Conference Explores Catholic Intellectual Tradition

More than 80 scholars take on student engagement, faculty development, social justice and ethics

If the Catholic intellectual tradition is an ongoing conversation with Catholic thinkers and their world, how can modern educators best ensure their students can stay tuned in some 2,000 years after the call began?

Keeping a robust conversation going—in the face of growing secularism and careerism, an estrangement from institutional religions and a culture of relativism—was the centerpiece of “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Challenges and Opportunities for the Catholic University in the 21st Century,” a much-anticipated virtual conference at Sacred Heart University this October.

Attended by more than 220 participants from Hawaii to Trieste, Italy, the conference was sponsored by the Lilly Fellows Program in the Humanities and the Arts, Sacred Heart, Seton Hall University and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. It offered pertinent and informative presentations on the kind of teaching that will engage students and faculty, said Michelle Loris, professor and associate dean of curriculum and special projects for the College of Arts & Sciences.

“Listen to your students; have conversations with your students,” Loris said, quoting Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.  “Show them that the thinkers in this tradition are active minds trying on ideas as they—college students—are active minds, trying on ideas.”

The Rev. Gregory Kalscheur, dean of Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences at Boston College, delivered the conference’s keynote speech, suggesting that focusing on the key to Catholic intellectual tradition–the aspiration to wholeness–provides an opportunity for faculty and students alike to better navigate the singular challenges of these complex times.

In Kalschuer’s talk, “Engaging the Catholic Intellectual Tradition: How Research in All Disciplines Can Be Enriched by Encounter with the Tradition,” he suggested fostering a dynamic integration to help colleagues and students build a broader vision of reality.

“The Catholic college or university that is truly animated by the Catholic intellectual tradition will be a community engaged in a certain sort of conversation, a diverse community of teachers, scholars and students and administrators sharing life together, working and talking together in the shared pursuit of truth and wholeness,” he said.

Carolyn Woo, distinguished president’s fellow for global development at Purdue University, and former president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, said she felt the conference “reminds us of what it is that we are doing; what is it that we are passing on to the next generation; why that is important.”

Addressing “Catholic University Mission and Identity: A Heritage for Leadership and Development,” Woo considered many questions from her audience, including concerns about student disillusionment and the relevance of Catholic teachings and prayer in the face of stark election choices and climate change.

“If everybody cheats, is it still cheating or the new norm?” she said, quoting students’ concerns. “I pray regularly. Why do I need to go to church?”

Woo turned the dilemma around, encouraging colleagues to discuss the kinds of questions Jesus would ask of them and their students. “In a Catholic university, it’s not just the students’ questions that matter,” she said. “I think a Catholic university has the privilege to raise Jesus’ questions.”

Paul Mariani, poet and professor emeritus at Boston College, offered some of his striking works from his books, Ordinary Times: Poems and The Mystery of It All: The Vocation of Poetry in the Twilight of Modernism, and he spoke of writing poetry and the act of prayer.

Michael Higgins, president of Corpus Christi College-St. Mark’s College at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, noted author and professor emeritus at SHU, discussed “The Catholic Imagination: Poets & Artists,” asking how one presents the sublime in a time that seems to champion the banal.

In contrast to the repression and guilt some would say characterize a Catholic upbringing, he spoke of the symbols, sacraments, words and images that define the radiance of Catholicism and its ability to imbue everything with deeper meaning, providing dimensions to reality and “the shimmering edges of things.

“In a word–or two–a benediction,” he said.

Planned as an on-campus event before the pandemic made that impossible, the three-day conference took to Zoom and YouTube, featuring more than 80 speakers from 25 institutions of higher learning, including the University of Notre Dame, Boston College and Villanova University. Discussions were wide-ranging–from talks on reaching students who aren’t practicing Catholics to modern social justice and ethics, to “Treasure in Earthen Vessels: Bringing a New Generation into the Catholic Intellectual Life” by Holtschneider.

While the participants were not on campus, the conference included a video tour of SHU’s Chapel of the Holy Spirit, a performance by the SHU Gospel Choir and an evening prayer service.

Loris said some topics mirrored the pedagogy SHU employs in its academic core seminars, “The Human Journey Seminars: Great Books in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.” The popular seminars guide students to reflect on classic texts while asking the “big questions” of human existence and relating these texts and ideas to students’ lives and world.

Daniel Rober, advanced lecturer for the Catholic studies department and assistant director of the Thomas More honors program at SHU, and Brent Little, Catholic studies department lecturer, helped plan the event and choose papers for presentation. The organizers plan to compile a volume of the conference plenary talks and notable papers.

University President John J. Petillo thanked members of the Sacred Heart family for their hard work in putting together such a vital and timely conference. “As those of us in Catholic higher education face increasing challenges, it is ever more important that we focus on the ongoing work of our Catholic intellectual tradition, with its focus on the intellectual inquiry, human dignity and the common good,” he said. “It is essential that our efforts enable students to experience the questions, not to gaze at the shadows on the cave walls.”