Catholic Schools (High Schools/Colleges)

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Permalink Reply by Corinne O'Brien on August 29, 2009 at 10:41am

I have heard this many times. I live in the diocese of Lincoln, NE and from what I know it depends on the college. The ones that I know of that are closer to the Catholic traditions are in Kansas, one in Dallas, possibly one in MN, and of course the one in Stuebenville, OH. Other than those I do not know too much else.

My oldest is an 8th grader and at our Catholic gradeschool they attend Mass daily. My husband went to school at this same school and he only had Mass once a week. I think part of this is Vatican 2. Fortunately our Bishop, Msgr, and Principal, feel strongly about daily Mass and our school has been having daily Mass for many years now. Our Catholic high school has daily Mass before school starts but it is not mandatory or part of the school day like it is at the grade school. I know the High School Principal and have met the Superintendent and they are very devoted to keeping things Catholic. We also have a wonderful Newman Center on our University campus.

I know there has been critisism of our Diocese because we are so conservative and we have a very outspoken conservative Bishop but I know we are blessed to be part of a true Catholic tradition.

All this being said, I do not know how much you have looked, what your resources are, how far away you are willing to let your daughter be from home but I encourage you to keep looking. I know there are true Catholic colleges out there but since I have not yet had to explore that, I just know what I know from friends. Good luck and I will pray for you and your daughter.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Raybaud on August 29, 2009 at 11:11am

Thank you so much for your insight and prayers, Corinne. They are very much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on August 29, 2009 at 11:05am

I agree with Corinne that it really depends on the college. We have several in our area that are "Catholic" but extremely liberal. It seems like everyone we know who has gone there actually comes out less inline with the views of the church rather then having strengthened their Catholic faith. Infact at least 75% of them have left the Church altogether and have adapted very relativistic views on faith and life. Then we have public colleges with AMAZING newman programs that are 10 times more healthy and available then what is at the "Catholic" college down the road. I mean one great part about the normal University system if it is supported by a great Newman program is that you get to really develop and campaign for Catholic causes and minister to people with very different view points which for me really helped me develop my faith and all of the "WHY" do I believe this type questions vs just knowing that I did. I think the bottom line is that as there are GREAT Catholic colleges and GREAT Newman centers in some of the public institutions. It's just a matter of being discerning with your choice and not assuming that all public is bad and all Catholic is good. I also think that it's very important to discern this within the Catholic colleges as it's easy to want to assume that all of your professors etc are informed and inline with Catholic Doctrine when infact they may be teaching the opposite. I think that trust is very common and often where things go wrong when learning in Catholic colleges goes against church views.

After re-reading this post I want to make clear that I in NO way am saying that all Catholic schools are under par. I have just learned within the University systems we have to be diligent with our choices whether they are catholic or not....also i thought there was some evaluation of this being done within the church...I can't remember if it's something published at this point or in the works, but I thought I remember hearing and reading that there would be rankings etc. given and possible guidelines set up etc. If I find more info on this I"ll let you know.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Raybaud on August 29, 2009 at 11:13am

I didn't get the impression at all that you were saying all Catholic schools are "under par" and I am with you on that. I appreciate your post as well, Kristin.

I was wondering if it was "just me" for the past few years or was it reality that many schools seem to be "watered down" when it comes to the promotion and adherence to our faith.

Glad to see I'm not alone.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle DePizzol on August 30, 2009 at 1:35pm

I have heard that Creighton handed out condoms as part of their welcome packages. I hope this is not really true, but I am thinking it probably is. We all saw what happened at ND. We need to be counter-cultural and swim up the river of what is truth. It starts with one person at a time. We need to stay deligent as parents and teach our children the truths of the True Church and help them discern the watered down "truths" they are being taught. I sent my daughter to a Catholic high school this year and as part of her summer reading she was to read "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and "Cold Mountain." Both of these books could be considered rated "R." In additon, she had to pick 1 out of 5 movies to view on war. Four of the Five movies were rated "R." She just turned 14 last week!!!!!! Why do we have to expose our kids to anymore than they already are bombarded with?

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Raybaud on August 30, 2009 at 3:46pm

What can I say other than AMEN, Michelle?

I'm not a "hard core" mom but I believe things are rated for a good reason and quite honestly, even at 17 1/2 my daughter has still chosen not to view "R" rated movies so I'm really glad we never had the schools suggesting them to my freshman daughter.

My assumption is that they are "R" due to violence but I can't imagine there's not a movie depicting the suffering people went though during the war without it being so graphic. I'm a huge classice movie fan and I have been brought to tears more than once watching a movie or newsreel from the 1940's so even something like that would prove to get the message out to the kids without all the violence.

Wishing your daughter all the best in her high school this year!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle DePizzol on August 30, 2009 at 7:56pm

Thanks Jennifer.
Have you seen The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? This one is clean and good. I wish she could have watched this.
Anyway. The books contained sexual content that was really inappropriate. The violence I am OK with to some degree.
Like I said, we just have to stand up for what we beleive in. We did bring it to the attention of the principal. However, it is amazing how little the principal knew about the content of what is being recommended in his classroom. I wonder if this is the case at other "Catholic" schools.
We are fighting the devil and we need to make it a good fight. TRUTH will prevail!

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Permalink Reply by Robyn Lee on August 31, 2009 at 11:15am

A good resource to check out is the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine's Catholic Identity College Guide.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Raybaud on August 31, 2009 at 11:29am

Michelle, I've not seen "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and Robyn, thanks for the information on the guide, I'm not familiar with that either.

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Erika Drain on August 31, 2009 at 8:17pm

I've seen this time and time again. I taught at two different Catholic Parochial schools and worked so hard to get my students involved in the Mass and learn prayers to then learn that they are only attending Mass on occasion at the high school. I attended a "Catholic" university and was reprimanded in one of my classes for being too "Catholic" (a New Testament class, by the way). When I questioned why since it was a Catholic University I was told that since so many non-Catholics attended as well, we "don't want to make them uncomfortable." I was SHOCKED! I wrote a letter to the President of the University (a Nun - minus the habit) and she never wrote back. Although I loved my time there and even went back for my Masters, I was very unimpressed with how un-Catholic my "Catholic" university was! SO SAD!! Why should we be ashame of our beautiful faith. PLUS, another thing...now that I home school my kids I realize that the Catholic elementary schools they attended and I taught at clearly does not use Catholic textbooks (for example, my 6th grade's social studies book is on American History with a Catholic perspective so not only is he learning about the usual suspects - the explorers found in secular books - he is also learning about Saint Brendans). Why did the Catholic elementary schools start using secular books??? Beats me! I hear it's because of Federal funding, like Title X, not allowing that money to be used for Catholic items....so sad if you ask me! My two cents, GBY, Erika

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Permalink Reply by Erika Drain on August 31, 2009 at 8:19pm

Here's another two cents, why is it that Catholic schools hire non-Catholic teachers???? I REALLY don't understand that one!

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Raybaud on September 1, 2009 at 8:40am

Wow, Erika!
It's wonderful to hear from someone with your perspective. Very powerful. Again, I am so happy to see that I was not alone with my thoughts.

I e-mailed the head of the Theology Department at the college we attended just letting him in on some of my observations last week and he told me it's been a constant source of frustration for him for YEARS now. That's he's been at the college for 23 years and he's about ready to leave because he feels the secular is completely overruling his "Catholic college." He said he spent part of the summer in Eastern Europe and that those people were willing to DIE for our faith yet we couldn't possibly risk "offending anyone" here becuase the college was "too Catholic" and the non-Catholics needed to feel comfortable too. WOW! I just had to share that with my daughter and she was pretty blown away.

One last letter on my part to the dean of students. The Theology head asked me to do that and I told him that I would be happy to do so, guess they're not giving his thoughts on the subject much credo.

Thanks again for the lively discussion, ladies!

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