Freddoso on Notre Dame

Alfred Freddoso, distinguished professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, recently gave a talk at the St. Thomas University in Houston about last year's dust-up over the honorary degree given to President Obama. It includes a list of proposals for how to promote genuine Catholic intellectual formation in the future. HT a Jesuit friend of mine.

I like his characterization of ND as "a national private university that is more open to Catholic faith and practice than any other national private university I know of." This is quite true. Any student who goes there with a strong, integral faith will certainly have ample opportunity on campus for it to be even further strengthened. Both my sons have had lively Catholic lives on campus and have grown and flourished as "JPII/B16 Catholics." This is not true of other nominally Catholic colleges and universities where there is hostility towards JPII/B16 Catholicism. I have seen it first hand from high administrators. Many of these schools are a desert for Catholics who believe in and try to put into practice the entirety of Catholic teaching and practice, especially when it comes to issues of sexuality. I think all Catholic colleges and universities have to figure out, and quick, that there is no future in Catholicism that doesn't run through the achievements of these pontificates. I hope bishops continue to communicate this more and more strongly to them.