I appreciate your recent focus on Catholic higher education, and your listing of local schools, enabling those looking to better see what their options are. I’m especially happy when our own Newman programs are promoted, as we have some outstanding clergy and lay people who work locally with our young people on and off campus.
I just wanted to voice a concern, both of mine and of parents sending their children to schools with Catholic names, in an effort to raise awareness for those considering some of these colleges. It is often found that those who run these schools are actually permitting and encouraging beliefs and practices contrary to our faith.
For example, as I write you this letter, I have just received a call from a former student who is quite upset, due to the fact that as she attended Sunday evening Mass at her local Catholic college they were inaugurating gay pride week. At the Mass, the priest openly spoke against Pope Benedict as part of his homily, and clearly told the students to be disobedient. I receive these kinds of calls on a regular basis, and families never cease to be dismayed as they realize they’ve spent endless amounts of money for a Catholic education that wasn’t really Catholic.
One website I encourage people to investigate to get a gauge on the situation is that of the National Catholic Register, in which a yearly guide is published using objective criteria to assess certain schools’ adherence to the church’s teachings. I recommend that students and parents research carefully before they choose a school on the basis of Catholic identity.
Rev. Charles J. Colozzi
Pennsauken
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