Independent & Catholic - Oxymoron?

A few posts below I mused about the dangers associated with a predominantly Jesuit concept that their universities are both "Catholic and Independent." A direct quote from that post is:

"Any time you see the words "independent" and "Roman Catholic tradition" you are reading Jebbie speak for "we can do what the H*ll we want."

I had a reply from someone associated with a Catholic College that was founded by Benedictines, but is now run by an independent Board of Directors. It's web page spouts about its "Benedictine tradition," but its campus minister is an SVD priest and the only cleric on the web page for it's School of Theology is a Jesuit.

Here is my idea of what control should be exercised at a Catholic University:

"Struggle for control at German Catholic university ^.

Eichstatt, Jun. 20, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A struggle for control of A German Catholic university has escalated, with the local bishop-- who earlier rejected the faculty's choice as president of the institution-- replacing the top administrator.

In May, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstatt refused to approve the appointment of Ulrich Hemel, a twice-divorced scholar, as president of the University of Eichstatt. Now the bishop has asked for an outside review of spending by the school's top administrator, Gottfried von der Heydte. The bishop has appointed two impartial scholars to investigate the administration."

Only when we have Catholic institutions that must answer to the Church, either through her Bishops, or the superiors of Religious orders, will we be in a position to begin to clean the muck & mire of neo-modernism that infests many universities labelled as Catholic.

Comments

[american aquarium drinker]

the college i attended was catholic in name only. there was no difference in curriculum or student behavior between it and its secular counterparts. frequent left-wing speakers and feminist rallies were commonplace (they recently had both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama speaking on campus during the state's democratic primary). oh sure, we had a church on campus with a statue of Christ and the Blessed Virgin here and there but that was about it. the administration loved to tout the "Catholic" aspect of the school when soliciting donations or garnering PR.... i can safely say that i learned absolutely nothing about catholicism or being catholic in my 4 years there. in many ways it was a regression from my grade school and high school religious ed, poor as that was, and it took me many years to recover. A few years ago I read a quote allegedly attributed to Bishop Sheen that said something like (i'm paraphrasing) - better to attend a secular college and defend yr faith than to attend a Catholic college that teaches watered down Catholicism and have it ruin your faith altogether. don't know if he actually said it, but there is alot of truth in it nonetheless.

[Constantine]

Independent and Catholic - Oxymoron?

Isn't "Roman" and "Catholic" also an oxymoron?

Sorry for aquarium drinkers bad experience.

Peace to all.

[Lonnie]

Only when we have Catholic Institutions and Churches that answer to God will they be credible!

[James M. Essig]

As someone who as a teenager and as a young adult who internally extolled the mindset of individualism and independence, as I matured to middle age, upon frequent personal reflection, I realized that social interaction and the capacity for such in all of its various forms, is a hall mark of our species. By my mid thirties, I had fully internalized and accepted the reality that one of the primary aspects of the HOLY TRINITY is to be a life of pure intimate mutual personal interrelationship. One of the innumerable perfections of GOD is the perfection of personality, for which GOD superabounds as one GOD in THREE PERSONS. The HOLY TRINITY is a great mystery, but every possible thing about the HOLY TRINITY that we can learn in this life and in the next life will seem perfectly delightful and much more and much better than we could ever want the HOLY TRINITY to be.

The deeper the awareness we come to of the HOLY TRINITY, even in the next life, even after the Post Final Resurrection Era, the greater and more extollingly joyful the facts about the TRINITY, the greater and more extollingly joyful the understanding of the TRINITY, and the greater and more extollingly joyful vision of THE HOLY TRINITY will be. My guess is that even in the midst of the Beatific Vision, we will progress both naturally and supernaturally to ever higher superabundant understanding and joy at the sight, friendship with, worship of, and awe of THE HOLY TRINITY.

In Heaven, everything about GOD, EACH OF HIS THREE DIVINE PERSONS, the angels, our fellow human persons, any ETI and UTI persons, and indeed even about all of physical creation in all of its elements and structures will superabundantly seem all the more wondrous, amazing, and good, as we progress into eternity. GOD is a GOD who created us for joy, peace, love, and happiness and as such will reward us with ever superabundant joy in the depths of Post Final Resurrection Eternity in these regards.

So fasten your spiritual seat belt and prepare for one heck of an ever greater eternal ride. The fun is only just beginning.

Heck, to me the mere discovery of another fundamental particle, or even the mere discovery of another composite particle made of three or more quarks, or perhaps another element to add to the period table is enough to put me on cloud nine. However, being that I am a physics geek who has chosen to devote his professional life to the advocacy and popularization of the bold future agenda of manned interstellar travel into the depths of the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond, I am also amazed by the findings of other disciplines especially such as those of modern psychology, sociology, neurology, and the practice of psychiatry as such deals with the perhaps unfathomably complex workings of the human psyche.

Perhaps we need to regain a sense of our dependence on GOD in stead of wondering off in spiritualistic macho rugged individualism that wants to mold our notion GOD into to our current inadequate concepts that are often at odds with Church Teaching.

GOD BLESS!

Jim