Conference Tackles ‘Crisis’ in Catholic Higher Education 50 Years After ‘Land O’ Lakes’
The Cardinal Newman Society and the Institute of Catholic Culture (ICC) will present a unique conference this month featuring the presidents of four faithful Catholic colleges who will discuss the crisis in Catholic education “under attack from the secularist agenda set forth 50 years ago” by the disastrous “Land O’ Lakes Statement.”
The conference, titled “CRISIS: Catholic Higher Education and the Next Generation,” will take place on Saturday, January 28, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More in Arlington, Va. Admission is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
“Following ‘Land O’ Lakes,’ the quest for secular prestige and government funding at many Catholic colleges took precedence over the commitment to providing a faithful Catholic education,” said Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly, who will speak at the conference. “These institutions weakened their core curricula, adopted a radical notion of academic freedom, embraced relativism and political correctness, and largely abandoned their responsibilities to form young people in Christ. I can’t imagine the harm caused by another 50 years down this wayward path.”
“We have a real crisis in Catholic higher education, where in far too many places, high school students are going off to colleges and universities that call themselves ‘Catholic,’ yet after four years they come out with no faith at all,” added Father Hezekias Carnazzo, founder and executive director of the McLean, Va.,-based ICC. “It is time for authentically Catholic schools to lead the way for a renaissance in Catholic education! When this happens, not only will it affect those colleges and universities with a weak Catholic identity, but it will redound to the level of our parishes as well.”
The four college presidents speaking at the conference all represent faithful Catholic institutions recommended in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College: John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; Father Sean Sheridan, T.O.R., president of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio; Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C.; and Dr. George Harne, president of Northeast Catholic College in in Warner, N.H.
“These college presidents are leaders in the movement to renew and strengthen faithful Catholic education,” said Reilly. “All of the colleges recommended in The Newman Guide represent the best of Catholic higher education. Their examples can be replicated at Catholic colleges across the country under the right leadership, but only if the ‘Land O’ Lakes’ model and mentality are abandoned.”
Interested participants can find more information and register on ICC’s website.
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