Catholic studies is serious business: at St. Thomas, business students get a solid dose of Catholicity

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 16, 1998 by Patricia Lefevere

McNamee has already created the longest Web address in Christendom -- (www.stth omas.edu/www/cathstu-/http/cst/) -- and hopes to collect and distribute programs that integrate Catholic social teaching into the curriculum of all levels of Catholic education around the nation.

The project developed out of conversations former Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis had with several educators at St. Thomas.

McNamee is counting on Roach's "dynamism and his prestige with the bishops and with universities" to help the Catholic Social Thought and Catholic Education Program succeed and become a national resource to parishes, schools and dioceses.

"This is the capstone of his retirement. He knows about all the encyclicals and pastorals that sit on library shelves but don't get integrated into homilies and curriculums," McNamee said.

Fear of losing the tradition

She said that neither the task force project nor Catholic Studies itself is about a return to orthodoxy. "It's a fear of losing the Catholic intellectual tradition" that's prompting it, she said.

While the future of Catholic Studies will depend heavily on the quality of its practitioners and their scholarly efforts, it also comes with a spiritual and a service dimension.

In September the center acquired a house here, which it will run as a Catholic Worker home for women and children. Briel is trying to fund a few Catholic Studies scholarships to be awarded on the basis of need rather than merit.

For junior Stephen Maas, it's impossible to separate the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of the program. "As I grow in faith, my intellect benefits. Growth in spiritual life may reveal new elements of a text I was reading," said Maas, who plans to join 10 other "Tommies' at Rome's Angelicum University next semester.

Prayer and sacraments

As coeditor of the Catholic Studies newsletter Signature, Maas has written about the need for prayer in the classroom. He's convinced that no one can work as a Catholic intellectual divorced from the sacraments. While Catholic Studies programs don't seek to enforce any devotional practices on students, Maas and others favor Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Good Friday observance and the rosary.

Briel said he has been surprised by the piety of some students. Many genuflect before receiving the host and the cup. "Young people are looking for some sense of reverence. They want structure. It's as if they're seeking a tradition that somehow holds. For us, it was holding together artificially," he said of his own Catholic university life just after Vatican Council II.

About half of St. Thomas' 28-member theology faculty was educated after the council ended when many of its reforms had been underway a decade or more -- including Christopher Thompson, who moderates several Catholic Studies Club activities. What Thompson loves about St. Thomas is how its "Catholic character is shared across the board."

There's "a climate of collaboration and opportunity" evident among faculty and students, he said. Faculty invite guest speakers like Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan or Newman expert Ian Ker, and students go to lunch with them.