[Editor’s note: The following letters are in response to Catholic Exchange Senior Content Editor, Mark Shea’s article, “Why Throw Good Money Away on This?” on December 14, 2005 in this blog]
Mark,
I'm right there with you on this one. I have two kids who are looking at colleges. One in town is Aquinas College — Grand Rapids, MI. This place is notoriously anti-Catholic. My stomach turns every time I think about spending one nickel with those people! There's NOTHING worse than having to opt out of religion classes at a Catholic college...and after nearly 12 years of Catholic home schooling, I'll be hanged if I'm going to let some overprotected apostate damage the formation that my wife and I have worked to provide!
Keep up the fight!
Michael A. Dupont
Grand Rapids, MI
Dear Michael,
Thanks for being a responsible Catholic parent. Your kids are the future of the Church.
FWIW, I recommend sending Catholic kids to a good Evangelical school if you can't find a Catholic one. They are often quite open to the Catholic intellectual tradition. If you can't do that, send them to a really hostile public school. It's a great place to learn to defend your faith. :) At apostate Catholic schools, you get robbed because you think you are among friends.
Mark Shea
Dear Mark,
I have resigned from the alumni of Loyola University of New Orleans several years ago, when they were defiant of Archbishop Hughes, taking their remarks to the media.
The Class of '57, that Loyola was the place where I spent the happiest days of my young life. Those Jesuits and I were friends; they have died but are still an important part of my life.
Maybe I am too raw about what has happened to Loyola. When we attended study days here, in the Baton Rouge Diocese, I am sickened by the teachings. Most of the eager people present are in senior years, innocent of the garbage the lecturers are pitching as Catholic.
Our youngest daughter is a graduate of St. Louis U, another Jesuit institution, is now "Happy, Clappy Methodist."
Mary Healy Rettig
Dear Mary,
Thanks for having the moxie to stand up to the tenured traitors to the Faith. We laity have the power to fight back. We should use it by sending our dollars and children to very carefully selected schools.
Mark Shea
Hi,
I just read the article on the Jesuit school. I always feel so depressed when I hear about how bad our Catholic institutions are. It is true though. We have sent 2 of our children to Franciscan University in Stuebenville, Ohio. We love it. Are you familiar with that school?
Sincerely,
Suzanne Dent
Suzanne:
Good for you! Yes, I know FSU well! Scott Hahn, who is on faculty there, is co-author with me of the Catholic Scripture Study.
Mark Shea
Hi Mark,
I did my undergrad studies at Notre Dame, and I can tell you why "good" Catholics continue to donate to the University. It's a prerequisite for getting into the football ticket lottery. The god of football is a very powerful (earthly) god indeed!
Regarding the Kreeft quote, I recall hearing a quote from Bishop Sheen some time ago. I'm sure I don't have it quite right, but he was responding to the son of a friend of his who was heading off to a "Catholic" university, and he told him, "It would be better for you to go to a public university, where you would have to fight to your faith, than to a Catholic university, where your faith will be taken away from you."
Food for thought.
God bless.
Tom Wrobel
MBA 2007
Krannert School of Management
Purdue University
Dear Tom:
I actually tend to agree. If you can't get into a good Catholic school, the next best thing is to go to a serious Evangelical school (which will often be quite friendly to the Catholic intellectual tradition, though you have to use filters sometimes). Failing that, I think a really hostile secular school is a great place for a Catholic to learn to defend their faith.
Mark Shea
Hey Mark! Just saw your piece on SU — awesome. That was totally my experience, as well. I won’t give them a dime. All my extra charity $ go to Sherry Weddell and the St. Catherine of Siena Institute. J We SU survivors need to stick together.
Eryn
Eryn:
You rock! And you exemplify exactly the sort of pro-active We-Don't-Have-to-Sit-Here-And-Take-It Spirit that the laity can and should have when those entrusted with teaching the Faith abandon their mission. As St. Paul says, "If they don't work, they don't eat." We owe apostate academics exactly nothing. Keep sending your dollars to worthy apostolates that really do educate people in the Faith and sooner or later even academics will start to get it.
Mark Shea
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark,
I'm right there with you on this one. I have two kids who are looking at colleges. One in town is Aquinas College — Grand Rapids, MI. This place is notoriously anti-Catholic. My stomach turns every time I think about spending one nickel with those people! There's NOTHING worse than having to opt out of religion classes at a Catholic college...and after nearly 12 years of Catholic home schooling, I'll be hanged if I'm going to let some overprotected apostate damage the formation that my wife and I have worked to provide!
Keep up the fight!
Michael A. Dupont
Grand Rapids, MI
Dear Michael,
Thanks for being a responsible Catholic parent. Your kids are the future of the Church.
FWIW, I recommend sending Catholic kids to a good Evangelical school if you can't find a Catholic one. They are often quite open to the Catholic intellectual tradition. If you can't do that, send them to a really hostile public school. It's a great place to learn to defend your faith. :) At apostate Catholic schools, you get robbed because you think you are among friends.
Mark Shea
Dear Mark,
I have resigned from the alumni of Loyola University of New Orleans several years ago, when they were defiant of Archbishop Hughes, taking their remarks to the media.
The Class of '57, that Loyola was the place where I spent the happiest days of my young life. Those Jesuits and I were friends; they have died but are still an important part of my life.
Maybe I am too raw about what has happened to Loyola. When we attended study days here, in the Baton Rouge Diocese, I am sickened by the teachings. Most of the eager people present are in senior years, innocent of the garbage the lecturers are pitching as Catholic.
Our youngest daughter is a graduate of St. Louis U, another Jesuit institution, is now "Happy, Clappy Methodist."
Mary Healy Rettig
Dear Mary,
Thanks for having the moxie to stand up to the tenured traitors to the Faith. We laity have the power to fight back. We should use it by sending our dollars and children to very carefully selected schools.
Mark Shea
Hi,
I just read the article on the Jesuit school. I always feel so depressed when I hear about how bad our Catholic institutions are. It is true though. We have sent 2 of our children to Franciscan University in Stuebenville, Ohio. We love it. Are you familiar with that school?
Sincerely,
Suzanne Dent
Suzanne:
Good for you! Yes, I know FSU well! Scott Hahn, who is on faculty there, is co-author with me of the Catholic Scripture Study.
Mark Shea
Hi Mark,
I did my undergrad studies at Notre Dame, and I can tell you why "good" Catholics continue to donate to the University. It's a prerequisite for getting into the football ticket lottery. The god of football is a very powerful (earthly) god indeed!
Regarding the Kreeft quote, I recall hearing a quote from Bishop Sheen some time ago. I'm sure I don't have it quite right, but he was responding to the son of a friend of his who was heading off to a "Catholic" university, and he told him, "It would be better for you to go to a public university, where you would have to fight to your faith, than to a Catholic university, where your faith will be taken away from you."
Food for thought.
God bless.
Tom Wrobel
MBA 2007
Krannert School of Management
Purdue University
Dear Tom:
I actually tend to agree. If you can't get into a good Catholic school, the next best thing is to go to a serious Evangelical school (which will often be quite friendly to the Catholic intellectual tradition, though you have to use filters sometimes). Failing that, I think a really hostile secular school is a great place for a Catholic to learn to defend their faith.
Mark Shea
Hey Mark! Just saw your piece on SU — awesome. That was totally my experience, as well. I won’t give them a dime. All my extra charity $ go to Sherry Weddell and the St. Catherine of Siena Institute. J We SU survivors need to stick together.
Eryn
Eryn:
You rock! And you exemplify exactly the sort of pro-active We-Don't-Have-to-Sit-Here-And-Take-It Spirit that the laity can and should have when those entrusted with teaching the Faith abandon their mission. As St. Paul says, "If they don't work, they don't eat." We owe apostate academics exactly nothing. Keep sending your dollars to worthy apostolates that really do educate people in the Faith and sooner or later even academics will start to get it.
Mark Shea
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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