I graduated about a week and a half ago, and as I got ready to leave campus, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my time at Holy Cross. I couldn’t help but think, not just about my own experience on the Hill, but on the future of the College. In the midst of all this soul-searching, one question seemed particularly urgent: how can Holy Cross be more faithful to her mission as a Catholic, liberal arts college run by the Jesuits?

Now, I never want Holy Cross to become an echo-chamber of identical ideologies, or an enemy of academic freedom. Nor do I want students to feel unwelcome or unsupported because their background or beliefs seem at odds with the College’s official, institutional convictions or mission. My own Holy Cross experience was valuable precisely because I was exposed to so many different beliefs, and because I was challenged by both professors and peers with different perspectives and opinions. I never want the Holy Cross community to become homogenous or one-dimensional.

But Holy Cross can’t compromise on Catholicism either. More and more, it seems like the College is trying to compete with secular, East Coast liberal arts schools like Amherst or Williams. But we’re not Amherst or Williams. We’re Holy Cross. We have a deep Catholic identity, a profound mission to form the whole person (and not just create academic weapons), and a fierce commitment to changing the world. If Holy Cross stops seeking holiness, or takes her eyes off the Cross, then our institutional identity will fall away, and we’ll destroy ourselves in a vague attempt to become something we’re not: some secular, milquetoast school full of academics pursuing academia for academia’s sake.

So—how do we live in this tension? How do we defend and advance the College’s Catholic identity without alienating an increasingly diverse student body or infringing on academic freedom?

John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae answers many of these questions, but I’m not crazy enough to think that Holy Cross administrators will actually read, let alone follow, JPII’s instructions. So I’ve reflected on that document, and on my time at Holy Cross, and I have a few suggestions (although I’m not sure anyone will listen to these ideas either).

Create a separate theology department—one that’s distinct from religious studies. A few decades ago, a lot of Catholic colleges transitioned from teaching theology (a discipline that studies God and God’s relationship with humanity from a position of belief, guided by a certain dogmatic framework) to religious studies (which studies religion abstractly, as a sociological phenomenon, a matter of what people believe, and not an attempt to study and relay the truth about God). That allowed professors to do some more experimental “scholarship” (cough, Benny Liew, cough) because they could argue that they were simply considering religion as a human practice, or studying the Bible as a work of literature and not a sacred next; no longer were professors bound by the authority of the Catholic Church. But the finer points of the distinction between theology and religious studies don’t always come across in the classroom. At a place like Holy Cross, students have no way of knowing when they’re being taught what the Church actually teaches, when they’re being taught controversial, speculative theology (like liberation theology), or when they’re being taught “religious studies” that conflict directly with the Church’s teachings. To me, the simple solution is for Holy Cross to make a clearer distinction between orthodox theology (of which we have very little), more controversial theology (of which we have a good deal), and religious studies. By splitting the religious studies department in two, and creating an actual theology department, Holy Cross would be taking a massive step forward. It would also make theology professors more accountable—no longer would they be able to defend craziness by hiding behind the excuse of studying religion abstractly.
Host a lecture series with high-profile speakers. Holy Cross can and should invest in bringing interesting and prominent thinkers and lecturers—like Bishop Robert Barron—to campus to give talks about issues relevant to college students. A few years ago, Christian philosopher William Lane Craig debated an atheist astrophysicist in Seelos, and the place was packed. Imagine what would happen if the College did more of that—and geared topics to specific audiences. For example, Holy Cross should invite Fr. Nicanor Austriaco—an evolutionary biologist, a professor, and Dominican friar—to campus to talk about the relationship between Catholicism and science—and STEM majors should be strongly encouraged to attend. Other talks can center around controversial moral topics (Sr. Helen Prejean on the death penalty, for example, or Jason Evert and Matt Fradd on contraception), or misconceptions people have about the Church or the Catholic intellectual tradition (Fr. Gregory Pine on Thomism, or Fr. David Meconi on Augustine). At a time when colleges around the country are canceling speakers, Holy Cross can stand up for academic freedom and inject life into the College’s Catholic identity by bringing in orthodox, engaging lecturers who can spark real conversations—like Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, or Abigail Favale.
Modify hiring protocol. In Ex Corde Ecclesiae, John Paul II suggests that Catholic professors should outnumber non-Catholics at a Catholic school. Is that ever going to happen at Holy Cross? Probably not. But what he says next is also important: he says that Catholic colleges need to make their religious mission known throughout the interview and hiring process. Regardless of the prospective hire’s religion, writes John Paul II, they should agree to never try to undermine that religious mission. Now that makes sense: at a company or non-profit, effective leaders want to hire people sold out for the mission of their organization. So why on earth would a Catholic school think it’s okay—or productive—to hire professors who dislike the Church and want to undermine the College’s Catholic mission? New professors need not be Catholic, but they should be willing to cooperate with an authentically Catholic mission.
Make sacramental access and attendance a priority—and a metric for success. As Fr. Boroughs leaves Holy Cross, some argue that his tenure was a success because he supervised successful fundraising campaigns and oversaw extensive construction on campus. But as a Catholic priest at the helm of a Catholic school, he had a much more important mission: saving souls. I’d love to know what happened to Mass attendance or religious affiliation on campus over the last nine years. Are we talking about those statistics? Is our board, when they evaluate school leadership, taking that into account? Or are they just counting the money and celebrating new construction? Meanwhile, if we’re going to make increased Mass and Confession attendance a barometer of institutional success, let’s start prioritizing those things on the ground level. As a Catholic school with over a dozen priests, it’s unacceptable that we only have two weekend Masses during a normal academic year. We should also have Confession on Saturdays and frequent adoration. And there should be initiatives to get students to come to Mass, whether it’s hosting a late-night, candle-lit Mass once a month in St. Joe’s, creating an app that can help students keep track of Catholic worship opportunities on campus, or having Jesuits go through the library and dorms on Sunday evenings, banging pots and pans and telling students to go to church (but actually). To put it simply, the holiness and spiritual formation of students should be a concern and priority on Mount St. James.
Work with the local Bishop instead of fighting him every step of the way. In Ex Corde Ecclesiae, JPII is insistent that Catholic colleges need to participate in the life of the local Church and have a strong relationship with the local Bishop. This relationship, JPII writes, should be “characterized by mutual trust, close and consistent cooperation and continuing dialogue.” Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Holy Cross and Bishop McManus have had their share of conflict, but tension, pettiness, and hostility—on both sides—are bad for the Church and the College. While I don’t want to heap all the blame on Holy Cross, there does seem to be this bizarre assumption that—maybe because we’re run by Jesuits—rules don’t apply to us, or we’re not subject to the authority of our local ordinary. That’s false and arrogant. By making their desire to work with McManus clear, by building strong personal relationships with him, and by even inviting him to participate in search committees for important administrative vacancies, Holy Cross’s administrators can help rebuild a relationship with our Bishop, which, in turn, can strengthen the College’s Catholic identity, improve our relationship with the Worcester community, and help our Jesuit school keep its Catholic designation.

Okay, so maybe these proposals aren’t particularly modest, but I do think they’d go a long way towards furthering the school’s Catholic identity without stomping on people’s toes, alienating non-Catholics, or making students feel excluded. Some of these proposals are essentially free—it doesn’t cost anything to tell a new biology professor that we’re a Catholic school and that she needs to be okay with that—while some might cost a fair amount of money. Nonetheless, I have a hunch that there are alumni that would donate considerable sums of money to a “Lift High the Cross” capital campaign aimed at revitalizing the College’s Catholic identity. But that’s just a guess.

At the end of the day, Holy Cross is a Catholic school run by Catholic priests and a team of committed laypeople. But we’re facing a really important crossroads: embrace our Catholic identity, or water down our faith and try to compete with a bunch of secular schools that don’t share our sense of mission and identity. It’s time for Holy Cross to stop trying to become something we’re not, and start embracing what we have the potential—and the mandate—to become.