Santorum, the Newman Society and "Faith-killing"

by Edd Doerr

Rick Santorum stirred things up recently when he criticized President Obama for promoting post-secondary education. Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society (the outfit that organized a petition drive in 2009 to protest Notre Dame's honoring Mr Obama), leaped to his defense in an article in the hyperultraconservative Washington Times on March 5.

Reilly writes that a 2010 Georgetown University study found that 12% of Catholic students leave the "faith" before graduating from Catholic colleges and an even larger number "are no longer truly committed to traditional Catholic practices and morality".

Reilly then cites results of studies by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute: 16% of Catholic students at Catholic colleges grew more opposed to abortion before graduation while 31% shifted to support for abortion rights; 16% became more supportive of traditional marriage while 39% came to support same-sex marriage; 7% attended mass more often while 32% did so less often. At non-Catholic colleges frequent church attendance for all students fell off by 48%. More than 25% of students who opposed abortion as freshmen became pro-choice by graduation. More than 30% of students move leftward politically before graduation.

So St Rick the Sanctimonious refers to universities as "indoctrination mills" and Reilly wants to "restore authenticity to Catholic colleges and universities". Both fail to understand that education leads a great many young people (though not all) to think about and move on from traditional pieties and formulations. And that is a good thing.

Years ago I was doing a TV talk show in Boston. The other guest was a distinguished Catholic theologian, a monsignor. The host, wanting to see a fight, asked why I left the Catholic tradition and became a Humanist in college. I responded that some people are able to grow intellectually within the confines of a single tradition and others are not. The theologian agreed and we got along quite nicely. The same thing happened when another theologian (who had been an adviser at the Second Vatican Council) and I were guests for over five hours on the Long John Nebel Show in New York (the night before Ed Sullivan's funeral, at which the monsignor was to preside). The monsignor and I agreed most of the time and defended each other from the attacks phoned in by irate conservatives.