Ivy ‘Awakening’

CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Jan. 25 — “Not since the 17th century have there been so many evangelicals at Harvard University,” reported the newspaper, paraphrasing religious historian and Harvard campus minister Peter Gomes.

As Harvard and other elite colleges opened their doors to students outside their traditional ground of eastern aristocracy, Midwestern evangelical Protestants and minority Christians — mostly Asian — began swelling the numbers of the once beleaguered Ivy League campus ministries,” said the Christianity Today feature.

While evangelical leaders quoted in the story expect this quiet revival not only to continue, but to blossom into another “Great Awakening.” Sadly, the evangelicals are also attracting Catholics who have become disillusioned since the clerical-abuse scandal in 2002.

Latin Class

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Jan. 31 — Father Franklyn McAfee started Saturday morning Latin classes at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Va., in January and more than 70 parishioners packed the first session and 80 the second.

Father McAfee, pastor of St. John’s, does not hesitate to “sell” Latin to his parishioners because “I want them to love … their tradition, their roots.”

It will also have a practical application as St. John’s will initiate Sunday Mass in Latin according to the new rite on March 5, the first Sunday in Lent.

Bible Literacy

USA TODAY, Jan 25 — Hundreds of public high schools across the nation are considering an elective course in Bible literacy that, at least so far, has generated little controversy and no lawsuits.

Still, USA Today supposes that the Bible Literacy Project’s text, The Bible and Its Influence, is “pitting advocates of church-state separation against proponents of the class.”

“If you’re considering a Bible elective, look at this textbook,” said Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, who helped review a draft of the book with 41 other scholars, including Christians, Jews and agnostics.

Wrong Number

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 27 — International students may be getting the wrong idea about Seton Hall University due to a misprinted phone number.

Applications sent to overseas students interested in the university administered by the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., contained a number that offers a pornographic pitch.

While the school has corrected the toll-free number on its website, it has been on the application for years and there’s nothing they can do about the thousands that have already been mailed.

High Grades in India

NEWINDPRESS.COM, Feb. 6 — Two Catholic colleges in India have earned high grades from that country’s National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

Mary Matha Arts and Science College in Mananthavadi was graded B++ and St.Mary’s College came away with a B+.

Locally, “only three colleges have bagged the prestigious grade” of B double-plus, said Father George Njeralakatt, head of Mary Matha, at a press conference.

The accreditation council bases its ratings on schools’ “quality of infrastructure, curricular and extra-curricular activities and the overall teaching and learning standards.” Mary Matha, run by the Diocese of Mananthavadi, offers six degree programs.