Irreplaceable Religious

AMERICAN-STATESMAN, April 3 — The Austin, Texas, daily examines how the Holy Cross Brothers’ St. Edward’s University is making the transition to lay leadership as the number of brothers on campus declines.

In pointing out how students “frequently turn to the calming presence of the … brothers,” and how they are “beloved for their kindness and [their] academic and spiritual guidance,” the story effectively points to what is irreplaceable about religious who “dedicate themselves to education.”

The 40 brothers who work at the Austin college practice the “philosophy of cultivating the mind and the heart.”

Another Rather?

NATIONAL REVIEW, April 18 — A piece on the magazine’s website by Tim Graham of the Media Research Center examined the bias that Katie Couric has demonstrated in a career that led to her recent naming as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”

“Couric pounded Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan about how his vision for a Catholic college town in Florida was “like, wow … really infringing on civil liberties,”  “eschewing diversity and promoting intolerance” and “de facto segregation.”

He added: “It was Couric who dragged the Nazi connections out, no matter how strained, for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pope Benedict, and then lectured others about peddling ‘dirty’ allegations.”

Walled-off Christians

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, April 18 — During Holy Week, “professors at Bethlehem University (an institution of the De La Salle Christian brothers) were frustrated by government refusal to permit student trips,” reported columnist Robert Novak on how Israeli policies are effectively encouraging the migration of Arab Christians.

“Sisters and brothers from Bethlehem University sadly parade … saying the Rosary once a week” along the famed Israeli security wall, reported Novak.

Sami El-Youssef, a university vice president, told Novakthat he believes “there is a conscious Israeli policy of getting rid of the Christian minority, whose discomfiture is more politically embarrassing for Israel than Muslim distress.”

Irish Fight

THE OBSERVER, April 5 — Sensitivity about ethnic nicknames for college sports teams has finally extended to the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, though it is doubtful that the moniker is in any danger.

In response to several complaints in the independent student newspaper by fellow students that the nickname either exploits Ireland and the Irish or denigrates them for savagery, junior Patrick Rigney points out that the nickname surged up among opposing fans who were impressed by the play of a football team “comprised mostly of Irish Catholics.”

The team’s official nickname had been the Terriers until the university bowed to popular usage and formally adopted the current nickname in 1927.

New Chief

SAINT VINCENT COLLEGE, April 18 — Director of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives H. James Towey has been named the 16th president of the Benedictines’ Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.

Towey’s background includes vast experience in health and human services, including as the founder of an organization to improve care of the elderly.

He also represented Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity on legal matters for 12 years.