If you are an alumnus of the University of Dallas and would be willing to speak with me about the university's Catholic character and future direction in that regard, please drop me an e-mail at rdreher (at) dallasnews.com. I'm working on an essay about this matter, and would like to hear from alumni. Send me your phone number if you are willing to be quoted on the record. Because I usually hear from far more people than I can personally respond to, please indicate briefly what your view is on the way things are going at UD with regard to its fidelity to the vision of its founders, as well as to the Vatican's directives in Ex corde ecclesiae.
University of Dallas bleg
Friday April 4, 2008
Categories: Catholicism, Education
Filed Under: University of Dallas
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Thank you, Patrick Thornton, for so succintly expressing my thoughts exactly.
I went to UD for the excellent liberal arts education it offers. I wanted to "learn how to think," which they professed that they taught. I was so glad to find this kind of academics at a small Catholic school.
UD teaches that freedom is the ability to choose the Good. Then we are immersed in an environment, which makes it easy to find the Good. We read the writings of the great Western philosophers and theologians, who have wrestled with the question of finding the Good. Discussion and analysis is encouraged so that we may once again find the Good for ourselves, as so many millions of people have down through the centuries.
At the same time, on campus, we are immersed in a Catholic culture. Most of the students are faithful Catholics. Although there is not a sense of indoctrination coming from the administration, there is definitely a presence of solid Catholic teaching. The Theology Department is top-rate, faithful to the Magesterium. There is a Campus Ministry (with the Chapel of the Incarnation), a Diocesan seminary, a Dominican priory, and a Cistercian abbey all either on campus, or within close walking distance. Regnum Christi, an orthodox lay movement in the Church, has an elementary school right next door, and they offer a mode of spirituality that speaks to many. These are all individual elements, which create an environment conducive to choosing the Good.
Unfortunately, there are some who do not choose the Good, as the poor soul who created the sacrilegious art piece. However, the ability to choose the Good necessitates the possibility of choosing the bad or evil. Otherwise, is it really a choice? God gives us the freedom to choose, and hard as it is, we ought to follow His example and extend that courtesy to others.
Christina (Sauer) Campbell
UD Class of '96
"Cleveland--from what I've seen of a few kids coming out of places like (now former) Ave Maria College, I highly doubt that they have been exposed to a plethora of views...you can't handle people who have differing (and perhaps wrong) views. So you strike out at them like a little sissy." Don Altabello
Don, it doesn't change the truth about traditional Catholic universities whether you doubt it or not; you merely continue to display your ignorance of traditional Catholic teaching of the humanities, which always taught--and still teaches at schools like UD--countervailing views. That is the essence of a liberal (in the good sense) education.
Since you don't like the traditional Catholic (orthodox) education of the above-mentioned kids, you demonstrate, again, that you are not an orthodox Catholic. Therefore, your ignorance of and doubt about traditional Catholic schools like UD is not surprising; your insistence on nevertheless debating the point, however, is.
You say that I can't handle people like you. Seems to me that I handle you very well--you are the one reduced to childish name calling (which if you knew me personally, you would be afraid to do to my face.)
And since you can't debate as an adult, let's just end it here.
Rod--your blog seems to attract the occasional idiot.
Oh, and Cleveland, since you've taken an antagonistic (and now threatening) stance toward me--feel free to back up your b.s. *off* the blog:
eXbXrXaXuXeXr@iXuXpXuXiX.edu
Just for the record: someone above identified Msgr. Joseph's "axe-man" as "Fr. Sean C. Martin, OP." Fr. Martin is not a Dominican friar. He is a priest of the Diocese of Dallas currently teaching at The Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO. Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
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