Why Start a New Catholic College?

I remember riding in a car to an academic function a few months ago with an older philosophy professor and a member of the religious studies department at the school in which I now teach. We were making pleasant conversation, when the woman from Religious Studies mentioned the now-defunct project for Chicago Catholic College. Apparently the Cardinal had mentioned the project at a meeting of Catholic educators a few years ago, and it brought about a firestorm of protest from the representatives of the Catholic colleges in Chicago. Why would one need a new Catholic college when Chicago has Depaul, Loyola, Dominican, and St. Xavier?

This reaction shows, I think, exactly why we need a new Catholic college. The existing Catholic colleges generally think that the way that they function is entirely within the boundaries of acceptable orthodoxy. You may find that hard to believe, but I see it from the inside. The administrations have seen enrollment and prestige grow as a result of their commitment to secularity. The faculty were hired with little attention paid to any sort of Catholic identity, and don't see any need to adjust what they teach in the light of the Gospel. Many, in fact, have made a commitment to critical theory in their academic work that makes the Gospel a dead letter. It would be unfair to expect such faculty to change their teaching in the light of the Gospel; after all, it wasn't part of the terms of their employment. All of this has happened with little or no episcopal complaint. As a result, most Catholic colleges are not able to recognize the problem, and are unlikely to change even if someone at the college did recognize the problem. To try to make them change at this late date would be like trying to make an oak tree turn into a maple.

Rather than attempting to do the impossible miraculous, it is better to start from the beginning, to construct a college with an institutional commitment to Christian orthodoxy from top to bottom.