More on Catholic Identity

I would like to thank Rob for posting the link to the Boston Globe article on Catholic identity. While the linked article focuses on Boston College, the issues that it addresses apply to many other educational institutions, some mentioned in the linked report, that rely on the modifier “Catholic.” One would think that an institution which relies on this characteristic and distinctiveness would be able to attract students, faculty, administrators, and staff to replenish and fortify the soul of its self-characterization. But other forces compete with the Catholic institution’s identity. One of them is the compelling drive to “be like” some other institution that seems to have more fame, more success, or, simply, more money. As with other envies, this is not necessarily a good objective to pursue. In the present age, many others have lamented on the problems which face higher education and, for that matter, all education today. One of the problems is the fragmentation of education and the drive for specialized studies that make no effort to connect what is studied with the search for wisdom and, quite possibly, even the pursuit of truth. In this regard, the existence of truth is denied by many, and this is manifested in the relativism that faces the world of higher education of the present generation. Still another problem that often must be met is the environment of secularization in which higher education often finds itself. The destiny of each member of the human race becomes immaterial to the labor of student and scholar because there is no final objective of the human person, there is no concern about the afterlife because it has been declared by some that there is none. God has died or, at least, become irrelevant.

I have been reading Christopher Dawson’s book The Crisis of Western Education. Last evening I came across his reference to the nineteenth century efforts of Joseph Chamberlain whose liberal inclination enabled him, Chamberlain, to declare that the objective of his educational cause “in England, throughout the continent of Europe and in America has been to wrest the education of the young out of the hands of the priests, to whatever denomination they might belong.” It would seem that Boston College and other institutions that still rely on the moniker “Catholic” have come to realize that there is something to Chamberlain’s goal that poses not only a problem but a threat to the vitality of a school’s identification and soul. If the efforts of Chamberlain’s disciples have succeeded at Boston College and other institutions, will the endeavors of Catholic renewal mentioned in the Globe article be successful in their campaign?

As one priest who has been confronted by the followers of Chamberlain but who is still involved in the education of the young, and not-so-young, I watch from afar with great interest in this enterprise of renewal. The measure of its success will depend  not only on human effort but on hope and trust in God as well.   RJA sj