Catholic Identity

THE BALTIMORE SUN, May 25 — An article in the daily newspaper focused on Michigan's “Ave Maria College, one of a small but growing number of liberal arts colleges that promote traditional Roman Catholicism.”

While mainstream Catholic colleges debate their religious mission and worry about lost Catholic identity, the Sun noted, “there is no such angst at colleges such as Ave Maria, which proudly proclaim their orthodoxy.”

“The paradigm has shifted,” Jesuit Father Harold Ridley, president of Loyola College in Baltimore, told the newspaper. “We have to be willing to articulate our Catholicity … more energetically than in the '70s, when we were looking more to being accepted within … the higher-education scene.”

Stealth Pro-Choicer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 22 — Lost in the controversy about journalist Chris Matthews' commencement address at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., was the presence of another pro-abortion honorary degree recipient, philanthropist Iris Cantor.

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts urged Catholics to boycott the ceremonies because, the wire service reported, Cantor has funded women's health care centers, which perform abortions and distribute birth control.

Accreditation

SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS SEMINARY, May 30 — The Byzantine Catholic seminary in Pittsburgh has been authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to grant both master of divinity and master of arts in theology degrees.

The seminary, which has been training priests for Byzantine Catholic dioceses in North America since 1950 on a non-degree-granting basis, said it will also seek accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools.

Good Advice

NEPA NEWS, May 19 — Actor James Caviezel, who plays the lead role in Mel Gibson's upcoming movie, The Passion, told this year's graduating class at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to “make a commitment to pray, fast, go to confession and attend holy Mass” and to use their gifts “for God's purpose,” not their own.

Caviezel also told the graduates about the time he took his grandmother's rosary to an audition at the home of director Terence Malick. He wound up giving his cherished rosary to Malick's maid after learning she had lost a rosary blessed by Mother Teresa.

The audition resulted in a part in The Thin Red Line, a milestone in his career — but not one he ascribes to his acting talents alone.

Power Sharing

THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, June 6 — Santa Clara University has set up six new university policy committees whose members are appointed, not elected, in an effort to give faculty a greater say on a variety of issues, the weekly newspaper said.

To be a member of one of the committees, a professor must have a core “competence” such as academic affairs or university planning.

However, faculty power remains limited, especially regarding how money is spent. Jesuit Father Paul Locatelli, Santa Clara's president, said the faculty should be looking at “strategic issues,” not assuming day-to-day decision making.

Many other institutions have studied the Santa Clara model — in place since 1995 — but only one, Loyola University of Chicago, also a Jesuit institution, has decided to implement it.