Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Recurrent debates about the church and higher education in the United States involve differing understandings of the nature and purpose of the church as well as differing understandings of the university. Catholic colleges and universities remain important but underutilized resources for the American church as it pursues its mission. Institutional, communitarian and servant models of the church must be examined more rigorously before they are used to prescribe changes in higher education. None is without problems. In a pluralistic and free society, a public church,” self-consciously mediating the tensions between Christian integrity, Catholic unity, and civic responsibility, provides an altogether appropriate stance for Catholic colleges and universities as well. It points not to a neat resolution of outstanding difficulties but to ongoing dialogue among the publics to which both church and higher education must address themselves.
1 Hesburgh, Theodore M., “Catholic Education in America,” America, October 4, 1986, 160–63.Google Scholar
2 Bailyn, BernardEducation and the Forming of American Society (New York: Norton, 1972);Google ScholarBender, Thomas, Community and Social Change in America (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978).Google Scholar
3 For an interesting examination of the combination of religious and worldly objectives see Hoffman, Ronald, “Charles Carroll of Carrollton: The Formative Years, 1748-1764,” Working Papers Series, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Series 12, Number 3, Fall, 1982.Google Scholar
4 Gleason, Philip, “John Carroll as Educator,” Review of Politics 38 (October 1976): 576–613;CrossRefGoogle ScholarGleason, Philip, “From an Indefinite Homogeneity: The Beginnings of Catholic Higher Education in the United States,” Church History Seminar, University of Notre Dame, March 15, 1975.Google Scholar Professor Gleason is at work on a comprehensive history of American Catholic higher education; I have benefitted not only from his writings cited in this paper but from conversations with him, for which I am most grateful.
5 Chinnici, Joseph, “Politics and Theology: From Enlightenment Catholicism to the Condemnation of Americanism,” Working Paper Series, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Series 9, Number 3, Spring, 1981;Google ScholarChinnici, , “American Catholics and Religious Pluralism, 1775-1820,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 19 (Fall 1979): 727–46.Google Scholar
6 Isaac Hecker to Orestes Brownson (June 24, 1884) in Gower, Joseph F. and Leliaert, Richard M., eds., The Brownson-Hecker Correspondence (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), 105.Google Scholar
7 Gleason, Philip, “The Curriculum of the Old-Time Catholic College: A Student's View,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 88 (March/December 1977): 102–22.Google Scholar
8 The best survey of American Catholic higher education history is Gleason, , “American Catholic Higher Education: A Historical Perspective,” in Hassenger, Robert, ed., The Shape of Catholic Higher Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 15–53.Google Scholar
9 Ellis, John Tracy, ed., Documents of American Catholic History, vol. 2 (Chicago: Regnery, 1967), 465–66.Google Scholar
10 Leo, XIII, Longinqua Oceani in Ellis, , Documents, 2: 499–510.Google Scholar
11 Ireland, John, “Pastoral Letter on Higher Catholic Education” (August 17, 1898) in Ireland Papers (microfilm), St. Thomas College, St. Paul, MN.Google Scholar
12 Hogan, Peter E., The Catholic University of America, 1887-1896: The Rectorship of Thomas J. Conaty (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1949), 49.Google Scholar
13 McQuaid to Daniel Hudson, C.S.C. (May 30, 1907) in Hudson Papers, University of Notre Dame.
14 John Whitney Evans argues that a sharp break took place in ministry on the non-Catholic campus after World War I, as Catholic colleges began to expand: “In contrast to the first phase, which was characterized by a strong educational and missionary as well as apologetical fervor, this one presented a sorry picture of students and priests combatting secularism on what had become a hostile campus while also defending their effort before Catholic leaders increasingly suspicious and withdrawn.” See his Apostles of Hope: A History of the Newman Movement, 1883-1971 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985).Google Scholar
15 Cox, Ignatius W., “Ideals in Catholic Education,” Commonweal, October 21, 1925, 582.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., 45.
17 Halsey, William, The Survival of American Innocence (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980).Google Scholar
18 Quoted in Gleason, Philip, “In Search of Unity: American Catholic Thought, 1920-1960,” Catholic Historical Review 65 (April 1979): 225.Google Scholar
19 “What Shall the Layman Do?” Commonweal, September 23, 1935, 463.Google ScholarPubMed
20 Gleason, , “Historical Perspective,” 46.Google Scholar
21 Hesburgh, Theodore M., “Looking Back at Newman,” America, March 3, 1962, 721.Google Scholar
22 O'Reilly, Peter, “St. John's I: A Chronicle of Folly,” Continuum 4 (Summer 1966): 230, 232.Google Scholar
23 National Catholic Reporter, February 2, 1966, 7.Google ScholarPubMed
24 Herzfeld, Norma Krause, “The Problem at Catholic University,” Commonweal, March 31, 1967, 35–41.Google Scholar
25 Lauer, Rosemary to Marty, Martin in National Catholic Reporter, February 9, 1966, 6.Google Scholar
26 New York Times, December 11, 1966, 3.Google ScholarPubMed
27 Cogley, John, “The Future of an Illusion,” Commonweal, June 2, 1967, 310–16.Google Scholar For a discussion of sponsorship see the essays in a special issue of Current Issues in Catholic Higher Education 4 (Winter 1984).Google Scholar
28 Yanitelli, Victor S.J., “Missing the Crucial Questions,” Ave Maria, February 10, 1968, 13Google Scholar, responding to John P. Leary, “Bishops and the Catholic College,” ibid., 6-9.
29 College Newsletter, March, 1973.
30 “University and Catholic: Final Report of the Special Committee on the Christian Character of Marquette University,” December 15, 1969.
31 Gleason, , “Historical Perspective,” 52.Google Scholar
32 Lucey, Gregory F. S.J., “The Meaning and Maintenance of Catholicity as a Distinctive Characteristic of American Higher Education: A Case Study” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1978);Google ScholarLaMagdeleine, Donald R., “The Changing American Catholic University” (Ph.D. diss., Loyola University, 1983).Google Scholar
33 Harvanek, Robert S.J., “Jesuit Postsecondary Education,” September 17, 1978;Google ScholarGannon, Thomas S.J., “The Jesuit Spirit in Higher Education: A Point of View,” September 9, 1979.Google Scholar Both papers were privately circulated.
34 McBrien, Richard, “Catholic Universities and the Church's Mission,” address to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (text in National Catholic Reporter, March 27, 1981, 14–16).Google Scholar
35 “Paul VI to the Jesuits: The Catholic Church and Catholic Universities,” Origins 4 (August 23, 1974): 175–76.Google Scholar
36 Dulles, Avery S.J., “What is Magisterium?” Origins 6 (July 1, 1976): 81–85.Google Scholar
37 Malone, Bishop James, “How Bishops and Theologians Relate,” Origins 16 (July 31, 1986): 171.Google Scholar
38 Malone, Bishop James, “The Catholic University and the Catholic Community,” Origins 16 (June 19, 1986): 118.Google Scholar
39 McBrien, Richard, “The Pastoral Dimension of Theology Today,” America, July 28, 1984, 25–28.Google ScholarPubMed
40 Bernardin, Joseph Cardinal, Address at Catholic University of America, November 6, 1985 (privately circulated) and “Catholic Higher Education and the Church's Pastoral Mission,” Origins, November 27, 1980, 378–90.Google Scholar
41 Chronicie of Higher Education, March 26, 1986, 16–20.Google ScholarPubMed
42 See the report “Doctrinal Responsibilities: Procedures for Promoting Cooperation and Resolving Disputes Between Bishops and Theologians” prepared by a joint committee of the Canon Law Society of America and the Catholic Theological Society of America in Canon Law Society of America Proceedings 45 (1983): 261–84.Google Scholar
43 Healy, Timothy S.J., “The Ignatian Heritage for Today's College,” America, November 5, 1977, 304–06.Google Scholar
44 Arrupe, Pedro, “Men for Others” in Justice with Faith Today: Selected Letters and Addresses, 2 (St. Louis, MO: St. Louis University Press, 1980)Google Scholar and “The Intellectual Apostolate in the Society's Mission Today” in Other Apostoiates Today: Selected Letters and Addresses, 3 (St. Louis, MO: St. Louis University Press, 1981).Google Scholar
45 César Jerez Garcia, Commencement Address, privately circulated.
46 Chinnici, , “American Catholics and Religious Pluralism,” 736–37.Google Scholar
47 Komonchak, Joseph, “What's Happening to Doctrine?” Commonweal, September 6, 1985, 456–59.Google Scholar
48 McCann, Dennis, A New Experiment in Democracy (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1987).Google Scholar
49 Shea, William M., “Theologians and Their Catholic Authorities: Reminiscence and Reconnoiter,” Horizons 13/2 (Fall 1986): 350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSchroth, Raymond A., “Tough Choices on Campus,” Commonweal, March 28, 1986, 170–74.Google Scholar See also from a conservative point of view Dougherty, Jude P.et al., “The Secularization of Western Culture and the Catholic College and University,” Current Issues of Catholic Higher Education 2 (Summer 1981):7–23.Google Scholar