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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Panelists at UST explore the state of proclaiming the faith at Catholic universities

Panelists Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, Jesuit Father Christopher Collins, Anne Maloney and Michael Naughton discuss the state of Catholicism on Catholic university campuses April 26 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Panelists Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, Jesuit Father Christopher Collins, Anne Maloney and Michael Naughton discuss the state of Catholicism on Catholic university campuses April 26 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. COURTESY AZURE G PHOTOGRAPHY

In 1885, Archbishop John Ireland founded what would become the University of St. Thomas, an archdiocesan university in St. Paul. Twenty years later, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, then led by Archbishop Ireland’s sister, Mother Seraphine Ireland, established what today is St. Catherine University, just a mile south of St. Thomas.

The state of Catholic identity today, including the expression of Catholic values and Church teaching, on those campuses and other Catholic universities around the United States was the subject of a recent panel discussion at UST.

Three panelists and several in the audience of students, faculty and alumni said many institutions have failed to uphold their Catholic identity, while the fourth panelist, UST’s vice president for mission, suggested that action for the common good should precede attempts to share dogma.

“Unless you have the encounter with the person, in the particular, in the person of Jesus, only then do any other doctrines and ideas and moral principles and so on start to fall into place,” said Jesuit Father Christopher Collins, as he countered others’ concerns that Catholic universities such as St. Thomas have lost their way.

For nearly two hours at UST’s Owens Science Center April 26, the panelists and others expressed their views on “What’s in a Name? The Meaning of a Catholic University Today,” sponsored by UST alumni group the Roccasecca Project and the university’s Office for Mission and Department of Catholic Studies.

The keynote speaker and a panelist, Congregation of Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, said Pope St. John Paul II set out a “magna carta” for Catholic universities in his 1990 apostolic constitution “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” which described institutions of higher learning as emerging from the heart of the Church and remaining an integral part of it, supporting faith and reason together.

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Miscamble speaking Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble delivers the keynote speech at a panel discussion on the state of Catholicism on Catholic university campuses April 26 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble delivers the keynote speech at the panel discussion. COURTESY AZURE G PHOTOGRAPHY

“Given the perspective provided by the past three decades, an honest observer must conclude that ‘Ex Corde’ was not adopted as a guiding light by most Catholic universities,” Father Miscamble said. “Major Catholic institutions of higher education like Notre Dame declined it as their ‘magna carta.’”

Too many Catholic universities have succumbed to academic fads and accommodated the secular views of expressive individualism, utilitarianism and “variations of ‘woke’ progressivism,” he said.

Responding to Father Miscamble’s remarks were panelists Father Collins; Anne Maloney, a philosophy professor at St. Catherine University; and Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at UST.

Maloney said she has reached a similar conclusion as Father Miscamble. “Our colleges are indeed religious colleges now, but the religion isn’t Catholicism,” she said. “And the truth — which all of us in the trenches know — is it is a far more dogmatic religion than Catholicism has ever been.”

“I think perhaps those of us who work and teach in our Catholic universities are somewhat like those poor Japanese fellows who stayed in the woods for many years, not knowing that World War II was over and they lost,” Maloney said. “I think this war might be over. And we lost.”

Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at UST, said Catholic universities are in a crisis of identity that stems from breaking the relationship between faith and reason. When action overtakes contemplation, pragmatic, academic excellence might be attained but moral and spiritual integration can be lost, he said.

Challenges to building a genuine Catholic university are formidable, Father Miscamble said, including the Church’s loss of credibility in the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the secularization of society, a growing corporate mentality, challenging demographics and financial stresses.

But signs of hope remain, he said, and UST’s Department of Catholic Studies is one of them. Founded in the early 1990s by the late Don Briel, the department offers degrees that integrate business, history, politics, literature, science and other disciplines with Church teaching.

“Indeed, St. Thomas has been the locale for much good thinking about what true Catholic education should involve,” Father Miscamble, whose books include “For Notre Dame: Battling for the Heart and Soul of a Catholic University,” published in 2013. “And you have the wonderful base of Catholic Studies and various other notable programs to build upon.”

Reclaiming Catholic identity

Those building blocks are what the Roccasecca Project, named after the hometown of St. Thomas Aquinas, hope to capitalize on as the group of about 60 alumni and UST supporters encourages the university to “fully reclaim its Catholic identity,” said Bill LeMire, 57, an alumnus and president of the group who emceed the evening.

The alumni group, which registered as a Catholic nonprofit two months ago, was founded about four years ago, LeMire said, by Father Spencer Howe, pastor of Holy Cross in Minneapolis. LeMire and others are seeking to reinvigorate the group’s work through receptions, speakers, debates, fraternal gatherings, prayer and the sacraments.

Questions from the audience indicated some faculty members and students believe UST has work to do in teaching and proclaiming Catholicism. One student asked, “What can we do to make a Catholic university where Catholics can actually grow in their faith?”

Father Collins quickly responded: “Bring all your friends to Mass, stack the retreats, join the choir.” All of the structures are there, he said. Credible witnesses are needed who will invite their friends, he said.

An audience member said UST at times has given rise to scandal in its failure to properly teach and live the faith. A student asked what students can do to take action when such scandals occur.

Father Miscamble suggested that sound arguments put forth respectfully can carry the day. “Too many students, I think, who are serious Catholics” are programmed not to fight for their rights, he said. Students should let administrators know that “you came to St. Thomas because you thought it was a Catholic university. And you want St. Thomas to deliver on what it promises,” Father Miscamble said.

St. Catherine’s Maloney said faculty and staff should make clear where students who “want to engage with the mission of a Catholic university” can go to receive sustenance, care and concern.

“I have tenure, and I will fight those battles for you,” she said.

One audience member asked how people can express their views about leadership at UST in its search for a new president as Julie Sullivan, who became the university’s first layperson and first woman president in 2013, leaves July 1 to become president of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. Father Collins said there will be “countless, perhaps” open forums and listening groups for faculty, students and staff to weigh in on the search.

Watch the full event on St. Thomas’ YouTube channel.

Universities and the local bishop

Archbishop Bernard Hebda answers a question from the audience at the panel discussion.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda answers a question from the audience at the panel discussion. COURTESY AZURE G PHOTOGRAPHY

The relationship between U.S. bishops and Catholic universities was briefly discussed at the April 26 forum at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, “What’s in a Name? The Meaning of a Catholic University Today,” attended by Archbishop Bernard Hebda.

Under canon law, bishops are given the right and duty to ensure universities in their jurisdiction adhere to Catholic doctrine. Opportunities for encounter and accompaniment might include having a local bishop speak on campus about various matters, said Father Wilson Miscamble, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

In response to a question from an attendee about the relationship between bishops and universities, Archbishop Hebda said, from his seat in the audience, that prior to March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic grew in Minnesota, he met about four times a year with the president of UST. The discussions were frank, and if there was a particularly difficult topic, members of the university’s board would join the meeting, he said.

UST’s theology faculty invites him once a year to hear about their research and discuss topics of interest, the archbishop said. The presidents of UST and St. Catherine University in St. Paul currently are considering topics where faith can be brought to bear, the archbishop said.

“It’s an ongoing process that takes time, for sure,” the archbishop said. “You are very correct, Father (Miscamble) in saying that this is an important moment where we have some opportunities for growth there, as well. I don’t know any bishop who doesn’t think that this is one of the most critical ministries that takes place in his Church, because it’s so significant on the life of the students, but also more broadly on the local Church. I’m really grateful that you had this discussion this evening, and for the thought-provoking reflection.”

 


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