Walk Softly and Leave the Stick at Home

Too much righteous indignation can be counter productive. Deeply caring Catholics who lambaste their fellow Catholics for shortcomings which are on display in the culture can be the worst offenders.

Yes, many colleges and universities which bear the name Catholic are falling short of the ideal as they allow and even promote practices contrary to the teachings of the church. But I wonder whether public floggings are the answer.

What for example is behind the increasing number of vocations in certain orders? Are the Dominicans attracting men and women who love controversy, or because these very same Dominicans are intelligent, prayerful and loving and are out in the world carrying the message of Catholicism to school children, Theology on Tap sessions, and radio broadcasts like "Word to Life" on Sirius? The Dominicans at the House of Studies in Washington are hardly flame throwers, (well , for the most part!) nor are the Nashville Sisters, or the nuns in North Guilford, Ct. The picture above from a "Come and See" retreat in North Guilford radiates joy and a kind of hope which has much to do with the divine love which overcomes all, even bumbling educators and institutions of higher learning which have succumbed to greed, ignorance, a perceived need to survive, or just plain sinfulness.

Should Catholics be concerned about the state of Catholic higher education? Most certainly. But the question is how to address the concerns.

On the local Catholic School level, the same issues present themselves in a milder form. Teachers quietly disagree about whether women should be ordained priests or whether priests should be allowed to marry. (The answer is no to both questions!)
And great strides could be made in the frequency with which these schools draw upon the resources of the church: prayer, reconciliation, adoration, not to mention a highlighting of virtues, as over and against merely excelling for the sake of getting into a competitive college or university.

The Catholic School our daughter attends is working on these concerns. A hand- made sign has been posted in the school's entry way this Lent which reads from a distance: Pork and Pray. Every Tuesday during Lent!

The first day I saw the sign I pondered what new devotion still unknown to me might be in store on Tuesdays at "Pork and pray." And then I got a bit closer and saw that the sign, obviously created by a child, really read "Park and Pray." Still a bit mysterious, but much more like what I have come to expect from the devout. Turns out the sign is advertising an opportunity to pray the rosary together after dropping off the kids at morning carpool. It's good for parents to pray for their children in today's world, in fact it's essential. It would also be wonderful if the students themselves prayed the rosary during Lent. We all have a way to go in learning to intermingle what we do each day with our prayers, our devotions, our intentions to lead holy lives. Not just schools and colleges, all of us.

There are pockets of devotion on every Catholic campus, I feel sure. That is a beginning point. And maybe, as we seek to reform at deeper levels we can try to rely on what we know we possess, the power of prayer directed unceasingly to a loving God, and less on the public rants. It's worth considering, anyway.