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| June 3, 1998
Universities and Foundations Meet to Strengthen Catholic Intellectual Life Philadelphia, PA ----- Over fifty foundation trustees will gather here June 5-6, to meet with Catholic faculty and university officials to determine the best ways to invigorate Catholic scholarship in the United States. Among the subjects to be explored during the two-day invitational symposium will be how Catholic universities and colleges are encouraging young Catholic scholars to enter intellectual careers. The meeting will also consider the issue of hiring for university mission, an approach that appears to be helping institutions find faculty more sympathetic and committed to the religious character of Catholic higher education. Forty-three years ago, the late (Msgr.) John Tracy Ellis shook university rafters when he addressed the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs on the topic: American Catholics and Intellectual Life. Ellis charged that
The noted Catholic historian charged that Catholic universities were ruinously competitive, under endowed, and weak in areas where they should especially excel, like philosophy. The intervening years since the Ellis lecture has seen a huge expansion of church-sponsored universities and colleges. With this growth has come a new set of concerns over what some say is a diminishing religious culture on American Catholic campuses. The Philadelphia meeting will give foundations an opportunity to share concrete examples of measures that are awakening new interest in Catholic scholarship. Speakers will include: Michael J. Buckley SJ, of Boston College; Nathan O. Hatch, Provost of the University of Notre Dame; James L. Heft SM, Chancellor of the University of Dayton; Joseph M. McShane SJ, President of the University of Scranton; Donald J. Briel, University of St. Thomas; Kathleen A. Mahony, Boston College; John T. McGreevy, University of Notre Dame; John M. Neary, College of St. Norbert; Leslie Tentler, University of Michigan; and Michael J. Lacey of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Advance Studies. A special guest speaker, Father Joseph Pittau SJ, Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences, will address the FADICA members on the topic: Forming Scholars for Church Service. In addition to the symposium, the members will gather on Saturday, June 6, for the organization's twenty-second annual meeting. |