I graduated from a Jesuit university over ten years ago now and even then I remember the Catholic tradition of the school was talked about something we had to recognize was in our past. Not something shameful but certainly something whose time had passed. I remember that when Senator Rick Santorum came to speak there at a graduation ceremony, the Jesuits and many professors stood up and marched out of the graduation as a sign of ostentatious display of protest for the media. It all seemed pretty ridiculous and embarrasing at the time. But this kind of thing highlights the need for a change in the Jesuit education system.

And today, former Sen. Santorum penned a piece in my former employer The Philadelphia Inquirer which states the case remarkably well.

The piece is so well done and you should read it but here are a few highlights:

The pope’s only official church meeting is with all 213 presidents of Catholic undergraduate colleges and universities. Given the traditional and orthodox educational philosophy of this former university professor, as well as the sad recent history of Catholic higher education in America, one might well expect fireworks.

Since Vatican II, most Catholic colleges have sought to reduce their relationship with Catholicism and the church to a one-word marketing pitch – Catholic. On most Catholic campuses across the country, you might be surprised to learn that most professors are not Catholic and that the Catholics are often nonpracticing. These Catholic colleges routinely host speakers and artistic productions that oppose core Catholic teaching when they’re not blatantly anti-Catholic, and I’m not just talking about Barack Obama’s appearance at Mercyhurst or Hillary Clinton’s at King’s College. Even the gold standard of Catholic colleges, the University of Notre Dame, will soon drop below 50 percent Catholics on its faculty and have on-campus performances of The Vagina Monologues.

Most core curricula, if that exists, provide little exposure to the Catholic intellectual tradition. Even in the theology departments, which are supposed to be certified as authentically Catholic by the local diocese, students have to search long and hard to find a professor who will provide faithful Catholic teaching.

As for campus life, most Catholic colleges have abandoned their mission and duty to help shape the moral and spiritual formation of its students. In loco parentis has been reduced to facilitating loco behavior. It is nearly impossible to distinguish a list of authorized student organizations at Georgetown from those at Penn.

And this:

The pope recognizes the importance of Catholic education in forming the next generation spiritually, morally and intellectually. He no doubt understands that Catholic universities in America have been at the intellectual center of dissent from the teaching of the magisterium. It is one thing for college professors from a secular university to offer moral arguments supporting abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, and same-sex marriage. It is another when these arguments are coming from theology professors at Notre Dame, St. Joseph’s, Marquette and, until a few years ago, Catholic University.

The sad fact is that, during the last 40 years, Catholic higher education has not only failed to counter the forces of cultural decay across America, but has added to the rot as well.

Please don’t be a lazy bones. Just go read the whole thing. (And then come back here, of course!)

By many Jesuit schools, I fear, the faith is seen as a tradition you tip your hat to but doesn’t really get at the heart of the University anymore. Something they grew out of. Sen. Santorum clearly sees this. Pope Benedict clearly sees this. Many many Catholics see this yet we keep sending our children to such places and we’re surprised when our children come back home agnostics and atheists very interested in social justice. And I fear that when those same children get older, marry and have children, they’ll pass by their church and they’ll simply tip their hat to it and say, “That’s where my parents went to Church” or “That’s where I went to Church as a child.” But it’s something they grew out of.