Fr. Douglas Leonhardt, S.J., Associate Director of the Office of Mission and Identity at Marquette University, said in a video posted on the university website that the Jesuit university is more Catholic and Jesuit than it was twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago.
Fr. Leonhardt says that in an attempt to prove that Jesuit universities compare academically with public universities “we weren’t looking as much at what made us distinctive.”
The Cardinal Newman Society applauds any strengthening of a Jesuit university’s Catholic identity but sadly, it seems that much remains to be done. Just last month, The Cardinal Newman Society reported that the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Marquette (GSA) celebrated “LGBTQA diversity” on campus with an event called “Chronicles of the Closet” which was described on the university’s website as “an open-mic night for sharing coming-out stories.”Any Marquette alumni want to comment on that prominent Catholic identity at Marquette today as opposed to when they went to school?
The Cardinal Newman Society also reported last year that Marquette University Law School appointed pro-abortion rights former U.S. senator Russ Feingold as a visiting law professor.
Speaking of, that reminds me, have you heard of Project Sycamore? It is a really impressive organization that the administration respects because of the vast number of alumni who support it.
The group is specific to recovering Notre Dame, but is there any such organization that exists for Marquette? If so, let's support it!The University should not compromise its academic aspirations in its efforts to maintain its Catholic identity.University of Notre Dame
Faculty Senate
April 9, 2008That’s a shocking declaration from a place where, Fr. Hesburgh has declared, “the Church does its thinking” and reflects a radical weakening of Catholic identity under the Golden Dome. Still, hope is not lost! And we invite you to learn more about our mission of Catholic renewal at Notre Dame and how you can help.
8 comments:
More Catholic than 40 years ago? What is this man smoking, marijuana?
I am a Marquette Alumni that graduated in 2006, if MU is more Catholic now than 40 years ago it makes me cringe to think about what it was like then. This is just a PR ploy put on by the school to the Pre-Vatican II alums that have cash that might be putting 2 and 2 together on what this school really is like, Catholic speaking.
I was so misguided by the time I graduated with liberation theology nonsense that I was ready to leave the Church. By God's grace alone I stayed marginally Catholic until I could heal from what had been inflicted on me.
Marquette is a standard issue college with too much drinking and mortal sinfulness that will come along with a secular life. The school is full of kids from Catholic HS that have mostly become Agnostic at best. The mass attendance by the general population is under 10% for a Sunday that I can promise. But, don't worry the bars are full most nights a week.
I was talking to a couple at the March for Life, last year, who met at MU in the 50s and sent all their kids to MU thinking the school would foster the faith. They asked me how I could be a seminarian coming from that environment that left their children's faith and moral compass in shambles...
Thank you for sharing Frater David!
If I was telling kids where to go to school to find a good Catholic environment I'd suggest UW-Madison (St. Paul's is great.) If not Madison I'd suggest going to any of the UW schools and rolling the dice on the campus ministry or nearest local parish odds are it will be better than Marquette. Don't get me wrong there is at least frequent access to confession at Gesu and there are a few good staff at MU still (some Jesuits and some laypeople)but they are voices in the wilderness. The Campus ministry program is the least impressive I have ever seen. From what I have heard in the 70s and 80s there were masses in the dorms, they weren't pretty liturgically speaking but most kids were still connected enough to a vague notion of a Catholic culture to go. These day's David's 10% number sounds like an optimistic guess. I also wonder why they welcome female Protestant clergy to have their services in the chapels on campus but after one appearance the Tridentine Mass was never welcomed back.
I think if Alumni were to organize something like Project Sycamore, it would be an effective way to pressure the administration to do good.
Avoid Marquette U. like the plague. Frater David's comments are so right. I interviewed a friend (now an MD and officer in the Navy) who attended MU in the early 2000s and he said it's a terrible place for the faith. The crew team he was on had a contest for their parties that were called "Shack up or throw up." The objective was either to ... well, you can figure it out. It is the beginning of all wisdom to see right through any attempt to portray Marquette as a Catholic school. Places like this need to have their Catholic identity stripped from them.
All that Marquette really cares about is money and their dear basketball team. I rejoice whenever they lose. Terrible, terrible university. UW Madison would be better because of Bishops Morlino and the Newman Center there, which is excellent. And at least at Madison, you're not getting a heretical, watered down version of Catholicism masquerading as the real deal.
Just to clarify I still enjoy Marquette basketball, BUT it is the main concern for the school. The Crew team story is actually fairly tame to what can actually go on.
Spot on about Campus ministry! NOTHING goes on at that school Catholic-wise that they don't have a finger in to keep everything "inclusive" and nice. I won't even get into the Theology/Philosophy faculty outside a few outliers it is all heretics.
Ha, extraordinary form! You must be joking...I know it happened once and the Jesuits had a fit. Not that I have any money now, but even before I would never give that school a penny. Pray for the students there...it was probably an unknown someone's prayers that saved me.
Why, so late a Traditional Latin Mass,as we folks always "fast" from midnight until we receive our Lord the next morning, really couldn't an earlier Mass time be done. I have found that the folks who attended the N.O. Mass like a later time as they only' fast' one hour before taking communion. Come to think about it where I grew up, there never was a Mass past 12:00 noon. Sincerely, ssoldie
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