Good Catholic Colleges

[XIX]

I'm told from one of my passionately Catholic friends that DeSales University in Pennsylvania is very orthodox and faithful to Benedict XVI.

[missionseeker]

Yes. I was going to go there but I never applied. Whatever. It is faithful and Orthodox.

[Guest freemanbac]

I have noticed that there have been a few post on this thread about Belmont Abbey College. Being a student there, I suppose I could tell you what you want to know. It is a college of about 1000 students outside Charlotte, North Carolina. It was started by a Bendictine monestary which is on campus and is home to about 40 monks.

The President of two years at the college is a very devout Catholic. He was even invited to the Vatican back in November to attend the conferances of "Church and Sport" as he was an Olympic trainee back in his past. before coming to the college he was a CEO of the York Barbell company, so he is also very keen on the business side as well. He hope is to make "The Abbey" a nationally known college for what it can offer to any student as well as keeping it in line with the Catholic Church.

The teachers in the Theology department wiling accept the mandatum and Oath of Fidelity. Quite of few monks teach in the department which also includes the Abbot. There are a few teachers within the faculty that may enforce their views on you, but it is no where close to the point where it will affect your grade. There is a teacher or two that seems to be a bit disgusted with some of the Presidents decisions with the college. This includes his business ideas, but also how he regulates the campus.

There were three particular incidents that I know of last year, in which the President may have gotten some slack for, but he was in the right so it did not bother him. The First incident was that some student organization scedule some movies to be shown in the quad. Some of the movies did not get great approval from the Bishops review, so the President cancelled those movies from showing. Another incident was that each RA can have a movie night to foster community within the dorms. One RA selected a movie that promoted the homosexual agenda, so the President put a stop to that. The last incident was reguarding Facebook as many people began to post up pictures that should not have been seen, like underage drinking. The President in this case called a forum to provide his objections to the students and told us to relize what type of image we are promoting the school by, and that if he needs to he has the power to take the Abbey off the facebook, but he hopes it does not come to that. So overall the Abbey has at least a good foundation.

Some other important things you should know is that the Catholic to non-Catholic ratio is about 1 to 1. Being in the south, there is not as many Catholics in the surrounding areas. Also the college is very generous in giving out scholarships for both sports and academics. However, I have ran into too many people who state that the only reason they are here is because it was the best deal they were offered. So if you expect the campus of students to be a good Catholic atmosphere, you may want to scratch the Abbey off your list.

However, even though they may only be 10-20 kids at daily Mass, there is a good group of Catholics who are trying to live a good Catholic life. The college has a Hintemeyer program which is a program for faithful Catholic. They are a select few who usually recieve full-ride (although they may be discontinuing that part of the deal, but don't hold me to that) for exchange of being active in campus ministry events. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the student body has nicknamed they the "God Squad" but most are not bothered by it. Also, the Abbey provides a few households which are modeled after the ones at Franciscan University of Steubenville. There is only one for guys, but there is also a co-ed household as well. (How that happened, I don't know)

So I guess it comes down to if you want to grow in your Catholic faith you are given the oppportunity. If you do not, then you are given the opportunity as well. So the primary thing that will be a threat to your Catholic way of thinking will not be the teachers, but rather the students.

[missionseeker]

I almost applied there.

then i got the other.

[aalpha1989]

I visited Benedictine today....visiting FUS next wednesday...I'm excited...

[Veritas]

+

The University of St. Thomas, Catholic Studies is excellent -totally orthodox! Most students double major with another department, but it's certainly not required. It is a beautiful campus of 8,000 students in St. Paul, MN with an AMAZING study-abroad program in Rome. The university orthodoxy as a whole, has some difficulties in the administration. However, there is a huge group (hundreds+) of super-orthodox students connected with Catholic Studies and St. John Vianney Minor Seminary and they are making MAJOR waves including perpetual student-run adoration. We have AWESOME priests, who are really supportive and I think positive changes will continue to manifest.

[url="http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/"]http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/[/url]

Blessings!

(as evidence, we've had graduates enter the Nashville Dominicans the last four years in addition to the Sisters of Life, CFR's, Carmelites of the Sacred Heart, Charismatic Franciscans, Sisters of Mary etc. & our undergraduate seminary at: [url="http://www.vianney.net/"]http://www.vianney.net/[/url] is the largest in the country + tons of holy marriages!)

Praise God!

Edited August 6, 2006 by Veritas

[Veritas]

+

I'd also send my kids (if I had any), to Thomas Aquinas in California:

[url="http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/"]http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/[/url]

Or, if they knew they wanted to study history or philosophy or any of the subsequent genres, I'd send them straight to one of the pontifical institutions in Rome i.e. Santa Croce, the Ang, or the Greg:

[url="http://www.asc.urbe.it/inglese/homepage_ing.html"]http://www.asc.urbe.it/inglese/homepage_ing.html[/url]
[url="http://www.angelicum.org/"]http://www.angelicum.org/[/url]
[url="http://www.unigre.it/"]http://www.unigre.it/[/url]

If they were dead-set on a "traditional" American school, I'd send them to Franciscan, Christendom, Magdalene, Ave Maria, or CUA.

[url="http://www.franciscan.edu/home2/Content/main.aspx"]http://www.franciscan.edu/home2/Content/main.aspx[/url]
[url="http://www.christendom.edu/"]http://www.christendom.edu/[/url]
[url="http://www.magdalen.edu/"]http://www.magdalen.edu/[/url]
[url="http://www.naples.avemaria.edu/"]http://www.naples.avemaria.edu/[/url]
[url="http://www.cua.edu/"]http://www.cua.edu/[/url]

[ForHimAlone]

Anyone know anything about St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota?