Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/20/2024
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location
St Mary Lyceum
Categories
Councial 459 will be sponsoring a talk by Father Chris Goodwin for college students about their mental health concerns as students. 459 will provide lunch following the talk at about 12:00
Background
85% of Catholic students lose their faith while in college. A key factor in this decline can be traced to the summer of 1967, in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, when a number of university presidents met to discuss the future of Catholic higher education. These presidents drafted and signed a declaration of independence from “authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.” This led to numerous Catholic colleges and universities shedding any traditional ties to the Catholic Church, eventually embracing relativism and pushing radical notions of academic freedom. Just over two decades later, St. John Paul II published the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae refuting the Land O’Lakes declaration.
Ex Corde Ecclesiae gave the general norms governing Catholic colleges and universities. As a layperson, I have been appalled at the disregard of this constitution by most colleges and universities claiming to be Catholic. In the document, St. John Paul II emphasizes it is the responsibility of every Catholic university to “consecrate itself without reserve to the cause of truth.” He goes on to outline the general characteristics and mission of a Catholic higher education institution, dividing Ex Corde Ecclesiae into two parts: (1) The Catholic identity and mission of service of a Catholic university and (2) The General Norms which address how Ex Corde Ecclesiae is to be applied.
St John Paul II explained there are “essential characteristics” of a Catholic university and while he explicitly affirms proper academic freedom, he presents this freedom in concert with fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church. This is critical in order for a university to be called Catholic. If the sacraments are not readily available or if professors are teaching things contrary to the faith, the university sets itself on a course for ceasing to be identified as Catholic.
St. John Paul II was clear in stipulating that “all teachers at a Catholic university are to be faithful to and respect Catholic doctrine and morals in their research and teaching.” He goes on, “Catholic theologians have a mandate from the Church to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church.”