WASHINGTON — A new study on higher education concludes that there is no “secularizing trend among Catholic students attending Catholic colleges.”
The study, conducted by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) takes a fresh look at a 2003 study by the Cardinal Newman Society.
The CARA study was presented at a meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) in Washington in early February.
Authored by CARA’s Mark Gray and Melissa Cidade, it used data published by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, as did the Cardinal Newman Society study.
One finding: 31% of students changing their attitude about abortion move away from Church teaching while 16% move toward it, meaning a net loss of 15%.
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, still believes there is a crisis in Catholic higher education. “This is worse news than anything we’ve seen yet,” he said, “because not only does it show significant declines in faith practice and beliefs at Catholic colleges, but the additional analysis CARA performed finds that attending a Catholic college in itself has no significant impact on students’ faith.”
CARA findings on major issues include:
— Same-sex “marriage”: CARA reported, “On no other issue do Catholics move further from the Church — regardless of the type of college they attend — than on same sex ‘marriage.’” Only 16% of those surveyed on Catholic campuses move closer to Church teaching either “somewhat” or “strongly,” while 39% move away from Church teaching. Figures show only one in three Catholics (32%) agree with Church teaching on the issue at the end of their junior year.
— Mass attendance: While 61% attend as frequently as before coming to a Catholic institution, 32% decreased their attendance while 7% increased it. CARA’s conclusion: “This represents a net shift of 25 percentage points away from pre-college attendance levels.” Figures show fewer Catholics decrease their attendance on Catholic campuses than Catholics at any other type of college, public or private.
In an interview with Inside Higher Ed (InsideHigherEd.com), ACCU president Richard Yanikoski saw that while the loss of faith reflects trends of today’s society, raw data indicates a typical Catholic undergraduate at a Catholic institution leaves “more spiritually intact than if she or he had attended a public or secular private institution, but not nearly as spiritually active as would have been the case a few decades ago.”
Reilly doesn’t share Yanikoski’s optimism.
“The raw data does show the decline in faith is slower at Catholic colleges,” he pointed out, “but not only is that not something to celebrate, but the additional analysis that CARA has provided shows that Catholic colleges in this study are not responsible for the slower decline.”
Then there’s also the decline in Mass attendance — and the figure of 8% who leave the faith entirely. (CARA showed that “students who leave the Catholic faith were already weak in practice or belief upon entering college.”)
Reilly said, “All Catholics should be alarmed that a student’s faith would decline so significantly at a Catholic college even if the rate is slower than elsewhere,” he said, referring to the overall report. “It’s clearly bad news for Catholic colleges and universities that ought to be showing gains and support for the Catholic faith.”
Taking Catholic Identity Seriously
CARA’s research was based on student surveys at 34 Catholic colleges and universities — fewer than one in seven of these institutions. CARA did not know which institutions were involved because of a confidentiality agreement with the Higher Education Research Institute.
CARA co-author Mark Gray noted these restrictions, adding that neither his organization’s study nor the Newman Society study is based on a true random or representative sample of Catholic colleges or universities. “But this is the best data available,” he added.
Still, CARA concluded that even with the study’s data limitations, “More often than not, Catholic students at Catholic colleges are slightly less likely to shift away from Church teachings than Catholic students attending other types of colleges and universities.”
The study raises some pointed questions. William Fahey, president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimac, N.H., would like to see which Catholic institutions were sampled. He said the results certainly don’t reflect the student body of Thomas More or the institutions listed in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. Thomas More is one of the Catholic colleges and universities recommended in The Newman Guide (TheNewmanGuide.com) and in the Register’s College Guide (http://www.ncregister.com/info/19256) that do emphasize spiritual growth and fidelity to Catholic teaching.
Fahey said he knows of no one at Thomas More who has left the faith, much less 8% of students. “There may be,” he said, “but certainly it’s not known, and if so, it’s not 8%.”
“These numbers,” he said of the study’s findings, “cannot be true of any institution that is taking its Catholic identity not as some historical feature but as serious to the intrinsic life of the college.”
Fahey said these statistics are an aggregate, and that listing each college and university separately would clearly show which institutions “take in any way Ex Corde Ecclesiae seriously.”
Yet pointing to results where percentage gains do occur (students at Catholic colleges are more likely to “support more taxes for the wealthy,” for example), Fahey concluded that is “a giveaway” the survey was done at “left-wing institutions.”
Reilly added that his organization is seeking grants to fund similar research on The Newman Guide colleges for comparison to this study. He’s quite certain that that research would show these colleges have a much stronger impact on students’ faith even though the students attending these colleges tend to start already with a stronger faith.
For example, he noted, “Whereas the CARA study finds 8% of students leaving the faith at the 34 Catholic colleges in the study, about 10% of students at several of The Newman Guide colleges go into religious life. The contrast is stark.”
The CARA study is based on surveys administered to students at the beginning of their freshman year and then again at the conclusion of their junior year. CARA concluded the results broadly show Catholic students at Catholic institutions “remain profoundly connected to their faith.”
“The results are remarkable that Catholic schools are very positive, given the broader cultural forces these institutions are up against,” said Gray.
‘Capable of Positive Change’
He noted there’s a general decline in Mass attendance when children leave the household, so it’s a very positive result that Catholic colleges minimize that decrease. In social justice issues, students at Catholic institutions show positive movement toward Church beliefs and teachings.
He said the report “shows that specific issues and behaviors we can look at in Catholic institutions show that there’s greater success in beating back these cultural winds.”
With this latest CARA study in mind, Gray concluded, “Holding Catholic colleges and universities to an unrealistic standard to think they can beat back the broader culture forces and be completely successful is unrealistic. [But] the study shows they are capable of positive change.”
No matter how the report should be interpreted, its authors agreed with a significant Cardinal Newman Society finding by re-quoting that 2003 study: “Regardless of where students begin their college journey, Catholic colleges should be helping students move closer to Christ, and certainly doing a better job of moving students toward the Catholic faith than secular colleges do.”
Staff writer Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
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Writing “marriage” with quotation marks just makes you seem self-righteous and indignant. why can’t you just say “marriage between same-sex couples” or something? You’re doing yourselves no favors.
Good grief. Is Georgetown still pretending to be Catholic?
Here’s my favorite quote from Mr. Gray: “Holding Catholic colleges and universities to an unrealistic standard to think they can beat back the broader culture forces and be completely successful is unrealistic.”
Don’t set the bar too high, Mr. Gray. Does Philippians 4:13 ring a bell?
That statement explains why he can feel comfortable trumpeting as an accomplishment the fact that fewer Catholics at schools like Georgetown leave the faith than those who attend Heathen State U.
The CNS is absolutely correct. There is definitely a crisis in Catholic education and anyone who denies it is either blind or has an agenda.
Because, Adam, the phrase “marriage between same sex couples” is a distortion of truth and a contradiction. To leave the word out of quotes in that context would be an error.
“The Matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” CCC 1601
Crisis? Just look at the number of colleges annually staging a play that glorifies a lesbian seduction of a minor. Look at the colleges that hold huge “gay” pride events and have coneections with Planned Parenthoo. Parents pay a fortuen to have their children hear theologians mock orthodox Catholicism as “fundamentalism” and defend pro-abort pols. When I complain of these things to fellow Catholics, especially priests, I am told, “look to your own sins,” which admonition I find encouraging in that it at least susggests that they believe that there is such a thing as sin. Crisis there is, indeed!
Adam,
The Catholic Church is not nor ever will give in on the so-called “gay marriage” nonsense. Face it. Joseph Pronechen has nothing to change, retract or back off from in order to appear less “self-righteous.” It’s in the Catechism: marriage according to the Catholic Church is limited to a man and a woman. No room for any other interpretations which would directly contradict both Tradition and Scripture. Stop wasting your time. Call us what you will on this issue; but the Church is not in the business of turning its back on ancient teachings just to make people like it more on the outside. Ask a wide cross-section of Episcopalians, not just those loyal to the party line espoused by its national leadership based in the northeast (appropriately enough.)
As for the concluding remark of Mr. Gray’s, what he views as “unrealistic,” is no more or less than what’s already been mentioned in the Catechism; albeit in a much different format for a different readership, i.e. college administrators and their students. The day the Church decides to water-down, much less ditch altogether Her longstanding moral teachings are too “unrealistic” and “self-righteous” for Her students and the public-at-large to accept – that’s the day you’ll see the gates of hell so wide open you could mistake them for unmanned toll booths.
Why NOT say gay “marriage”?
Saying “marriage between same-sex couples” is verbose and inaccurate. Verbose because it takes too long to say something very simple. Inaccurate because there is no such thing as marriage between two people of the same sex.
Writing gay “marriage” is the most appropriate. It makes it clear what we’re referring to quite briefly and the quotes remind us of the falsehood inherent within the statement.
YES THERE IS INDEED A CRISIS. Catholic Education begins at home. If parents instill good Catholic values at home you will not have to worry about it down the line. Period. Let’s get the parents back in this game. Yes I am older. We never had this problem before.
One concern is that the study was done at a school that has sadly lost its way with the kowtowing to Obama about covering religious symbols and showcasing Clinton and many other pro-abortion speakers in addition to numerous instances of flouting Catholic dogma. Like others, it increasingly falls back on the mantra of being “in the Jesuit tradition”, although I doubt that St. Ignatius would agree. Sill, it would be good to see the questions (e.g. were “social justice” issues weighted vis a vis abortion) and the raw data (schools studied) etc. It would also be nice to have compared the Georgetowns to the the swelling number of universities that have emphasized their authentic Catholic identity like Thomas More, Thomas Aquinas, Franciscan, Christendom, etc. Even so, as Reilly says, the data hardly support the author’s conclusions.
It reminds me of the question “Whom are you going to believe me or your lyin’ eyes?” I prefer to believe my eyes.
Fulton J. Sheen once said that the best way to cause your child to lose his faith is to send him to a “Catholic” college. His liberal professors will insist upon the “academic freedom” to attack the Church’s teachings in every class, and ruin thr future of any student who still insists on being Catholic by giving him low grades.
Pray for the Catholic students who had to endure the white martyrdom of “academic freedom.”
Aren’t there any better examples of active and vibrant Catholicism besides Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, N.H.? There students aren’t even allowed to watch television (except on weekends). I mean, give me a break.
Students who are looking for a rich and faith-filled Catholic culture and lifestyle should check out the University of Dallas in Irving, Tex. Now that’s an education!
Jason, you posited Catholic higher education’s $64K question that’s been unsanswered for years; not only by Georgetown but by a host of Georgetown wannabes. “Is Georgetown still pretending to be Catholic?” That’s all it’s been doing—for decades!
Recently I’m concerned about my alma mater, St. Thomas University/Biscayne College in Miami-Dade, which also happens to be the same alma mater as our “Liberation ...,” oh, mea big-time culpa, “practical theology” espousing Ambassador to the Holy See, Dr. Miguel Diaz. He didn’t become radicalized at Notre Dame and elsewhere. Take a look at STU’s Theology and Ministry departmental websites. This is more surprising because the school is owned by the Archdiocese of Miami. On the other hand, Abp. Favarola’s not known for using a tight leash in his realm.
When I graduated from Biscayne College, it was owned and run by the same Augustinian Order who founded Villanova University and Merrimack College. That was back in ’74 and the priests ruled the dorms, and it would’ve been a very cold day in hell or Miami before it would’ve allowed its standards to slip to the point that it tied Barry University lately as being one of South Florida’s most “gay friendly” colleges and universities. (Ditto for Barry, whose Dominican nuns of my time ran that place more like a fortress than a girls’, oops, showing my age and sexism(!)
If you want your kids to get a really good Catholic education, why not take a chance on sending them to a land-grand public university or small state college or any non-Catholic institution that boasts a large and vibrant Newman Center, or club? UMass-Amherst is one of THE MOST secular institutions in the nation, but right next to it is the largest or second largest Newman Centers in the country. If it can thrive in that kind of “potentially-harmful environment” to your, or your kids’ souls, your next question ought to be “’potentially harmful’ but compared to what?”
We can be confident places like Georgetown, my alma mater, Barry and other Catholic “stalwarts” such as Notre Dame … not to mention CARA’s Mr. Gray, know the answer to that question. But the answer is one they dare not mention to prospective students’ parents.
We suspected there might be a problem with sending our son to a so-called “Catholic” college; we should have trusted our gut. If you as a parent have a question about a “Catholic” college’s catholic identity, write the president and ask him/her about “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” and see if they obey it. There are ten or fewer that actually do; the rebelling institutions are almost proud of NOT obeying it.
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