Last Fall, the president of a Catholic college acknowledged a trend we have been highlighting for years. “If an institution claims to be Catholic, then it should be so in more than just name; its religious heritage should not be used merely as a marketing tool to convince benefactors to part with their money,” Francesco C. Cesareo wrote in The New England Journal of Higher Education.
Cesareo is the president of Assumption College. “The challenges currently facing Catholic higher education can be traced to the late 1960s when profound structural changes impacted the religious orientation of Catholic institutions,” Cesareo explained. “While Catholic institutions became stronger academically—by imitating their secular counterparts—they paid little or no attention to hiring faculty with a commitment to and understanding of the religious mission of the institution; the sole focus was on academic credentials.”
“The Catholic intellectual tradition, with its emphasis on the compatibility of faith and reason, became less prominent and, in many cases, lost.” A graduate of Fordham, Cesareo has worked in Catholic higher education for 20 years as a teacher and administrator at three different Catholic colleges and universities.
He also serves on the Board of Directors at Loyola. “Equally important was the shift in student demographics as fewer Catholic students attended Catholic institutions,” Cesareo noted. “At some Catholic colleges, less than half the student body is Catholic.”
“Add to this the trend toward secularism, individualism and the advocacy of values-free education that does not acknowledge objective truth—especially moral truth—and Catholic institutions are left pondering how they can remain faithful to their religious heritage in meaningful and concrete ways.”
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
