Campus Watch

‘Education Bishop’

NATIONAL CATHOLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Dec. 12 — Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh has been named chairman of the NCEA’s board of directors and will serve a three-year term.

Dubbed “the education bishop” for championing Catholic education locally and nationally, Bishop Wuerl is co-author of the best-selling adult catechism, The Teaching of Christ, now in its 29th year of publication.

Established in 1904, the National Catholic Education Association is the largest private professional education organization in the world.

In addition to leading bishops’ committees on education and catechesis and expanding Pittsburgh’s Catholic schools, Bishop Wuerl teaches a course on the foundations of Catholic faith at the city’s Duquesne University.

Free Speech

THE GALWAY ADVERTISER, Dec. 1 — Gianna Jessen, the young woman who survived a saline abortion 28 years ago, has been blocked by a second Irish university from making a formal appearance, reported the secular newspaper.

However, Jensen did give an informal speech to hundreds of students who greeted her warmly at the Galway campus of the National University of Ireland after college officials canceled her official speech, claiming pro-life organizers misled them about her topic.

Previously, University College Dublin, a Catholic college, forced students to cancel her speech by insisting they obtain costly insurance that no local company could provide.

Pastor to President

THE CASPER STAR TRIBUNE, Dec. 7 — Father Robert Cook has been named the first president of Wyoming Catholic College by Cheyenne Bishop David Ricken.

A pastor in Casper, Father Cook has been active in the development of the new college, and will assume his new office on July 1.

The college, which is being organized in Lander, is scheduled to accept its first class in the fall of 2007.

Our Lady of Holy Cross

THE ADVOCATE, Dec. 7 — The Baton Rouge daily reported that Our Lady of Holy Cross College campus on New Orleans’ west bank suffered minimal damage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, serving as a base for firefighters and the U.S. Army during the first stages of recovery.

The college, which serves some 1,500-students drawn almost exclusively from the New Orleans area, has retained all full-time staff and faculty at full salary and will offer a mid-winter semester in January.

It is expected that 85% of the students enrolled before Katrina will be returning and another 200 to 250 new students will enroll.

New School for Girls

MIDHUDSONNEWS.COM, Dec. 13 — A new Catholic middle school for girls, the Nora Cronin Presentation Learning Center, has moved a step closer to opening its doors. In December, the City of Newburgh, N.Y., and the Presentation Educational Foundation signed papers leading to the sale of property to school officials, according to the online news outlet.

Said Nicholas Valentine, mayor of Newburgh: “I’m a product of Catholic education from kindergarten to senior in high school and I know, with no disrespect to public education, there is something else that can be added when you an be in a smaller group with much more attention to each individual student; and that is going to be the case with this all-girls school.” 

The school is to be named after Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Nora Cronin, who served as assistant for education to the provincial of the New York province of the Society of Jesus. She died in 2004.