The enrollment drop in American Catholic schools—from 5.2 million students in the 1960s to 2.5 million in 1990 to today’s 1.8 million—is a plunge of Syrian magnitude. In the last ten years, 1,336 Catholic schools have been either closed or consolidated. Meanwhile, bishops have been . . . . Continue Reading »
At a time when many Catholic schools are closing, the Cristo Rey network of Catholic high schools is opening new institutions. Continue Reading »
If American Catholics are looking for a Christian role model during these turbulent times, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton—the first American-born saint—is a wonderful choice. Continue Reading »
The key to our school's growth is this: We proudly adhere to a distinctive mission. Continue Reading »
A school's Catholic identity does affect hookup culture—but not in a simple or straightforward way. Continue Reading »
W orking in my Marquette office one afternoon in the spring of 2010, I heard unusual sounds coming from the normally quiet lawns outside my window. I was surprised to see a modest assembly of students and professors preparing to march in protest. Against what? Minutes later, an email arrived . . . . Continue Reading »
Last June, I was in Ukraine advising civil society groups that are seeking to ensure that the new Ukrainian education law promotes religious and educational freedom, including the rights of parents. Ukrainian policy-makers are eager to align their country with the West, so a number of times I . . . . Continue Reading »
On Catholic campuses that aspire to Top Ten or Top Twenty status in publicity sweepstakes like the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, one sometimes hears the phrase “preferred peers.” Translated into plain English from faux-sociologese, that means the schools to which we’d like to be compared (and be ranked with). At a major Catholic institution like the University of Notre Dame, for example, administrators use the term “preferred peers” to refer to universities like Duke, Stanford, and Princeton, suggesting that these are the benchmarks by which Notre Dame measures its own aspirations to excellence. Continue Reading »
Ken Ilgunas moved into a big, drafty house in rural Nebraska. He experimented to see how low he could turn the thermostat during the cold, windy winter. He found that with many layers of clothes and fingerless gloves, and wrapped in a down sleeping bag, he could live and work with an inside . . . . Continue Reading »
One might think that the District of Columbia, our nation’s capital, would be particularly vigilant in defending the freedoms fundamental to American life. Unfortunately, the District’s City Council has now seen fit to intervene into the life of religious institutions and insist that such institutions handle some topics in ways amenable to the Council’s opinions. Continue Reading »
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