What’s Catholic About Campus Living?
Kathryn Lopez
Kathryn Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a nationally syndicated columnist.
“You never open the door when there’s a shirt
tied around the doorknob!”
So I learned when I went back to my dorm
room one morning, in my freshman year at a
Catholic college. Evidently sexual activity was
so common that it had its own perverse sort
of etiquette that every student was expected
to know. I appeared the odd man out.
Many a recent graduate or current stu-
dent of Catholic universities can tell similar
stories. It wasn’t just Charlotte Simmons in
Tom Wolfe’s all-too-
realistic novel who
was “sexiled” from
Is the campus life just another
her room so her
roommate could en- hook-up culture, or is it conducive
tertain a boyfriend
(and some students to the Christian life?
have no such mod-
esty issues, as it
turns out).
Students deserve better—they deserve to
be expected to be better.
Of course, stories like this have always
been and will always be told. But it’s some-
thing to keep in mind as you choose a college,
because there are better options available to
Catholic families. And every Catholic campus
should be striving to be those alternatives.
As much as every father of a daugh-
ter would like to think campus life revolves
around the classroom, it doesn’t. The majority
of campus life happens outside of the class-
room: studying, socializing, making gains
and experiencing losses.
For most 18- and 19-year-olds living this
new campus life, it is their first go at making
The Newman Guide
moral decisions on their own—without mom
and dad to lean on or to set them straight when
they go wrong. Is the only direction or safety
cushion a monetary fine if students trash the
common room or blatantly bring into a dorm
the alcohol they have illegally purchased? Is
the campus so “realistic” that the health or
women’s center offers nonjudgmental “prob-
lem-solving” options to pregnant girls?
Students will arrive on campus with
all sorts of different influences and varying
degrees of for-
mation. But one
thing on campus
should be cer-
tain: A Catho-
lic college that’s
confident in its
identity will not
be just like every
other college or
university in the country.
It is in the campus culture where many
of the habits that will make or break charac-
ters for years to come are formed. Is the cam-
pus life just another hook-up culture, or is it
conducive to the Christian life?
The campus needn’t be monastic—and
it shouldn’t be, this is college after all. But it
ought to be countercultural, in the sense that
it is of this world but actively aware of “the
end game.”
So, Catholic families would do well to
look for a campus environment where the fo-
cus is eternal life and not scoring a hot date
this weekend or just passing that one difficult
class this semester.
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What’s Catholic About Campus Living?

How does a Catholic campus go about be- man society. We would call their attention to
ing different? First of all, those who direct cam-the need to create an atmosphere favorable to
pus life need to be different. That is, they need the growth of chastity so that true liberty may
to work at a Catholic college for a reason: They prevail over license and the norms of the moral
believe that there is a point to a Catholic educa-law may be fully safeguarded.”
tion and that four years on a Catholic campus In my work I have spoken to countless
ought to change lives for good. students and alumni of Catholic colleges, and
I can tell you that the word “chastity” usually
doesn’t come up between freshman orienta-
Our Holy Fathers’ Advice tion’s date-rape skit and the first time a student
walks in on their roommate hooking up.
Pope Benedict XVI writes, “The Gospel is not
This is why it is so critical that whatever
merely a communication of things that can be
college you choose respects the dignity of the
known—it is one that makes things happen
student and supports Catholic values in dorm
and is life-changing. The dark door of time,
life.
of the future, has been thrown open. The one
Paul VI continued: “Everything therefore
who has hope lives differently.”
in the modern means of social communica-
Presumably you are reading The Newman
tion which arouses men’s baser passions and
Guide and considering a Catholic college or
encourages low
university, because
moral standards,
you want to grow
as well as every
in your faith and ...at too many Catholic colleges, the
obscenity in the
live a Christ-cen-
campus life is hardly different than written word and
tered life. You de-
every form of in-
serve that opportu-
nity on a Catholic at one of those “top party schools.” decency on the
stage and screen,
campus.
should be con-
But at too
demned publicly
many Catholic col-
and unanimously by all those who have at
leges, the campus life is hardly different than
heart the advance of civilization and the safe-
at one of those “top party schools.”
guarding of the outstanding values of the hu-
The quote above is from Pope Benedict’s
man spirit. It is quite absurd to defend this kind
encyclical on Christian hope, and it rounds up
of depravity in the name of art or culture or by
with, “The one who hopes has been granted
pleading the liberty which may be allowed in
the gift of a new life.” The Catholic campus has
this field by the public authorities.”
to teach about this life-changing gift and pro-
Practically speaking for the Catholic col-
vide encouragement for the different life that it
lege or university campus: A Catholic campus
makes possible: If not here, where? If not now,
could have chapels in the dorms. A Catholic
when?
campus could have examples of moral Catholic
In the monumental summer of 1968, at the
living in the dorms. A Catholic campus might
height of the Sexual Revolution, everything
have priests or sisters in the dorms. A Catho-
you ever needed to know about Catholic cam-
lic campus should have single-sex dorms or (at
pus life was addressed in Rome. In Humanae
least!) single-sex floors.
Vitae, Pope Paul VI wrote: “We take this op-
And do not overlook the importance of
portunity to address those who are engaged in
“visitation policies.” These are the hours when
education and all those whose right and duty
members of the opposite sex are officially per-
it is to provide for the common good of hu-

50 The Newman Guide


mitted to be in others’ dorm rooms. At many
Catholic colleges, the time ranges from early
morning until very late at night. What message
does this send?
If any place in the world should serve as
a laboratory of Pope John Paul II’s theology of
the body, it should be the Catholic campus.
The Catholic university graduate today
should be prepared not only to have a stable
job, to raise a family, and to achieve all the ends
that the secular world seeks in a college educa-
tion, but also to follow John Paul the Great in
the way they love and show responsibility in
everything they do.
Catholic college graduates should stand
out in the workplace and in their apartment
buildings not because they wear crosses but
because of how they live their lives.
And if the
Catholic college
you are consid-
ering does not
...at too many
do this, you may
campus life is hardly different than
want to ask your-
self why you are at one of those “top party schools.”
paying a premium
to attend a private
college.
“We observe today a timidity in the face
of the category of the good and an aimless pur-
suit of novelty parading as the realization of
freedom,” said Pope Benedict XVI in his April
2009 address to American Catholic educators.
“We witness an assumption that every experi-
ence is of equal worth and a reluctance to admit
imperfection and mistakes. And particularly
disturbing, is the reduction of the precious and
delicate area of education in sexuality to man-
agement of ‘risk,’ bereft of any reference to the
beauty of conjugal love.”
Catholic Education: The Future
“Making God Known, Loved, and Served:
The Future of Catholic Primary and Second-
ary Schools in the United States” is the title of
The Newman Guide
Kathryn Lopez
one of the more reflective documents in recent
years on Catholic education—published by, of
all places, the University of Notre Dame.
I say of all places because, as I write, Notre
Dame has been in the spotlight for—in a very
public and national way—not doing the things
named in the title. But there are things that
Notre Dame does right, including Eucharis-
tic Adoration, single-sex dorms and Catholic
teacher training. The things that make head-
lines out of South Bend expose a cognitive dis-
sonance—and that is exactly why the Notre
Dame commencement scandal in May 2009
caused such outrage. But the seeds are there—
as their report indicates.
The document discusses challenges facing
the Catholic Church and Catholic education
in America: “The religious are almost gone.
Pastors are over-
whelmed. Mass at-
tendance is down.
Catholic colleges, the So are collections.
[Catholic-school]
faculty salaries are
still too low. Costs
and tuition are ris-
ing. Enrollments
are declining.
Thus goes the litany.”
The report goes on: “Yes, we know the sto-
ry well. Has it become so familiar, though, that
we could forget its ending is not inevitable?”
Bingo. Wayward Catholic colleges are
blithely pursuing a path to destruction, and
the impact on both students and the surround-
ing culture is not often taken seriously.
Consider the current marriage debate:
While political movements focus on protecting
marriage from courts and interest groups that
seek its redefinition, it’s important for Catho-
lic families and faithful of marriage age to ask,
“What have we done lately to actually protect
marriage?” If the concept of courtship is as
laughable on most Catholic campuses as it is
in the bars in Harvard Square, the answer is
“nothing.”
51
What’s Catholic About Campus Living?
At the heart of the Notre Dame report
are three “deep-seated convictions.” First,
“Catholic schools afford the fullest and best
opportunity to realize the fourfold purpose of
Christian education, namely, to provide an at-
mosphere in which the Gospel message is pro-
claimed, community in Christ is experienced,
service to our sisters and brothers is the norm,
and thanksgiving and worship of God is cul-
tivated.”
Second, “The vitality of the Church is
inextricably linked to the health of its Catho-
lic schools because they provide the most ef-
fective way to evangelize and form holy men
and women who make God known, loved and
served.”
Third, “Catho-
lic schools will con- The Catholic
tinue to play a vital
role in American needs to know there is Truth—in
civic life, as they
exemplify how to the classroom
prepare citizens
afternoon and in the dorm
for full engagement
in democracy and room on Saturday night.
commitment to the
common good.”
How well this applies to the colleges and
universities in The Newman Guide! But what is
the fate of the other Catholic institutions if they
do not renew their Catholic identity?
The report adds that the familiar storyline
of the last 40 years must be re-thought. In the
summer of 1968, Pope Paul VI rightly predicted
that men would lose respect for women in the
age of the contraceptive pill. Man would get to
“the point of considering her as a mere instru-
ment of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his
respected and beloved companion.”
Saving and Losing Souls
The reality of Catholic campus life can be told
by touring dorms on weekends (and weekday
nights). Before you choose a college, visit and
then visit again, paying close attention to the
52
atmosphere in the residence halls. You will
learn a lot.
The sad reality of campus life at most
Catholic colleges was made all too clear in a
survey published by The Cardinal Newman
Society in 2008 on “Behaviors and Beliefs of
Current and Recent Students at U.S. Catholic
Colleges.”
The Catholic campuses unfortunately
looked a lot like the rest of the culture: “During
their last year at a Catholic college or universi-
ty, 46 percent of current and recent students en-
gaged in sex outside of marriage (including 41
percent of respondents who say they were sac-
ramentally-active Catholics during that year.).”
Almost one of every five said they knew a stu-
dent personally
college... student who had or paid
for an abortion!
And the fol-
lowing should
on Wednesday break the heart
of anyone who
knows Christ and
understands the
power of Catho-
lic education: The
survey shows that 57 percent of respondents
said “the experience of attending a Catholic
college or university had no effect on their par-
ticipation in the Catholic Mass and the Sacra-
ment of Reconciliation”—and 10 percent said
the experience decreased their participation!
Further, 54 percent of students said that
attending a Catholic college or university “had
no effect on their support for the teachings of
the Catholic Church and 13 percent say the ex-
perience decreased their support.”
At too many Catholic colleges then, it
would seem that students are taking on tens
of thousands of dollars of debt to finance their
self-degradation!
If the Catholic colleges you are considering
see no reason to buck these trends, you should
hesitate, and the colleges need to rethink their
reason for existence. The graduate of a Catholic
The Newman Guide

college or university has to graduate knowing
that he is called to “put out into the deep,” as
St. Peter was. He needs to have, along with a
diploma, the spiritual and academic tools with
which to do so. This is the obligation of the
Catholic college or university. Or else it’s just
another college or university.
“The overall effort,” says Fr. Matthew
Habiger of Benedictine College, should be “to
help young men and women discover that the
good and satisfying life is one that fully re-
spects all the human goods that fulfill us as
well-integrated persons. The virtuous life is
the only truly happy life.  If we draw upon all
the means available to us to live the Christian
life, then it becomes possible for everyone. This
applies also to a Catholic understanding of
marriage as a permanent, irrevocable consent,
requiring total fidelity.”
Is this the attitude of the staff and admin-
istration at the Catholic college or university
you’re looking at? It makes a big difference.
This Much Is True
In the encyclical Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul
II wrote: “The search for truth is not always so
transparent. . . . The natural limitation of rea-
son and the inconstancy of the human heart
often obscure and distort a person’s search.
Truth can also drown in a water of other con-
cerns. People can run from the truth as soon as
they glimpse it because they are afraid of the
demands.”
The Catholic college or university student
needs to know there is Truth—in the classroom
on Wednesday afternoon and in the dorm room
on Saturday night.
When Fr. David O’Connell was inaugu-
rated as president of the Catholic University of
America in 1998, he took an oath of fidelity to
the Magisterium and quoted John Paul II’s apos-
tolic constitution on higher education, Ex corde
Ecclesiae: “A Catholic university must have the
courage to speak uncomfortable truths which
do not please public opinion which are neces-
The Newman Guide
Kathryn Lopez
sary to safeguard the authentic good of human
society. . . . Our leadership must include stu-
dent life and campus ministry. Here we touch
not only the mind but also the heart and the
soul of our students. Remember, we have not
chosen them, they have chosen us. And they
do so eager to learn, eager to grow, filed with
all the hope and promise of a future yet to be
revealed.”
Students show up hungry. And if the
Catholic college or university is worth existing,
it had better be giving them the Bread of Life.
And not just at Mass. Catholic identity and
morals need to permeate the campus, so that
graduates, fully aware of Christ’s indwelling
presence, can be guided by that awareness and
change the face of the earth, bucking trends
and giving hope.
As Father O’Connell put it: “Could we as a
university possibly share our knowledge with
students without sharing our faith? Could we
teach about prayer credibly without inviting
them to pray and showing them how? Could
we speak about meaning and avoid providing
the direction to attain it? Could we talk about
ethics and then fail to support it in the activities
that we promote on and off campus? Could we
ask them to serve without first serving them?”
Choosing a college is an exciting and chal-
lenging process. An authentic Catholic educa-
tion is a rich gift for students.
And while majors are frequently intensely
deliberated during the decision-making, the
moral environment of the whole campus is
what may make the most lasting impact on the
life of the college student. Most of a student’s
college life will be spent in and around his
dorm. And so, in choosing a college, you de-
serve an answer to this question:
Does the residence life at the college you
will attend encourage virtue and chastity and
help you grow in faith, or is it likely to be a
four-year temptation to be a part of the same
hook-up culture that has been at the heart of so
much heartache?
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