Quick Approval

OPINIONJOURNAL.COM, Aug. 12 — The American Bar Association has granted full accreditation to Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., reported the website of The Wall Street Journal.

While ABA accreditation is normally slow, “Ave Maria got it done in the quickest possible time,” said OpinionJournal. “Its 100% pass rate for graduates who first took the bar exam in 2004 probably helped matters.”

Speedy accreditation was even more remarkable given that, “in the ideological world of higher education, religious allegiances can be stumbling blocks,” especially as Ave Maria was founded in 2000 to integrate a “Catholic world view” into a quality legal education.

Unicef Not Catholic

THE CONSERVATIVE VOICE.COM, Aug. 9 — A number of Catholic colleges and universities host groups that lobby on behalf of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), commented Malcolm Kline, the executive director of Accuracy in Academia on the conservative website.

They include Boston College, Fordham, Georgetown, Villanova and Loyola-Marymount universities as well as the University of St. Thomas in Texas.

Kline said “the Vatican suspended its financial support — and symbolic approval — for Unicef, a move that still rankles senior Unicef officials and remains a public relations problem for the agency.”

Kline said this is because “what the U.N. bureaucrats actually support runs more along the lines of the pro-choice movement.”

Lay President

THE KOREA TIMES, Aug. 10 — Catholic Sogang University, the Jesuit college in Korea, has named Sohn Byung-doo, a former business manager, as its first lay president.

The new president has pledged to deepen the university's Catholic roots by building on its extensive relations with 226 Jesuit universities worldwide, including Georgetown University and Boston College.

He said the university would also deepen its ties with the Association of South East Asia Catholic Colleges and Universities and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities-East Asia and Oceania.

Drexel Chapel

THE TIDINGS, Aug. 12 — The Knights of Peter Claver and its Ladies Auxiliary have donated another $30,000 as part of their pledge to raise $300,000 towards the Katherine Drexel Chapel on the campus of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, the country's only historical black Catholic college.

The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reported that the chapel will serve as a center for training for religious vocations. The Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver have raised $190,000 to date.

The donation took place at the Knights’ 90th annual national convention in Las Vegas.

Spot Quiz

REDSTATE.ORG, Aug. 12 — Catholic college students and their knowledge of things Catholic are not exempt from the “Jaywalking” segment of “The Tonight Show.”

In a recent segment of the man-in-the-street interviews, none of the college students approached by host Jay Leno could name the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court or the first lady, although several knew the name of a judge on “American Idol.”

“One, a student at a Catholic college, didn't even recognize the name of the current Pope,” reported the conservative news site.