It would be a legitimate question to ask whether one could in all seriousness write about Catholic higher education in the UK? In the USA there are dozens of Catholic colleges, and however much some might query the aptness of the name in some cases, there is a large Catholic sector to American higher education. The UK, by contrast, has four Catholic Universities (and other ‘institutes’ and ‘colleges’), in order of foundation, St Mary’s, Twickenham, Newman, Birmingham, Leeds Trinity, and St Mary’s Belfast. All were (and Belfast still is), until recently, ‘University Colleges’ and all have distinguished histories in terms of training teachers for Catholic schools, but together, they account for no more than about 0.5% of UK undergraduates. All of them talk about their ‘Catholic ethos’, and for those in this very secular society who, seeing the word ‘Catholic’, freak out, what they say should act as some reassurance.
St Mary’s, Belfast speaks for them all when its website says:
“Wherever it is found throughout the world Catholic Higher Education seeks to integrate intellectual, personal, ethical, and religious formation; and to unite high academic achievement with service to others.”
The mission is, at one level, that of every good university, to provide excellent teaching and to do good research, but where secular universities can stop there, a Catholic one needs to go further. We have to help meet the teaching and the pastoral needs of our students in the light of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. So we are responsible, in part, for passing on our Catholic heritage to the next generation, not as something set in aspic, or as a museum piece to be admired but disregarded, but rather as part of a living faith engaging with the trends and fashions of the academic world. But where, perhaps, others pay obeisance to the modern faith in relativism, we do that thing academics ought to do, we approach it with a proper scepticism. We do believe in the search for truth, and though we acknowledge that search cannot be completed in this world, we know that it exists. Newman saw Catholic education as developing the following attributes: freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation and wisdom. A Catholic university is charged with developing a learning community which inculcates such values, and should strive to help form its students in such a way; but it also needs to engage its students actively in this process – there is no room for ‘safe spaces’ or for students to be merely passive receivers (even if such students existed and wanted to come to a university with a Catholic ethos).
A Catholic university places itself, Newman wrote, at the service of revealed truth (Idea of a University, Discourse 4). That gives us the immense task of trying to harmonise the spiritual, cultural and personal worlds within which we live, with a view to producing students who are not only well-educated in a secular sense, but whose spiritual needs (even if they are not Catholics) are being met, and who see an horizon wider than that of contemporary utilitarianism. Such students will go on, in whatever walk of life they follow, to be good citizens of this world, and we pray, through Grace, to reach their destiny in the next.
Whilst fulfilling all the intellectual needs students have, a Catholic university also values each one of them as a unique individual with a God-given destiny, and our job is to work with them to help them realise it. In addition to the ubiquitous ‘performance indicators’ of grades and exam success, a Catholic university will keep its eyes fixed on the wider purpose of education, and it will not neglect the spiritual yearnings of people. It is an impoverished vision of education which narrows it down to the acquisition of knowledge and worldly success; these things matter, but they are only a part of education, not its ultimate objectives. Education is not a commodity, even if the Government insists it operates in a ‘market’. A Catholic model of a university begins with the heart of the Church, and it teaches from there. Each person is made in the image of God, and we emphasise the inalienable dignity of each of us, and as God loves us, so, too must we love one another. A Catholic university is a community where teamwork consists not only of interaction between staff and students, but between both groups and the Church in the parish, the diocese and the wider world. We are, even in the modern, secular UK, part of a wider, global Catholic community. That, too, is the mark of a Catholic university. Whatever the politics of ‘Brexit’, no university in this country has, or could afford to have, an insular outlook. Where Catholic universities here have an advantage, is that although there may be few of them here in the UK, there is a global Catholic community of which we are already part. Cooperation between us offers students and staff opportunities which we need to take advantage of – not least at this point in history.
All Along the Watchtower 
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I couldn’t agree more, although I think it really the mission of all Universities, and not only Catholic (in both senses of the word). This morning I (and many others) quoted from a letter to incoming students from the University of Chicago, they wrote,
“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”
As I said, the truth will stand on its own, but confined to an ivory tower, it does little good. It must be taught, and preached, and brought to as many as possible. This may be one of the highest duties of our society and the failure of so many a large part of our society’s distress.
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I agree Neo. But here, at least in practice, freedom of speech on campus is a threatened beast. An interesting question would arise were, say, a Student Group to want to invite someone to a Catholic University to speak in favour of abortion. Personally I’d hope a good Catholic education would lessen the chance of that, but it raises an interesting question nonetheless.
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I does, and my views mirror yours (and your church’s) on abortion. But I think the solution is to have the speaker, but also have one from the pro-life side. If your student have any of the morality we share the truth will out.
The same is true here, which is, of course, why Chicago is getting so much attention, only a few have the guts to say such things.
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I agree.
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I think we are fooling ourselves if we take the road that all voices are equally deserving of our attention and our consideration. In your abortion issue example above, evil has no voice that warrants academic expression. “That civilization which conflicts with the doctrines of Holy Church is but a worthless imitation and a hollow name.” __Pope Leo XIII
This is where we truly are: a dark age that is darker than any so-called dark age of our past. Much could be argued along the lines of the meaning of Newman’s principles concerning: freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation and wisdom.
For Newman was quite right in wanting to ‘harmonize the spiritual, cultural and personal worlds within which we live’ though his times were quite different from the society that must be lived in today. How, for instance, do you harmonize order with disorder; caucophonies of untuned instruments that simply are used to make noise rather than music? It is one thing to argue intellectually about any sort of issue as long as one can assure or at least assume an orderly competition of thought processes which seems to have all but vanished in today’s societies.
I for one simply look to the first Catholic Universities. They simply taught the faith and the truth. That in itself brings about ordiliness in a man’s life and reaps the outcomes which we are now wringing our hands about in trying to get the right outcome. It happened as a natural expression of personal faith and values. It was, I suppose, too simplistic for our present age and now we must present the case for transgenderism, open borders, homosexuality, abortion, divorce and a host of other ‘non-values’ which the people have pinned their hopes of happiness upon. I just don’t see the wisdom or the moderation the equitableness, calmness or freedom that is being expressed by welcoming that which brings in its wake nothing but its opposite.
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It is easy to suppose there was a golden age in the past, but there wasn’t. Newman’s age was one where children worked in mines (until parliament stepped in and put an end to that), where men and women worked long hours in bad conditions in factories where health and safety where unknown, and where millions lived without adequate housing or food – and that was just in London. These people knew little, if anything, of God, and had no way of accessing the Good News. The Churches did their best, where they could, but many clergy simply want along with the system.
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There has always been poverty, hardships and ignorance. But what I am speaking of here is the education of those who never had any of those problems as they had a desk in a university.
In other words, why in Catholic University should one have a different set of rule than our own Parish? Would we expect to have a guest speaker at Mass who profess abortion, open marriages, freemasonry, communism etc.? So why should we even acknowledge these ‘alternatives’ to our children. If we are Catholic you can speak to those issues but by giving the teachings of the faith. Equal time for the Enemy of all enemies is not necessary. He has all the air-time he needs out in the world.
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I see – thanks for the clarification.
Catholic universities are not the same as churches, and things happen there which don’t at Mass. We do not live in an hermetically sealed world, and the ‘alternatives’ as you put them, are there, and at some point children will come across them. Our choice is not how to prevent our children accessing these alternatives – in the Internet age that is impossible, it is, rather, to equip our children with the equipment to combat those alternatives and to reject satan and all his works.
I remain utterly baffled by the freemasonry stuff. Here in the UK it is the equivalent of Rotary. Is the US full of a different type of Mason? It seems to me to date back to the nineteenth century when freemasonry was indeed the enemy of the Church. Perhaps this is cultural, because, as I say, in the UK they are are middle aged businessmen who play golf and drink gin.
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Regarding Freemasonry: “The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).
Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.”
Like it or not, the Church sees more in it than you do.
As to the ‘alternative’ I think you portray the issue on its head, quite literally. First, everyone in the Western Hemisphere is steeped in the errors of this world almost from conception forward. The alternative is the Catholic Faith and the Catholic University which should stand as a haven against the errors of this world. We are not keeping kids from the world we are offering them, perhaps for the first time in their lives, an orderliness to life that abounds in riches that are not of this earth. They should be a beacon on a hill not a place where we encourage then to mix sugar and salt together and call it salt. We should be distinct. If we are not then there is no pupose at all of calling the education, Catholic or Christian for that matter.
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I didn’t dissent that the Church forbids it, I simply wondered whether this was not one of those things which is culturally conditioned. I suspect it is. I have only ever known one Mason, who was a local bank manager and about as harmful as the rest of the breed.
I think you may be misunderstanding my comment a bit. Of course a Catholic university ought to be offering something alternative, but it can’t hide students from the world we have created, and in which they live. Nice though it would be to suppose we could live in a solipsism, we can’t, nor can they. We can’t be theorists, we have to combat the ideas the kids will encounter, not pretend they don’t exist, which is, for me, what saying we should be distinct, would mean.
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Indeed the short college years may be the only time in a person’s long life that they will even be exposed to an alternative to the world. All I am saying is that we ought make the best use of it. The world will have the rest of the persons life to undo the good that you have reaped in their souls. So providing deep soil rather than shallow and taking care to weed the garden whilst they are young shoots might ought to be a good place to start if we want to give them a fighting chance in this world . . . and to enter the next.
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I’d see it the other way almost. They don’t come to us innocent of the rest of the world, and they certainly won’t spend the rest of their lives innocent of it. Our job is to equip them to deal with the ideas with which they will be bombarded and to encourage them by giving them the equipment to counter those ideas.
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That’s pretty much what I’ve been saying here, C. The world has its voice and it is obviously the loudest and most persistent voice that any of us will hear in our lives. It is up to us to make the wee little Catholic voice be heard above the din of the world. In order to do that, one at times needs to seek quiet; and that does suppose a place where those incessant voices might be quieted for a time so that the Catholic voice might be heard and contemplated in peace. Without that, it is just adding to the decibel level of all the other voices out in the world and it would be doubtful if that is the case that Catholicism will have an effect whatever if it just one more voice added to the overall din that we hear.
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I agree. But in a Catholic university, I hope the voice can be heard rather more.
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I certainly hope so as well.
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Re: Freemasonry, I think there are two strands to Christian opposition to it.
A) Catholic opposition during the Enlightenment period when Freemasonry represented an opposed political and intellectual force.
B) Pentecostal (and other) opposition on the grounds of spiritual danger (occultism, idolatry etc). Certain publications attest to particular rituals carried out by high level freemasons that would be classed as idolatry/apostasy if they were placed in a biblical context. I am uncertain as to the truth of A) the rituals themselves; B) the numbers of people alleged to have taken part in them.
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I really have no experience of this – I simply find it odd in the English suburban context. I think one of my uncles was a Mason, and the only thing he was a threat to was himself.
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Indeed. I suspect, like many other things in life, most masons don’t really read their own literature, and those who do don’t give it much credence. Hard-core occultists are always a very small minority.
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I suspect it to be so here – but in other cultures, who can tell?
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Indeed, and being a supernaturalist, I would caution anyone against activities that might involve them with the spirit-realm.
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Me too.
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In reference to Masons, my experience here parallels yours there. They are almost always simply men who wish to do good, and yes, I’ve known quite a few. Usually, in my experience, they tend to be small business types, or lower to middle managers. In fact, they do not seem much different than the membership of the Rotary, Lions, or many others, club.
I suspect a Venn diagram amongst those service clubs and the Masons would overlap severely. That said, I suspect they partially grew here, because the Catholic church was so opposed to them, and in the 18th and 19 century, Rome may have had a point. To me, they are not measurably different from the Knights of Colombus, except that one is Catholic and the other mostly mainstream Protestant.
I do wonder though if there is a connection with anti- Anglo/American sentiments simply because Mason’s owe much of their historic growth to the British officers and their traveling lodges.
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Interesting, Neo. My very limited experience here matches your own. Certainly in nineteenth century Europe the Masons were an anti-Catholic force, and for all I know may be now, but when I read anti-Masonic stuff on Catholic sites it makes me wonder.
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Given when they became public – shortly after the Glorious Revolution, they probably weren’t exactly pro-Catholic, but I’ve found little of that in the ones I have known. Times change. But some Catholics ( and Protestants as well, of course) are very reactionary, and I suspect this is a safe place to show it.
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Regarding debate in the context of guest speakers, societies, etc, I think it would make sense to organize events as a series. That, of course, won’t guarantee that people listen to things in context, but I believe you would still get a good turnout for a series titled something like: “Catholicism and Science: A Dialogue”. The series could begin with sessions on the Enlightenment debate between rationalism and empiricism, before moving on to specific issues.
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I think that’s a very good idea, Nicholas. Thank you.
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I think a good way that a Catholic university might distinguish itself from the secular crowd is to have a compulsory unit in critical thinking in the first year and a compulsory unit on the philosophy of the student’s chosen discipline in the final year. One of the areas (in my opinion) where secular education has gone wrong is to decontextualize the disciplines, focussing instead on “cramming facts.” If exam boards find themselves complaining about poor essay writing skills they have only themselves to blame for saturating syllabuses.
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Good ideas, Nicholas.
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Well, as a footsoldier that’s the impression I get. Looking at my scheme of work for next year, I can tell at a glance that there’s too much content.
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I can easily remember being (I thought) horribly overwhelmed in college – 6 books for a survey course! What were they thinking? 🙂
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