I know that Joe mentioned this piece in his Friday “First Links” post, but it bears noticing again: Scott Walter’s column “Hoyas Whip the Irish,” at The Catholic Thing. Scott catalogues what he can, in fewer than 1,000 words, of the appallingly un-Catholic goings-on that characterize Georgetown University today. This is a sad state of affairs at the oldest Catholic university in the United States, and a caution to Catholic parents considering Georgetown as a destination for their kids.
Monday, July 11, 2011, 3:33 PM
July 11th, 2011 | 5:41 pm
Well, if the Hoyas whipped the Irish, the latter had it coming. Notre Dame is the iconic Catholic U, but has long since ceased being true to the faith. Parents, take your pick. Send the kids to Georgetown OR Notre Dame, and there’s about an equal (high) probability they will lose their faith there.
July 11th, 2011 | 9:22 pm
Georgetown is doing fine, thank you. It’s not Steubenville, never was, and never will be, so if you want to send your kids to a monastery instead of an international university, that’s up to you.
July 12th, 2011 | 12:38 am
So what you’re saying, Box, is that prestige trumps faith?
July 12th, 2011 | 12:58 am
Then let’s stop pretending it has anything to do with Catholicism except for a thin veneer left over after some history.
July 12th, 2011 | 7:04 am
Box–you’ve never been to Franciscan University at Steubenville.
Irenaeus–I’m with you, and would never call either university (ND or G) “Catholic.” Problem is, they still call themselves that. And will continue with this mendacity, I suppose, till the Truth in Advertising Police show up!
July 12th, 2011 | 7:44 am
What is Ctholic about any Jesuit institution of higher education?
July 12th, 2011 | 9:11 am
“Send the kids to Georgetown OR Notre Dame, and there’s about an equal (high) probability they will lose their faith there.”
Actually, it might be higher with the local Catholic high school, Or the parish school. It begins after First Communion when parents fail to bring kids to Mass. Sunday Mass is by far the main factor in whether kids keep faith or lose it. By the time a person reaches college, any college, their faith is already firmly set. For the unchurched, the only thing that brings them back is a conversion experience. Campus parishes and Newman Centers may be better prepared to handle that than Catholic colleges.
July 12th, 2011 | 9:18 am
If your child has the faith, nothing at GU will take that away. Unless you’re afraid that a quality education destroys faith, then you have to question your own concept of faith. GU is about a world class education. If world class educations destroy faith, then what good is faith?
July 12th, 2011 | 10:41 am
Arn — might it be nice if a quality education upheld faith as well? Why on earth would you treat the issue as being one of whether there’s a “quality education?”
July 12th, 2011 | 10:42 am
I’m pretty sure Franciscan University at Steubenville is co-ed.
July 12th, 2011 | 12:11 pm
It has been a very long time since parents had any say in their children’s choice of a university.
July 12th, 2011 | 12:17 pm
World class education, blah blah blah.
Georgetown is an institution that professes to be Catholic, then openly defies it’s own self-proclaimed identity each and every day. It is an institution in conflict with it’s very self and yet it has not the integrity to make the necessary changes to eliminate that conflict.
That doesn’t sound “world class” to me and it doesn’t say very much about the people running the place.
As a parent of a college age student myself, I would not be inclined to send my child to an institution that isn’t comfortable in it’s own skin but doesn’t have the integrity and courage to do anything about it.
July 12th, 2011 | 2:04 pm
As a parent of a college age student myself, I would not be inclined to send my child to an institution that isn’t comfortable in it’s own skin but doesn’t have the integrity and courage to do anything about it.
============
Beautifully put.
July 12th, 2011 | 2:30 pm
“It has been a very long time since parents had any say in their children’s choice of a university.”
Not entirely true. Parents can withhold either their own funds, or their cooperation in applying for aid or loans, if their child does not comply with their wishes in selecting a college.
Few *do,* but that’s far different from saying they *can’t.*
July 12th, 2011 | 6:07 pm
In response to Arn, if the best that can be said of purportedly Catholic GU in this regard is that it will not destroy the faith of an authentically Catholic student, then it is in a sad state. Why not have both a legitimately excellent education and a truly Catholic university which strengthens and enriches the faith, in accord with Ex Corde Ecclesiae. That was formerly the case with our top Catholic universities – excellence and faith. Universities such as these are defrauding parents and students who are paying for and think they will attend a Catholic university. They are also defrauding donors and breaching the trust of those who endowed and founded the schools. Sadly, it is not just ND and GU. Last year Loyola Marymount was the third Jesuit university to fund a LGBT office (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2010/sep/10092808), not to mention hosting pro-abort speakers at commencement. This despite its new non-Catholic president’s indication at inauguration that he would maintain Catholic identity (“we must focus on … enhancement of our Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount identity and mission…”). An earlier president, Fr. Loughran, had the courage to reject an LGBT office in 1990. Perhaps the LMU Lion, a symbol of courage, should become the pussy cat, a fitting mascot for all the pseudo-Catholic universities.
July 12th, 2011 | 6:26 pm
For parents, students and benefactors looking for authentically Catholic higher education, I would recommend those recognized as such by the Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide (http://www.thenewmanguide.com/TheCatholicColleges/tabid/506/Default.aspx). Even religion aside, I have doubts that one could get a better education at ND, LMU, GU or Fordham than at Catholic University, Thomas Aquinas, University of Dallas or Ave Maria.
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