Will Assumption College Turn Catholic, or Not?

Assumption Struggles to Turn Around Image

For those seeking a truly "Catholic" college experience in the New England Region, it can be tough. Boston College, a.k.a. Barely Catholic, long ago succumbed to the secular world-view and is probably best known for dissenting theologians popular with the mainstream media.

Holy Cross College is even worse. It's public promotion of Planned Parenthood at a recent symposium brought the condemnation of the Bishop of Worcester. They openly support abortion and gay causes as well as hosting the pornographic and blatantly anti-Catholic Vagina Monologues.

The smaller colleges of choice for Catholic students likewise suffer an identity crisis and crisis of faithfulness. Tilting leftward, they do all they can to avoid outward expressions of piety while trumpeting so-called "diversity" and "tolerance", code for gay friendliness and hostility to traditional Catholic belief. These colleges include Merrimack College, Stonehill College, Saint Anselm's College and Assumption College.

We previously reported that the new president of Assumption, Francesco C. Cesareo, gave a speech last fall upon his installation that signaled that perhaps he would turn Assumption back into a Catholic school. So we decided to take a look and see how he's fared so far.

First, it's important to note how far the school had to go. In 2002 it was reported that a student manning a booth in support of traditional marriage on campus was openly harassed by pro-gay attackers brought on campus from the outside by a gay campus group in full view of Mark Bilotta, a college administrator. In 2006, Mr. Bilotta was named the head of the Worcester Consortium of colleges and is still employed in a senior position at Assumption.

The campus gay club, AC Allies, still advertises their on campus activities, and as usual disguise their intention to promote homosexuality as some sort of human right and anti-bullying campaign, the same tactic being used nationally to get homosexuality accepted at secular high schools. On a recent post acceptance tour, a student remarked to me that they couldn't even find a pro-life club.

But in an even more in-your-face act, and a good indicator of the resistance the new president is facing, it was reported that the faculty voted to charge President Francesco Cesareo and his cabinet with violating policy when they refused to host a gay activist veteran as a Veterans Day speaker. On Internet postings, some faculty claimed the school was violating their "free speech rights." Given that Assumption College is a private, religious institution, such a claim is juvenile. Hopefully these weren't law professors. More striking is that no one was as vocal when the student was being harassed for supporting traditional marriage.

Turning a Catholic college around may be more difficult than the new president thought but it can be done. One huge obstacle is that most college faculty are tenured and secure enough in their positions to openly defy and secretly undermine any policies they disagree with.

Examples where the turnarounds did occur or are in progress include Franciscan University at Steubenville Ohio, rated as faithful by Cardinal Newman Society and National Catholic Register, and Providence College where similarly a new college president declared the Eucharist and the chapel to be the center of all the college stands for and set about ridding the campus of activities contrary to the Catholic mission. Catholic colleges like Franciscan U have become the transfer destination of choice for devout Catholic students disillusioned with the Catholic-in-name-only colleges.

To truly make the change will require preferential acceptance of practicing Catholics in the student body as well as in hiring of staff. Sadly, Assumption's reputation as a gay-friendly party school (the nickname of the school is "Consumption") is so ingrained that good Catholics are likely to continue to shun the school (as the child of this writer has decided to do). The school president will have to make painful changes that are both decisive and public if he is to change course.

We'll keep an eye on Assumption to see if this occurs.

Gay Clubs at Catholic Colleges

In 1986, the Magisterium issued the instruction, the Letter to Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. The then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, "All support should be withdrawn from any organizations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely. Such support, or even the semblance of such support, can be gravely misinterpreted. Special attention should be given to the practice of scheduling religious services and to the use of Church buildings by these groups, including the facilities of Catholic schools and colleges. [emphasis mine] To some, such permission to use Church property may seem only just and charitable; but in reality it is contradictory to the purpose for which these institutions were founded, it is misleading and often scandalous."

Yet why do schools like Georgetown seem hellbent on doing all they can to edify the homosexual groups on their campuses? One school we wrote about, St. Michael's College in Vermont, has more gay clubs, three, than Catholic service or ministry ones. Can one say with certainty that these colleges are not Catholic in light of the statement by then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI?

The new President of Assumption, Francesco C. Cesareo, tried to make some room for the existence of Gay clubs on Catholic campuses when he said the following:

"Regarding homosexuality, all men and women are created in the image of God and thus deserve respect because of the basic human dignity we all share. Therefore, on a Catholic campus it is not uncommon or inconsistent to have support groups for gay students since this is a concrete expression of the church's call for respect. This does not mean that we endorse or advocate this lifestyle or behavior. Gay student organizations must operate within the parameters of church teachings by not sponsoring any activities that promote a homosexual lifestyle or same-sex marriage as legitimate lifestyles."

Unfortunately the means these groups use to get a foothold at these colleges is pure deception. They play on the tradition of Christian charity and tolerance and twist it to the point where the Catholic institution is actually helping establish and fund a club who's primary purpose is a place for hookups for those who practice sodomy.

Such deception and the willingness to be deceived have led to an explosion in such clubs, a distraction from the mission of the institution and an eroding of basic morality. A Church hierarchy itself compromised by homosexuality stands by and allows such things no matter how loud the faithful protest.

The Ivory Tower Heretics are in charge.

New President of Assumption College on Role of Catholic Colleges

This is a good sign, a Catholic College President who gets it, Francesco C. Cesareo, PhD of Assumption College in Worcester, MA.

"The challenges currently facing Catholic higher education can be traced to the late 1960s when profound structural changes impacted the religious orientation of Catholic institutions. While Catholic institutions became stronger academically - by imitating their secular counterparts - they paid little or no attention to hiring faculty with a commitment to and understanding of the religious mission of the institution; the sole focus was on academic credentials. The Catholic intellectual tradition, with its emphasis on the compatibility of faith and reason, became less prominent and, in many cases, was lost. Equally important was the shift in student demographics as fewer Catholic students attended Catholic institutions.

At some Catholic colleges, less than half the student body is Catholic. Add to this the trend toward secularism, individualism and the advocacy of a values-free education that does not acknowledge objective truth - especially moral truth - and Catholic institutions are left pondering how they can remain faithful to their religious heritage in meaningful and concrete ways. As Catholic institutions struggle with the tensions that exist between faithfulness to their religious identity and the exchange of ideas that one expects at a college or university, they also hear Pope John Paul II in Ex corde ecclesiae reminding them that these institutions must be places where "Catholicism is vitally present and operative." Catholic institutions have an obligation to engage the Catholic intellectual tradition."

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