Models of Catholic studies

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 29, 2000 by Gerald Renner

Concerns raised about funding, critical thought

Catholic studies programs, developed over the last decade to address concerns about Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities, are slowly making headway.

An estimated 25 to 30 among the nation's approximately 230 Catholic colleges and universities have undergraduate Catholic studies programs in various stages of development.

Some, such as the one at Georgetown University in Washington, are floundering, while others thrive, such as the Catholic Studies Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. That center, though controversial among academics, is to date the largest and best funded in the country.

Typically, courses in Catholic studies programs are interdisciplinary and intended to build awareness of the intellectual history and tradition of the faith, not only incorporating theology, but also literature, culture and the arts. Some profess scholarly detachment; others unabashedly strive to help students become more prayerful Catholics.

"There is no one model that fits all," Sr. Mary Ann Hinsdale said in a telephone interview with NCR. Hinsdale, formerly of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., is the new director of the Center for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College. She took a sabbatical leave last year to visit several colleges and put together a "resource book" for Catholic studies programs.

Hinsdale is a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters, Monroe, Mich.

In a draft document of preliminary findings, she advises those considering or evaluating programs to pay careful attention to the funder or funding agency. "This will tell you a lot about the agenda," she said. For universities, she advises against relying too heavily on individual donors. "The best strategy here, in my opinion, is to promote joint efforts and insist upon multiple funders whenever possible," she wrote.

`Middle-of-the-road'

Her document can be found at a Holy Cross Web site: http://sterling.holy cross.edu/departments/religiousstudies /mhinsdal/Research99.html

Historian David O'Brien of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said when the Catholic studies movement sprang up a decade ago it was supported by conservatives who were leading the charge against inclusive language in the liturgy and church documents. Concerns bubbled up that the programs "might really be a stalking horse for the right-wing." As it's turned out, he said, most of the programs he knows "are pretty much middle-of-the-road."

O'Brien helped secure funding for two national conferences on Catholic studies, one in 1997 at the University of St. Thomas, of which he was co-chairman, and the other last spring at John Carroll University in Cleveland. The conferences were co-sponsored by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. Money for the conferences came from the Lilly Endowment in Indianapolis and the Humanitas Foundation in New York, neither of which is considered slanted ideologically.

To be sure, some of the programs have a conservative cast, such as the one at the University of St. Thomas. Among other things, the program is reintroducing to a new generation such orthodox voices as British author G.K. Chesterton and Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain, who haven't been read much on campuses since the 1950s. It's an approach some academics said they find insufficiently critical, though none wanted to be quoted.

It is not clear, however, that St. Thomas' program is bent to reflect the will of donors. The school has a target to raise a $10 million endowment, of which nearly $7 million has been donated by various sources, said Don Briel, who heads St. Thomas's Center for Catholic Studies.

Asking where the money comes from "is a fair question to raise, but I also think it is misleading," Briel said, because "the donors have a very little role in this."

He acknowledged that $2.5 million came from a Minnesota family known as conservative Catholics, but the center also received $2 million from the estate of "a labor priest" and other many smaller gifts from other people.

The old conservative-liberal debate trivializes the issues and is of no interest to the younger generation, Briel said. They come to college "religiously and historically illiterate," he said, and need to be more thoroughly grounded in the history and tradition of the church before jumping into debate on such modern issues as homosexuality, women priests or abortion.

Briel said a profile of students in Catholic studies showed that a strong number of them are concentrating in business. By engaging in Catholic studies, those students "are not just getting business ethics but a broader philosophy of work and issues of social justice. The program from the very beginning was broad and daring," he said.

The university has 11,000 students, double the number 20 years ago. The school population is about evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate students.

Briel said 110 undergraduates are majoring and about 40 students are minoring in Catholic studies. Nine out of the 10 students in the program are taking a double major, such as business, pre-med, humanities and teaching.