Cardinal Burke: Catholic Universities Must Be Catholic to be 'Worthy of the Name'
through Christ, and with Christ, who has been raised and continues His redemptive mission through His Body, the Church. It is that Church which is vested with His authority to teach. In the words of the great Western Bishop Augustine:
"Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God's grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man. . . . The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members. But what does "head and members" mean? Christ and the Church."
Catholic Universities are an extension of the teaching work of the Catholic Church. This living Christ still teaches, and directs His Church. Through that Church he continues to influence all of human culture. The faithful of the Church are called to inculcate and live the truth as articulated under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the teaching office of the Church. At the forefront of the mission of the Catholic University is this education of the next generation of Catholic men and women. It is Christ the Teacher who teaches His Children in the Catholic University.
The Venerable John Paul II said to educators in 1979 "Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others." In short, forming students with a Catholic world view is not a "part" of the curriculum; it is the heart of the curriculum. Faith is not simply taught in religion or theology class. Catholic identity provides the hermeneutic, the lens, through which the entire educational mission is viewed. It should also structure the framework for all curriculum development.
The Catholic educational mission is to inform and educate the whole student, who is an integrated human person, in the teaching, "the mind" of the Catholic Church, thus preparing men and women with a profoundly Catholic anthropology which permeates the meaning of human life. In the words of the Congregation for Catholic education:
"The Catholic school is committed thus to the development of the whole man, since in Christ, the Perfect Man, all human values find their fulfillment and unity. Herein lies the specifically Catholic character of the school. Its duty to cultivate human values in their own legitimate right in accordance with its particular mission to serve all men has its origin in the figure of Christ. He is the One Who ennobles man, gives meaning to human life, and is the Model which the Catholic school offers to its pupils."
Catholic education exists to put students in touch with the source of all Truth and Beauty, who is the Living Trinitarian God, revealed in Jesus Christ. For example, instruction in the sciences, though certainly pursuing and utilizing all available methods for scientific inquiry, should present that science is to be at the service of truth, the dignity of the human person from conception until natural death, marriage and the family and the common good. Math should be presented as a language with which we are enabled to plumb the depth and beauty of God's creation.
Building Catholic Universities for the Third Christian Millennium requires a clear vision, mission and leadership. The President of a Catholic University must be able to articulate this mission and vision in a way that inspires the entire academic community to join together in a singular educational missionary purpose. Students at Catholic Universities deserve a fully Catholic Education.
We need a new generation of Catholics who understand the implications of their faith on the entirety of their lives and are motivated by their faith to take their place within every segment of society in order to build a better future. These kinds of men and women do not appear on the scene through happenstance; they must be properly educated and then enlisted in the mission of the Church.
This is the mission of the Catholic University. I am currently working on a PhD dissertation in Moral Theology for the Catholic university of America, a wonderful school which has taken Catholic identity to heart. I hope to someday help a Catholic College or University respond to the challenge proclaimed by Cardinal Burke on my birthday in my hometown; to be fully, unapologetically and happily Catholic. To me, there is no more important work.
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Cardinal Burke, Catholic Colleges, Ex Corde Ecclesia, Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Identity
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great article..perhaps catholic universities should establish administrative positions in catholic mission integration,much like catholic hospitals do ,to advise and work with university administrators and professors throughout every department so that their teaching is founded upon and instilled with catholic principles and tradition, open to dialogue and community service.
Thank you Cardinal Burke for your analysis of the crisis in Catholic Universities. I attended Creighton University and Saint Louis University and never experienced a professor praying with students or even making the sign of the cross. How can a Jesuit University employ Jewish professors? As a Catholic University, all professors should be Christian, attend church weekly and contribute to their church, be active in their church by being involved in a ministry, and this should be confirmed with the Dean of the school they will be working for, and a value statement should be signed that if they are involved in adultery or other grievous sin, they will be fired. All professors should be interviewed by the president of the University to ensure that they can articulate their beliefs as a Christian. If all Catholic Universities would do this, the students would greatly benefit and the professors would also. Please, learn from the Southern Baptist Universities. A great example of hiring professors of similar conservative values and beliefs is Union University, Jackson, TN. Dr. Dockery, president, has written a book about Renewing Minds about this subject of secondary education and uses it for the faculty to begin to read when they begin employment. Faculty workshops are held for faculty to learn how to express through their teaching their christian world-view. Dr. Dockery is a great leader to work with and they do hire Catholic faculty, and we all pray with our classes! I never experienced any connection with my Saint Louis University or Creighton University professors, I only felt tolerance. "Tolerance is", as Matthew Kelly points out "intolerant of all things Catholic". Let's remove anti-Catholic environments in our Catholic Universities and begin to evangelize the students and have professors living authentic Catholic lives at their universities.
Bishop Olmsted just issued a Decree "Revoking Episopal Consent to Claim the "Catholic" Name according to Canon 216" for a hospital. Why don't Bishops do this with errant Catholic Universities within their Diocese ? It would stop the Scandals which lead others into Mortal Sin.
Perhaps Father Jenkins at Notre Dame will embrace the suggestion that he be "motivated by" faith "in order to build a better future" in lieu of the university's claim as an institution that it "has always stood for values in a world of facts".
The university's choice to be politically correct is shameful and a disgrace; truly, an affront to proud alumni and friends of a school commited to Our Lady.
The truth shall set us free. God bless the courageous truth of Cardinal Burke. May each Catholic support and defend our true faith. God bless.
Gloria, as long as nothing is taken out of context, the CCC 2nd Ed is what we are required to follow. This includes Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Theologians, Nuns and us Lay people. The Bishops (with the help of Rome if necessary ) each have authority over all Universites and everything else within their own Diocese. - The problem is with individual Bishops - pray for their souls for not taking their TEACHING and AUTHORITY seiously. The CCC is clearly written for everyone over age 15. It is the ONLY catechism directly from the Church Magisterium. Contact the Diocese Bishop - not his staff - on a regular basis. Be able to quote the applicable parts of the CCC - which includes his job description.
I agree with all of you. Not only universities but all schools, including primary schools - Any school that calls itself a Catholic school should be Catholic and provide an environment where a person can be proud to be Catholic and proud to practice their Faith openly. Why are Catholic schools afraid to teach the good news as taught by the Catholic Church? There is a Jesuit high school here that removed the crucifixes from their classrooms. I was told it was because the school did not want to "offend" the non-Catholics who chose to attend this school. What kind of idiotic reason is that?
The first two that should have their Catholic identity removed are Georgetown & Notre Dame.
Cardinal Burke is spot on. I do not see anything changing unless the Catholic Church takes back full control of the universities. The faculties and governing boards are controlled by Liberals Leftists who are hard core secularists. Notre Dame University is a great example of this. I hope and pray that God will step in and make the needed changes. It will not come from the USCCB.
Removing all the ambiguities, some of them deliberate, from the texts of Vatican II, would really help. While Cardinal Burke cites one section of Gaudium et Spes, university administrators (and Catholic politicians) cite other sections, very often the freedom of religion and freedom of conscience emphasis. If that were done, perhaps as a result of the focused discussions between SSPX and the Vatican, with more Cardinals like Burke, we'd have a chance to yet save the situation. As it stands, especially in the absence of an authoritative voice from Rome, it's really iff-fy.