the organizers of the Notre Dame Queer Film Festival would do well to make it plain via their pocketbooks that it is beyond the pale for a Catholic university to so utterly prostitute itself to the god of this world. If integrity does not drive allegedly Catholic schools to their knees in repentant shame, then perhaps waning contributions from disgusted alumni and supporters will. If mammon is their god, then let it be their judge.


Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for Catholic Exchange. You may visit his website at www.mark-shea.com, check out his blog at Catholic and Enjoying It!, or purchase his books and tapes here.

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Mark P. Shea is a popular Catholic writer and speaker. The author of numerous books, his most recent work is The Work of Mercy (Servant) and The Heart of Catholic Prayer (Our Sunday Visitor). Mark contributes numerous articles to many magazines, including his popular column “Connecting the Dots” for the National Catholic Register. Mark is known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He also maintains the Catholic and Enjoying It blog and regularly blogs for National Catholic Register. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Janet, and their four sons.

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