Recap of "Is the Catholic University Dead?"

On October 4 at 7 p.m. in Hogan 410, The Society of Saints Peter and Paul hosted Professor James Keating, an associate professor of theology at Providence College, to deliver a talk entitled “Is the Catholic University Dead?” Professor Keating began by answering the question simply: yes. He claimed that the Catholic university no longer fulfills its purpose of infusing the Gospel message into the education it provides, and that this vision of higher education belongs to an irretrievable past. Accepting this disheartening fact, we are left with the question: what do we do now? How are we to find “stirrings of new life among ruins”?

Before discussing plans for the future, Professor Keating performed a post-mortem on the Catholic university. He began by claiming that Catholic leaders did not do what they ought to have done to uphold the tradition of faith-infused education after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Further, in 1967, the “manifesto” on the future of Catholic education named the Land O’Lakes Statement was signed by “more than twenty prominent leaders in American education”. This statement called Catholic schools to embrace the academic standard of secular schools, to reject intellectual imperialism, to learn theology by conversation, to reduce the importance given to philosophy, and to establish “true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.” Professor Keating clarified that “autonomy” meant freedom from “the ruling powers of the Catholic Church.” These changes were proposed so that Catholic colleges could match the excellence of secular colleges. However, the implications of the Land O’Lakes statement, coupled with the decreasing numbers within religious orders following Vatican II, resulted in the secularization of Catholic schools. Having started on this path, Catholic education reached a point of no return, leading us to where we are now: a time in which the adjective “Catholic” is difficult to define when it is applied to higher educational institutions. Keating claims that crosses on classroom walls and liturgy offerings do not define a school as Catholic; only offering a “robustly Catholic education” can do that. 

Pope St. John Paul II saw this deterioration and attempted to right the ship with his 1990 Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, meaning “from the heart of the Church.” Professor Keating cited the constitution, recalling that Catholic universities are “called to explore courageously the riches of Revelation and of nature so that the united endeavor of intelligence and faith will enable people to come to the full measure of their humanity, created in the image and likeness of God, renewed even more marvelously, after sin, in Christ, and called to shine forth in the light of the Spirit.” He provided guidance on how to attain this noble goal: offer courses in theology, offer liturgies, and welcome the ongoing involvement of the local Bishop. He also set forth a requirement that all Catholic faculty must be faithful to the Church, and that all non-Catholic faculty must respect Catholic teaching. Further, the non-Catholic faculty could not outnumber the Catholic faculty. Professor Keating emphasized that Pope St. John Paul II defends the right that non-Catholics have to exist in Catholic education: he does not envision an ideologically homogeneous faculty. However, he does say that if we want faith to be central to Catholic education, then the majority of our educators ought to be active members of the faith they are passing on; as the Latin dictum goes: “nemo quod non habet” (no one can give what they do not have). 

This vision has proved unattainable. The majority of faculty at many Catholic universities, including The College of the Holy Cross and Providence College, are non-Catholic. Others may be active Catholics that have not let their faith inform their scholarly work. Professor Keating paused to clarify that these educators do not bear the responsibility for the death of the Catholic university. He paid them due respect: “they have dedicated their lives to educating our students.” The failure of the constitution can be attributed to the irrevocable change caused by the Land O’Lakes statement in 1967: the dynamic was already set by 1990, and there was no going back. The Apostolic Constitution gave false hope, turning hopeful Catholic educators into “fools waiting for Godot.” Professor Keating sadly recalled that many of them “ended their careers in bitterness fighting to keep the dream alive.” 

Having concluded the post-mortem, Professor Keating provided those of us who remain invested in Catholic education with a hopeful plan for the future: Catholic Studies departments. These departments would provide the Catholic education described in Ex Corde Ecclesiae. The first Catholic Studies department was founded in 1993, paving the way for others who will apply Catholic principles to diverse subjects such as art, science, music, etc. Professor Keating also expressed that Catholic Studies’ course offerings need not always speak positively about the Church, though they must never seek to denigrate her, but rather admit that she, and we, operate within a fallen world. 

Professor Keating admitted that some may see this solution as giving up and establishing a “Catholic ghetto” within a secular whole. However, he maintains that these departments are a cause for hope: they are the only way we can follow Ex Corde Ecclesiae. He challenged professors and teachers who want to join this mission to take it upon themselves. Professor Keating himself started a Catholic Studies major and minor at Providence College. If these departments attract enough students, and there is good reason to believe that they will, then there will be more hires and the programs will grow. 

The hopefulness for these departments is born from the fact that many young Catholics are attracted to academic life. Further, Keating pointed out that undergraduates are in crisis and in need of the truth of the Gospel: they are “unsatisfied with the world bequeathed to them by their elders” and acutely aware of the problems within it. They have seen the “hideous reality of the West without Christ.” They see that our secular world looks more like Huxley’s dystopia than “a liberated society, free from guilt and free to reach its potential.” The “easy-going relativism” of the millennials is not as attractive anymore, nor is the dogmatic culture of the coming generation. Keating affirmed that Catholic education is poised to respond to this need for meaning with “the richness of the salvific message of the Gospel.” As a dedicated Catholic educator, Professor Keating said, “We have nothing to give other than Christ Himself.” He concluded by saying that, if Catholic education is to return, “it’ll be His work, not ours.”

Cover image from Guardian H, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fenwick_DSC_1272.jpg, no changes made to image.