‘Embrace the Mission’: Bishop Ricken Seeks Authenticity in Catholic Education

In a wide-ranging interview with The Cardinal Newman Society about authentic Catholic education, his role in the founding of Wyoming Catholic College and even the controversial Common Core standards, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisc., said that the Catholic Church calls schools and colleges to “embrace the mission of Catholic intellectual life and a Catholic way of life in the world today,” and not to “just give lip service to the mission.”

Bishop Ricken has been a leading figure in Catholic education, perhaps most notably as co-founder of Wyoming Catholic College and by his recent statement rejecting adoption of the Common Core State Standards in Green Bay’s Catholic schools. He authored “A Checklist for Growing Your Faith” in the Newman Society magazine for high school students, My Future, My Faith, and wrote a forceful plea for faithful education in the Newman Society’s 2009 publication, The Enduring Nature of the Catholic University.

“The 1967 ‘Land O’Lakes Statement’ by leading Catholic educators precipitated a revolution in Catholic higher education that amounted to heresy and schism,” Bishop Ricken wrote in his chapter, “The Restoration of a Catholic ‘Idea of a University.’” He called for colleges focused on Christian formation: “…Catholic colleges must address the whole person—mind, body, heart and soul—and illuminate the meaning of wisdom, purity, charity and God’s mystery.”

Recently, Newman Society reporter Joe Giganti met with Bishop Ricken to discuss his reaction to statements by the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, Bishop Enrico dal Covolo, who told the Catholic News Service that Catholic universities today risk serving only “dominant ideologies” and “economic systems of the moment” when they focus on technical skill.
continue at Cardinal Newman Society

I'd like to get my hands on that article referenced. 

Sadly our state has no examples of that authentic Catholic university... yet.  I'm reminded of faculty and students at St. Norbert's College protesting Cardinal George's commencement speech because of his pro-natural-marriage position(and hence the "Catholic" position). 

Also: Xavier High School in Appleton makes Newman top 50 Catholic HS

1 comment:

Dad29 said...

H.E. Ricken just fired a shot across the bow of St Norbert. It will take a LOT more to move that college towards orthodoxy, but it has to start sometime, and this Bishop is the one to do it.