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THE ROLE OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
Some of the most significant contributions to Catholic culture, and to culture in any tradition, have been made by individuals working in relative isolation. Some important Catholic scholarship of our times comes from professors in large secular institutions and from independent scholars not employed by universities. But the Catholic universities are the normal trustees of Catholic learning, and the whole intellectual heritage would be greatly impoverished in their absence. In light of all that has been said above, some desirable components and aspects of a Catholic university emerge.
As we all know, at the minimum a Catholic university should be a true university in the accepted sense, and it should maintain a lively familiarity with the treasures of the tradition and the way of proceeding in the tradition. But this still leaves many questions: who, where, when and how? It may be well to begin in the library. It is not only a question of library holdings, but also of the welcoming atmosphere, style of architecture and interior decoration, works of art displayed, and most of all the placing of the collection. The significance of this last point is that what is most central to the character and purpose of the university should be most accessible, most attractively arranged, and offer the best possibilities for browsing and for sitting comfortably to read.
What has been said about the library could be said about the entire campus. Once a campus exists, its basic architectural pattern is established. However, at any opportunity to reshape the campus, the principle might be kept in mind that the very layout of the buildings ought to express the priorities and the relationship among the various activities of the campus, and that utility or efficiency need not mean ugliness. That may seem to some a trivial consideration in relation to the construction of curricula, the choice of programs, and so forth, but in the context of the sacramental principle, the visual-kinesthetic impact of the campus sets an important tone even before any activity is engaged. Of particular interest, of course, is the placing and design of the university's main chapel, whether it is the focus to which the eye and the steps are naturally drawn as to the center, or whether it is hidden away to be discovered only by devotees. Again in terms of the sacramental principle, the quality, character, and placement of statuary and other art about the campus is significant.
What can be said about space can also be said about time. In these days of external and financial pressures for maximum efficiency and maximal use of buildings, there are great temptations for weekend programs to spill into Sunday, even Sunday morning, for spring break to replace Holy Week and Easter, and for weekday feasts and holy days to disappear. Much is conveyed by the cessation of routine activities on special occasions that would never be communicated in the reading of books about it. The regular tolling of a bell for a daily celebration of Eucharist becomes part of consciousness even for those who do not darken the chapel door. The solemn celebrations of Eucharist at the beginning of the academic year, at graduation, on the occasion of faculty or student deaths, and at other special occasions, similarly help to constitute the character of the school even for those who do not participate. In aid of efficiency and conformity to more general academic expectations, there is pressure to eliminate all the particular Catholic markers in space and time that constitute the particularity of the environment. It is important that we resist this pressure in order to maintain our own particular identity.
The role of campus ministry, which has developed in the universities and colleges of the United States as the presence of the sponsoring communities has dwindled in numbers, could be defined as something more than individual care of souls. Given appropriate appointments, it could be the focal point of scholarly interdisciplinary conversations in which the encounter of faith and culture could take place in some depth and with some continuity. With an investment in occasional significant outside speakers, the participation of top administrators, and perhaps an occasional formal reception, this could become the intellectual focus of the school.
The seriousness and focus of the curriculum, especially for undergraduates, begin with the manner and style of recruitment of students. A university or college that states its identity and character clearly in its literature, and takes care that admission personnel understand and support this statement, will certainly attract both faculty and students who are attuned to the institution's expectations. That being so, it will be easier to maintain in the structure of the curriculum the components of the Catholic intellectual tradition. It may be important to note in passing that the Catholic colleges and universities of the United States are almost alone among the Catholic universities of the world in offering all students a liberal arts foundation including an introduction to philosophy and theology. Elsewhere, students entering the university begin immediately to concentrate in their specialized field, though they may have had a more extensive and intensive secondary education before they come.
The foundation in the liberal arts is important in developing both a more effective use of the imagination in creative approaches to personal, technical, professional, and societal challenges, and better honed skills in critical thinking and evaluation. In our society, it is rapidly becoming counter-cultural to spend time in the undergraduate years on laying this foundation rather than going directly into professional preparation. Moreover, even where liberal arts programs remain, they are often so dissipated into unrelated elective offerings, each focusing rather narrowly in its own field, that the benefits of a truly liberal education are lost. Those benefits ought to include the integration of learning, the realization of the community dimension, increasing experience of the continuity of faith and reason, a deepening respect for and appreciation of the cumulative wisdom of the past, progressive transcending of facile and unexamined prejudices and, of course, the integration of life and learning.
Both philosophy and theology play a central role in such a liberal education. It is a role that is little appreciated in our culture. It is thrown in question by the prevailing interpretation of the constitutional separation of church and state, an interpretation followed even by some of the large private foundations on whose financial assistance private higher education has become steadily more dependent for its very survival. For Catholics this role of philosophy and theology is central to our intellectual tradition. It follows from the need to integrate one's life and activities with a focus on ultimate ends. This clearly requires the development of analytical and critical skills, and is immensely helped by acquaintance with the great thinkers of the past, the questions they raised, the ways in which they worked towards answers, the kinds of answers they found satisfactory or unsatisfactory. That is the function of philosophy, and it involves the foundational questions for the natural and social sciences, for the appreciation of art, music, and literature, for an approach to history, a grasp of languages and mathematical reasoning, and much else.
It has been the custom in Catholic higher education in the past to teach an introduction to the branches of philosophy according to later presentations of Thomistic thought. In our time, when so much has changed and is constantly changing, it may be more consistent with the Catholic intellectual tradition to teach an introduction to philosophy through a tracing of the history of philosophy. Our tradition cherishes the cumulative wisdom of the past. In philosophy this retracing of the past is a particularly apt introduction to the main lines of thought of the great thinkers, each developing further what had been handed on through the centuries of Western thought. If there were unlimited time, one might look at the traditions of India and China. Given the time constraints of the undergraduate years, it seems more relevant to the project of Catholic higher education to furnish our students with a common memory of the development of the great questions in their own tradition. On the whole, that is what is sadly lacking for most educated people of our culture and society. In providing a certain breadth, their education has often failed to give them either solid cultural roots of their own or a common memory shared with others in their milieu. This last is so important for meaningful conversation because it offers a common vocabulary understood in a common sense, as well as providing reference points, assumptions, accepted modes of argumentation, and such like.
As mentioned above, the teaching of theology to all students in Catholic higher education is a very important contribution to the passing on of the Catholic intellectual tradition. This much is clear. What is less clear, even now more than four decades after the Second Vatican Council, is just what should be the content of theology for an educated laity. It is clear that to go back to a popularization of traditional seminary formation misses the mark. It is equally clear that the trend of recent decades does not fulfill the need. The recent tendency has been to offer some introduction to critical Scripture scholarship, some discussion of foundational questions concerning the nature of faith and religious language, concerning traditional efforts to demonstrate the existence of God, what is meant by claims of revelation, and other questions common to all traditions. Sometimes even these are not required, and each student can make a personal selection of courses from a slate of electives. This seems to fall far short of the role that theology should play in the education of students in Catholic undergraduate programs.
If theology is really to play an integrating and focusing role, our programs probably need to declare themselves boldly and devote more time to the theological sequence. To achieve the essential purpose, we need minimally to offer students an introduction both to the understanding of Scripture in their own culture and intellectual environment, and to a coherent, well-informed, and intelligent grasp of their own faith tradition with its creedal content. Moreover, we need to engage faculty and graduate students in the difficult questions about their own tradition.
At the same time, it is evident that the whole burden of a Catholic focus and integration of the curriculum cannot simply be carried by the theology and philosophy departments. That burden must be shared by all departments in ways appropriate to their disciplines, but in a special way by literature, history, fine arts, and some components of psychology, sociology, and political theory. It is a question of relating everything to the greater whole, to human destiny, responsibility for society and culture, stewardship of the resources of creation, and so forth. It is also a question of knowing, taking seriously, and engaging the wisdom of our tradition in the questions that arise. And it is a question of treating the material learned in the student's major field not only as a matter of technical competence but as a matter of wisdom for life.
The character and identity of a Catholic university need to be evident not only in undergraduate education but also in the graduate and professional programs and in the original scholarly work and research of the faculty. This is even more difficult to achieve in the present climate of higher education and scholarship worldwide. The university world is still firmly rooted in the Enlightenment with its secularizing tendencies and its disregard for the particular in favor of the universal and whatever can be broadly standardized. The claim that a particular tradition such as the Catholic has something of value to contribute to research in politics, economics, psychology, and so forth is still suspect in most circles. The idea that a religiously based ethics should be part of the curriculum of professional schools seems quite absurd to many of our colleagues. But a counter-cultural stance on these issues belongs to the very core of the Catholic university's task in the world. It is there that the wisdom of our tradition meets those who make the decisions for society, and it is there that the engagement of the Catholic intellectual tradition with the culture can effectively happen.
The requirements for realizing this are exacting. We need competent scientists, social scientists, and scholars in all fields who are sufficiently formed in the Catholic intellectual tradition themselves to bring their graduate students and already qualified practitioners to an understanding, appreciation, and critique of the issues that arise. Almost all of the professors in various fields in our universities and colleges have themselves been educated at the doctoral level in the large state university graduate schools under the post-Enlightenment secularizing and specializing influences. If they have had a formation in the Catholic intellectual tradition, this will at best have been at the undergraduate level, but for many will have ended at the secondary level or with parish instruction for the sacrament of confirmation. That is a very fragile foundation on which to provide their graduate students with serious faith-based analysis of issues in their fields. It is clear that in order to realize the potential of a Catholic university in some fullness, continuing education or self-education of the faculty is an indispensable prerequisite. This can be done with reading circles guided by competent people, with public lectures, faculty-run seminars and colloquia, summer institutes attended by invitation, and other such initiatives. It can engage good theology and philosophy faculties with their colleagues as well as with their students.
The other side of this is the selection, focus, and conduct of research. It has become customary on the university campuses for research of some kind to be required for promotion and tenure, but for the nature of that research to be entirely at the discretion of each individual professor. The endeavor of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, on the other hand, is to build connections among Catholic universities so that joint major research projects can be undertaken which relate to such problems as world hunger, development of Third World cities and economies, the international illegal drug trade and the agricultural economies integrated into it, development of legal systems in emergent nations, conflict resolution over major land claims, armaments control mechanisms, world literacy, and other peace, justice, and development issues. Clearly, the ideal Catholic university would have a focus in research and scholarship that would further the Catholic intellectual tradition in bringing both the classic treasures and the way of proceeding into play in relation to contemporary culture and society. This requires rather a bold stand on the part of the institution to assert its research priorities and to hire and give grants by the criteria of those priorities.
There is, of course, nothing in the inner logic of our intellectual tradition that would require that we hire only Catholic professors or admit only Catholic students. The requirement is rather the contrary, namely, that it is important for a Catholic university to have both faculty and student participants of other traditions. Being open to the cumulative wisdom not only of our own but of other traditions happens more readily when we meet them in their living representatives. Moreover, an authentic dialogue of faith and culture is more likely to happen where other perspectives are represented. And again, while it is good that students get a firm grounding in their own tradition, being segregated from others in their intellectually formative years does not prepare them to live in a pluralistic society and in an ecumenical age. Complementarity and ecumenical exchanges are an important aspect of scholarship for the faculty and of education for the students.
At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that a critical mass of faculty, administrators, and staff really committed to the Catholic mission of the institution is essential if the character of the institution is to survive. It is a matter requiring careful attention in our time. Much could be taken for granted in the past when the sponsoring religious congregations were a strong presence on each campus and guaranteed continuity in the spirit of the foundation. These were men and women with a solid formation in Catholic experience, worship, and thought, as it was mediated through a particular congregational spirituality and apostolate. Moreover, it was accepted without dispute that the founding congregation's vision and philosophy was the criterion by which all things were judged in the conduct of the institution. Such is no longer the case on most campuses, where the faculty at large is the arbiter in many matters. If that faculty does not share the ideals of the founders, those ideals will not remain the philosophy and spirit of the institution.
There is, of course, a further consideration: the character of the board of directors. Boards have largely assumed the guiding function of the sponsoring congregations. They select the president and make major decisions concerning property, financing, and priorities. It is critical that trustees be selected not only for their contacts and skills but also for their commitment to the Catholic identity, character, and ideals of the institution. In the long run, it is the board that sets the direction in which the institution will grow. Board members are likely to be in the same position as the faculty in relation to the Catholic intellectual tradition. They are likely to have had their last education in the tradition in the undergraduate years at most, but perhaps only at the secondary level, or only in parish preparation for confirmation. If the Catholic universities are to realize their potential as participants in the shaping and the handing on of the intellectual tradition, there also need to be ongoing programs of board formation in order to support the spirit and focus of the institution.
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