The Pillar Catholic portal reports on a recent address by Dartmouth College provost Santiago Schnell to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Orlando, Florida. Schnell, a Catholic and distinguished mathematical biologist, presented a scathing assessment of the state of Catholic higher education in the United States, 25 years after the implementation of John Paul II’s apostolic constitution *Ex Corde Ecclesiae*. He highlighted a “Catholic paradox”: despite having a “massive infrastructure” of 230 colleges and universities enrolling over 600,000 students, these institutions produce “average outcomes.” Only 35% of adult Catholics hold a bachelor’s degree, matching the national average, and a staggering 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic. Schnell attributed this failure to Catholic institutions imitating secular ones, focusing on rankings, job training, and adopting a vocabulary of “progress” and “success” rather than the human person. He called for a return to a distinct Catholic identity, emphasizing the need for a “spirit of the place” influenced by John Henry Newman, and urged bishops to be “more vocal” and “more pushy” in asserting their ownership of the word “Catholic.” This address, while seemingly critical of secularization, remains firmly within the bounds of the post-conciliar paradigm, failing to diagnose the true root of the crisis: the systematic destruction of Catholic doctrine and the very concept of the Church’s mission by the architects of Vatican II and their successors.
The Illusion of “Catholic Identity” Without the Faith
Santiago Schnell’s diagnosis, while acknowledging symptoms like secularization and a lack of distinct Catholic identity, fundamentally misidentifies the disease. His call for Catholic institutions to “embrace their distinct religious identity” and form “the Church’s intellectual future” presupposes that these institutions, and indeed the “Church” they serve, still possess an authentic Catholic identity to embrace. This is a fatal illusion. The very “Catholic paradox” he laments – a massive infrastructure with average outcomes – is not a failure of execution, but the inevitable consequence of a deliberate, systematic dismantling of Catholic truth by the conciliar revolution.
The post-conciliar “Church,” from John XXIII through Leo XIV, has consistently undermined the very foundations of Catholic higher education. The “spirit of the place” that Schnell invokes, quoting John Henry Newman, has been replaced by the spirit of the New Advent, a spirit of dialogue, adaptation, and ultimately, capitulation to the world. The “academic freedom” Schnell calls for, “ordered toward truth,” is precisely what the modernist “Church” has abandoned. As St. Pius X unequivocally stated in *Pascendi Dominici gregis*, Modernism, the synthesis of all errors, teaches that “truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (*Lamentabili sane exitu*, prop. 58). This denial of immutable truth renders any talk of “ordering academic freedom toward truth” meaningless within a modernist framework, as truth itself becomes subjective and evolving.
The Secularization of Catholic Education: A Fruit of Modernist Principles
Schnell’s observation that Catholic colleges have become “essentially secular, imitating non-Catholic schools” is not a new phenomenon, but the logical outcome of the post-conciliar agenda. The “focus on rankings” as a “rival magisterium” is a direct consequence of the modernist emphasis on “progress” and “success” in worldly terms, rather than the pursuit of sanctity and the salvation of souls. The “academic vocabulary” centered on “progress” and “success” rather than the human person reflects the anthropocentric shift of Vatican II, which replaced the worship of God with the “cult of man.”
The “crisis in Catholic higher education” is merely a microcosm of the broader crisis of faith within the conciliar structures. The fact that 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic, and that “changes in belief” are cited more often than scandals as the reason, is a direct result of the modernist “Church’s” inability to present a clear, uncompromising, and immutable Catholic faith. When the “Church” itself embraces a “hermeneutics of continuity” that is, in reality, a “hermeneutics of rupture,” it is no wonder that its educational institutions fail to transmit what they themselves no longer fully possess or dare to proclaim. The “formation for human flourishing” Schnell advocates, devoid of the supernatural, is a purely naturalistic endeavor, a far cry from the true purpose of Catholic education: to lead souls to God through the acquisition of knowledge ordered towards eternal salvation.
The Failure of “Ownership” and the Absence of True Authority
Schnell’s plea for bishops to be “more vocal” and “more pushy” in asserting their ownership of the word “Catholic” is both ironic and tragic. The bishops of the conciliar “Church” are themselves products of the modernist revolution. Many are appointed precisely because they adhere to the new paradigm, not because they defend the old faith. Their “respectfulness” is not a sign of humility, but of complicity in the destruction of Catholic identity. They do not “own” the word “Catholic” in any meaningful sense; they merely administer a brand that has been systematically emptied of its true content.
The very “ownership” Schnell calls for is impossible without a clear understanding of what “Catholic” truly means. For the post-conciliar “Church,” “Catholic” has become a vague descriptor for a community that embraces “dialogue,” “ecumenism,” and “religious liberty” – all condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pope Pius IX, in the *Syllabus of Errors*, explicitly condemned the proposition that “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship” (prop. 77), and that “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (prop. 80). These are precisely the principles that the conciliar “Church” has embraced, thereby severing itself from authentic Catholicism.
The “spirit of the place” that Schnell hopes to cultivate, based on John Henry Newman, is a dangerous illusion when Newman himself is a figure whose theological evolution is questioned by many integral Catholics. Newman, while a convert, was a proponent of the “development of doctrine,” a concept that, when divorced from the unchanging deposit of faith, can lead to the very evolution of dogmas that St. Pius X condemned. To invoke Newman as a model for Catholic identity without acknowledging these concerns is to build on a foundation of sand.
The True Purpose of Catholic Education: Formation for Eternity
The fundamental error of Schnell’s address, and indeed of the entire post-conciliar approach to Catholic education, lies in its naturalistic premise. The purpose of a true Catholic university is not merely to produce graduates with “average outcomes” or to form “the Church’s intellectual future” in a worldly sense. Its primary and overriding purpose is to lead souls to God, to foster sanctity, and to prepare individuals for eternal life. As Pope Pius XI stated in *Divini Illius Magistri*, “the object of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian… to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism.”
This formation requires an uncompromising adherence to the integral Catholic faith, not a “spirit of the place” that can be “formed but not engineered.” It requires a curriculum centered on scholastic philosophy and theology, rooted in the perennial wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, not on the shifting sands of modern philosophy or the “progressive” social sciences. It requires faculty who are not only academically qualified but who are also fervent Catholics, living examples of the faith they profess. It requires a clear understanding that “academic freedom” is not a license for error, but a means to pursue truth, which is ultimately God Himself.
The crisis in Catholic higher education is not a failure of strategy or leadership; it is a crisis of faith. It is the inevitable consequence of a “Church” that has abandoned its divine mandate to teach, govern, and sanctify, and has instead embraced the world. Until the true Church, the Church of all ages, is restored to its rightful authority, and until Catholic institutions return to the immutable principles of the pre-conciliar Magisterium, the “Catholic paradox” Schnell describes will only deepen, and the souls entrusted to these institutions will continue to be led astray.
Source:
US bishops encouraged to advance renewal of Catholic colleges (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 10.06.2026