From The Editor

Do not delay. Call today to make sure you can attend this summer’s annual Conservative University summer conference. This is our seventh annual conference—and the first at which attendance is free. Unfortunately, seating is limited so make sure that you reserve a seat by e-mailing Sarah Schaerr (sarah.schaerr@aim.org). You can also call her at (202) 364-4401, ext. 107.

The untimely demise of Pope John Paul II and ascendancy to the papacy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger leads us to look at what changes might be in store for America’s Catholic colleges and universities. The Catholic Church’s first Polish pontiff outlived the Nazi and Communist regimes he vigorously opposed, but could not tame the wildcat institutions of higher learning in the United States that insist on retaining their religious affiliation while straying farther and farther from traditional Catholicism.

Pope Benedict XVI, with the Cold War that John Paul helped to end largely over, has indicated that he will devote more attention to American colleges and universities that are Catholic in Name Only (CINO). I named Georgetown, Gonzaga and DePaul as possible candidates for the CINO label in an article I did for www.campusreportonline.net.

After I posted the piece, someone reposted it on the www.freerepublic.com web site. Visitors to that site offered up the names of schools to add to the CINO roster: Loyola University of Chicago, St. Xavier (same city), and St. Louis University. Interestingly, since “CINO No More?” originally appeared:

• The Archdiocese of New York stripped the Catholic identification from Marymount Manhattan College after the school asked Sen. Hillary Clinton to give a commencement address. Sen. Clinton holds a pro-choice position on abortion that runs counter to Catholic doctrine.
• Peter Finney of the Catholic News Service reported on May 10th that, “Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes said he would not participate in commencement exercises at Loyola University in New Orleans because the university’s law school decided to honor a prominent Louisiana Catholic family that includes a U. S. Senator [(Mary Landrieu)] who has voted to support keeping abortion legal.”

Unfortunately, one college that should be more than Catholic in Name Only has had serious problems recently that beg for coverage—which we have given them—and comment, which I offer here. The showing of sexual programing. on a Catholic University of America cable channel is something every parent, student attending, prospective student of CUA should know about in evaluating it as a future alma mater. Still, we have no evidence that the school’s president knew about it and every belief that he would share our alarm over an administrator’s go-ahead that most parents and students will want reversed. We intend to find out who gave the green light to CUA’s cable programming.

As our readers may remember, I included CUA on my list of recommended schools a few months back. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend any college I would not send my children to—and I would not send my children to a school that broadcasts the type of programming I block at home.

We try to cover every school, religious and secular, to determine whether they deliver the education and provide the learning experience that their advertising promises. This undertaking takes time (which we make) and money (which we always need). We know that you have helped us generously in the past, assistance for which we are most grateful. We appreciate all the help that you can give us.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.