When our family was in the throes of selecting a college for our son, we visited nearly a dozen university campuses, talked to many more admissions counselors, and scoured the websites of dozens more institutions. We were concerned about all of the typical things that families consider. Because we are a religious family, the spiritual aspect of the colleges we considered for our son was a top priority. We are not Catholic but seriously considered more than one Catholic institution. This would have been unthinkable for some of our Protestant peers, especially since we were not visiting the types of universities that are only coincidentally Catholic. For better or worse, anti-Catholic bias (and anti-religious bias more generally) gives many non-Catholic families pause. But it shouldn’t. I’m grateful to have been asked to share some of my own insights, as a non-Catholic Christian parent, about my experience examining unapologetically Catholic universities for our son. That is the focus and the perspective of the essay that follows, and I hope it is helpful for my non-Catholic Christian peers.
If the most dramatic possibility is your child becoming a Catholic after a lifetime of Baptist Vacation Bible School, then you’re pretty fortunate.
But … What If He Converts?!
The prospect of children leaving the religious traditions in which they were raised is an understandable source of anxiety for religiously observant parents. In our experience, it is one of the primary reasons that many of our non-Catholic friends and acquaintances would not consider Catholic universities for their children. In our case, my wife and I had already left the evangelical Baptist world of our upbringings when our son was in middle school. We knew from experience that moving from one tradition to another is complex and personal. It’s not an act of rebellion like many parents we’ve met believe it to be. What is more likely an act of rebellion is leaving the faith entirely, and that can happen anywhere. Fearing the prospect of conversion is a paper tiger, not an issue over which to lose sleep.
This is not the place to litigate theological differences. While we don’t believe that Catholic dogma is uniquely or particularly true, there are plenty of people who believe that conversion is drastic and serious. Either way, the one thing to remember is that your child is an independent moral agent. If you are the type of parent who would demand that the truck keys be returned or that the tuition bills be redirected if your child becomes a Catholic, then you’d probably make the same demands about a lot of other things, too. And, frankly, you are a bad parent. For the rest of you, fear not. There are a lot of things your children will do that will require patience, inquiry, and openness, and if the most dramatic of these is becoming Catholic after a lifetime of Baptist Vacation Bible School, then you’re pretty fortunate.
Embrace and Encourage the Pursuit of Truth
Tradition has fallen on hard times. There is very little modern appreciation for understanding what the past can teach us. This is true of nearly every corner of modern life, but it is especially true in religion. The Christian tradition understands itself as continuous and unbroken. The faith, we are told, was “once for all delivered to the saints.” Why is it, then, that so many evangelical church-history timelines have just three figures: Jesus, Martin Luther, and Billy Graham?
One of the best things about a faithful Catholic university is the rich Christian tradition that is appreciated and, hopefully, on offer in classrooms, spiritual conversations, and other campus opportunities.
Sure, Catholic universities don’t have a monopoly on this, and a robust and serious Christian education can be found at many institutions, including the university our son now attends. But Irenaeus, Augustine, Hildegard, Aquinas, and many others rarely make it into the curriculum in some places. They are front and center at the Catholic universities we considered, and, if they were not at the Protestant school he now attends, he would not be attending it.
It is true that college-aged students are vulnerable, and most institutions have totally betrayed the students that families have entrusted to them. There is little ideological diversity among most college faculties, and some of the worst offenders are merely indoctrination factories. But surely if a parent is thinking carefully, he or she would recognize these problematic schools, anyway.
The pursuit of truth requires access to information. If we intentionally hide thinkers, ideas, and a knowledge of events from students, then they will never arrive at the truth in a convincing way. Parents of intellectually curious and academically prepared students should not fear exposure to enemies of Christianity such as Nietzsche or Derrida or Foucault. And they certainly should not fear exposure to Christians such as St. Pope John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger. The truth finds a way of defending itself, and a campus where free inquiry inside the bounds of rationality is encouraged and facilitated is the best type of campus. And many, many Catholic institutions more than qualify.
Opportunities? Or Obligations?
Every tradition has zealots. Proselytizers are obnoxious, and when they are empowered or encouraged by the institution, this is a problem. This is not a uniquely Catholic possibility but is one that springs up at non-Catholic Christian colleges, too.
One of the most wonderful aspects of Catholic education is that those who support it understand their work as a service to humanity.
At any faithful institution there will always be an open invitation for all students to participate in spiritual life. Obviously, non-Catholic students would be barred from participating fully in mass. Aside from that, it’s good to ask what spiritual or religious obligations are imposed on students. Are they required to take courses in Catholic dogma? Are they required to attend chapel? Are you and your student okay with this?
In our case, it wouldn’t have mattered where our son attended; compulsory religious participation would have been a very heavy dark mark against any school because, as I stated above, each student is an independent moral agent. Spiritual life should not be a chore, and in a world full of choices it needs to be attractive. A university that employs a person whose full-time job is to measure skirt lengths and track down chapel truants is just not our (including my son’s) kind of place. It might be great for some people, Catholic or otherwise.
A Word for Non-Christians
I know of only one Catholic university in the U.S. that limits enrollment to Catholic students, but that school is subject to the unconstitutional tyranny of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (See George Leef’s article in this issue of From the Academy for more on this sorry topic.) One of the most wonderful aspects of Catholic education is that those who support it understand their work as a service to humanity. These schools train Catholic and non-Catholic lawyers, doctors, teachers, and engineers who go into the world and serve others. These schools don’t impose or require religious belief but are confident that the quiet rhythms of Christian life that are visible on campus will be a quiet witness to all. The success of their methods is an apologetic for their underlying commitments.
There is no Catholic university that will impose Christianity upon an unwilling student. They don’t understand it as a failure that a Jewish student might attend a Jesuit university for four years and leave observantly Jewish. The same applies for the atheist, the humanist, the Buddhist, and the growing number of “nones.”
I can wholeheartedly endorse the rigor, the seriousness, and the vitality of many Catholic universities to every family searching for the place where their children will learn and grow on the way to becoming adults. While we are thrilled with the quality of education that our son is receiving at his non-Catholic university, we’re confident that many Catholic universities would have served him well, too.
Trey Dimsdale is president of the AHA Foundation, founded by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in 2007. He is the author of Work: Theological Foundations and Practical Implications.
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