By Dominic V. Cassella.

Before St. John Henry Newman converted to Catholicism, he gave a series of sermons to the students of Oxford. The last of these University Sermons provided a brief theory of developments in religious doctrine, and he took for his model Mary, the Mother of God.

Quoting Luke 2:19 - "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" - Newman offers Mary as a model of faith since when she was provided with the Angel's message, she does not question it like Zacharias; she accepts without question, but ponders it.

Our Lady "is our pattern of Faith, both in the reception and in the study of Divine Truth. She does not think it enough to accept, she dwells upon it; not enough to possess, she uses it; not enough to assent, she develops it; not enough to submit the Reason, she reasons upon it. . . .she symbolizes to us, not only the faith of the unlearned, but of the doctors of the Church also, who have to investigate, and weigh, and define, as well as to profess the Gospel."

In this way, Mary the Seat of Wisdom is a clear and evident model for all who want to arrive at the Truth. It's no surprise then that several faithfully Catholic, and even lapsed Catholic, universities are dedicated to or named after Mary. Jesus Christ is the "big t" Truth, and He took on human flesh in the womb of Mary, where He grew from conception until birth.

Similarly, the "little t" truth conceived in our own minds, often finds its conception and growth in the classroom, through great books, and with good teachers - all part of a healthy university.

But being named after our Lady does not guarantee that truth (big or little "t") is treasured there. As Anne Hendershott carefully lays out in her recent book A Lamp in the Darkness: How Faithful Catholic Colleges Are Helping to Save the Church, some once grand institutions are less interested in being the Seat of Wisdom and more akin to wisdom abortionists.

Throughout the book, Hendershott profiles many of the Colleges she refers to as the "faithful few," those colleges and universities recognized as truly Catholic Institutions by the Newman College Guide. And alongside these, she provides an account of the shortcomings and failures of other institutions that were once "Catholic" in a meaningful sense.

One of the most frequent guises for shedding one's Catholic Identity is the "Academic Freedom" claim, which itself echoes the pro-abortion movement: instead of "my body, my choice," the relativist proponents of loose academic freedom proclaim, "my mind, my truth."

Catholic Institutions have been struggling with the embarrassment of their fidelity to Church teaching since Charles W. Eliot (Harvard's president from 1869 to 1909) wrote that the Catholic university curriculum was "the most backward educational system of religious fundamentalists."

Such criticisms of Catholic education continued both from within and without Catholic universities, finding its institutional expression on June 20, 1967, when Notre Dame president Theodore M. Hesburgh and a small group of Catholic academic leaders declared "independence" from Church authority in what is known as the Land O'Lakes statement.

Almost sixty years later, Notre Dame, the ring leader of Land O'Lakes, is hosting a self-described "transgender man" and "abortion doula" and describes DEI as something "equally important" to Catholicism..

Contrast this with one of the faithful few that Hendershott profiles. In early 2024, an "abortion doula" was invited to speak by a teacher at The Catholic University of America. Within the week, the school's president, Peter Kilpatrick, dismissed the professor.

In responding to the event, Kilpatrick wrote, "As a Catholic institution, we are committed to promoting the full truth of the human person. . . .we do so fully confident in the clarity given by the combined lights of reason and faith, and we commit to never advocate for sin or to give moral equivalence to error."

For a Catholic institution ...