Gay and Faithful?

CHRONICLE.COM, Feb. 4 — Boston College will likely establish a gay/straight student alliance but only if it does not advocate positions contrary to the teachings of the Church, reported the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

A number of Jesuit and other Catholic colleges have officially recognized homosexual student support groups while trying “to walk a fine line between offering support for gay and bisexual students and upholding the Church's view,” the Chronicle said.

The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes Catholic principles in higher education, told the newspaper that such groups almost always end up questioning Catholic teachings.

Timid Souls

FRONTPAGEMAGAZINE.COM, Feb. 3 — In an essay on “My Failed Catholic Education,” Mark Gauvreau Judge quotes Catholic University philosopher Jude Dougherty on the growing influence of secular culture, especially the courts, on Catholic education:

“Many [Catholic institutions] have surrendered ties with ecclesiastical bodies in an attempt to qualify for state funding. Others have … advised administrators to pursue [Catholic] … objectives only insofar as they seem consonant with legal trends.

“A too-Catholic student body, an effort to maintain Catholic identity through a predominantly Catholic faculty, are regarded as invitations to hostile rulings on the part of courts.”

Conservative Mention

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 10 — The proposed Ave Maria University has received provisional state licensing from Florida, the Times reported in a Page One feature on the school that is being launched under the patronage of philanthropist Thomas Monaghan.

While the article pointed out that “local officials have welcomed Ave Maria as a source of jobs, cultural events and sports,” it also plainly worries about Monaghan's and the school's “most traditional” outlook.

The Times said Ave Maria “will be far more conservative than most of the nation's 235 Catholic colleges,” and that it is being supported by “many prominent Catholic conservatives.”

Critics — whose ideology is never mentioned — charge that “Ave Maria reflects Mr. Monaghan's conservative political agenda.”

In case you were wondering, the Times added that “Ave Maria's administrators are conservative Catholics.”

Study in Contrasts

THE WASHINGTON POST, Feb. 3 — The newspaper reported that the privately run bookstore at Catholic University recently cancelled an appearance by Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's non-voting delegate to Congress.

Students quoted in the story noted Norton's pro-abortion stance, saying it was improper for her to speak on a Catholic campus. In a contrast noted by the secular Post, the newspaper said “there were no protests when Norton spoke recently at Georgetown, another Catholic university in Washington.”

Church Scholarships

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO, Jan. 21 — The university an nounced that the Archdiocese of Chicago has joined with Loyola's Institute for Pastoral Studies to provide full-tuition scholarships for members of the archdiocese's Together in God's Service, a graduate program created to help prepare lay people who wish to serve the Church full time, according to the university.

The scholarship is named for the university's president emeritus, Jesuit Father Raymond Baumhart, who now serves as a consultant to Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.