From the Desk of the President
President Thomas E. Dillon
(Winter 2001 Newsletter)
[Index
of Past Articles by President Dillon]
Following are excerpts from the remarks of President Dillon
to the Annual Meeting of the Cardinal Newman Society in Washington,
D.C. on November 11, 2000.
Thomas Aquinas College was conceived in the late 1960s, a
time of general disintegration and decline in genuine liberal
education, and a time during which Catholic colleges across
the country were deliberately suppressing their Catholic character.
The founders of our College were convinced that a radical
regeneration was needed.
But before embarking upon a new venture, they first endeavored
to draft a serious treatise on the nature of Catholic higher
education. The result of their work was published in 1969
as the founding document of what was to become Thomas Aquinas
College. Entitled A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic
Liberal Education, this document, at its very core, actually
anticipated by 20 years the Holy Father's teachings on the
nature of Catholic higher education as set forth in his Apostolic
Constitution, Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
Our founding document raises two fundamental points. First,
it addresses the question of whether faith can illumine understanding.
The document argues that, for those who subject themselves
to it, the Catholic faith is a guide not only in the moral
life, but also in the intellectual life, and that the essential
purpose of a Catholic college is to educate under the light
of the Faith. Second, it addresses the proper conception of
academic freedom in Catholic education. The document thus
critiques the contemporary secular understanding of academic
freedom, particularly as promulgated by the American Association
of University Professors and adopted wholesale by most Catholic
universities. It then offers a more elevated understanding
of freedom grounded in truth and in the teaching authority
of Christ Himself.
What I wish to emphasize is that Thomas Aquinas College began
with a determinate view of Catholic liberal education, an
articulation of principles which should shape and animate
the institution, and a plan for a curriculum and pedagogy
that would not mimic what was done elsewhere, but would reflect
the understanding of Catholic liberal education it had professed.
Only after all this was carefully thought through did the
College open its doors in September, 1971.
Given our founders' conviction that neither liberal education
in general nor Catholic liberal education in particular were
steering the right course, they proposed a new undergraduate
college, radically different from any in the country. At this
new institution, every student would read, rather than textbooks,
only the great masters - those who have thought best about
nature, man, and God.
The order and integration of this exclusively "Great
Books" curriculum would be important. For example, every
student would read Plato and Aristotle before reading Augustine
and Aquinas; Euclid and Apollonius, before Galileo, Newton
and Einstein. Every student would study logic before the philosophy
of nature, and the philosophy of nature before metaphysics.
Every student would study the great Fathers and Doctors of
the Church, especially St. Thomas Aquinas. Every student would
read the great thinkers who have shaped the modern world and
would be led to apprehend and grasp that world from the inside.
There would be no majors, minors, or electives, but instead,
every student would follow the same fixed program of encountering
and engaging the seminal works in the principal intellectual
disciplines and would be led to reflect on the relation and
subordination of those disciplines. Finally, all classes would
be taught in Socratic seminars of 14-18 students who would
openly inquire into and discuss - with attendant rigor and
argumentation - the works at hand.
While our curriculum and pedagogy make us distinctive, our
founding document's understanding of the proper nature of
Catholic education is relevant to any institution of Catholic
higher learning. There is indeed a crisis in Catholic education
- if there were not, Ex Corde Ecclesiae would not have been
necessary. In my view, however, the crisis is primarily one
of faith, and troubles come when Catholic institutions forget
their very reason for being and see the Faith not as governing
their activities, but as merely one particular good which
may be negotiable for the sake of other goods.
A Catholic college, if it is to be true to the name, must
not only acknowledge the complementarity of faith and reason
- it must be committed, as an institution, to the principle
that the essential purpose of a Catholic college is to educate
under the light of the Faith. What does this mean in practice?
It means, at a minimum, that the Catholic faith should be
formative in the education itself and not be some mere incidental
adjunct or nebulous "presence."
By analogy, it would not be proper to call a hospital "Catholic"
if it were, on the one hand, staffed by Catholics and had
Mass and the sacraments available within its walls, while,
at the same time, it were performing abortions and sterilizations.
As a hospital, its proper work concerns healing and bodily
health, and Catholic principles must prevail if the hospital,
as a hospital, is to be essentially Catholic. Likewise, if
a college were to be staffed by Catholics and had Mass and
the sacraments available on campus, but the very education
proceeded in opposition to Catholic principles, such an institution
would not properly be Catholic.
After all, the proper work of any college or university is
essentially concerned with truth. Our intelligence is ordered
to the truth, and colleges and universities exist for the
sake of searching for, and speaking, the truth. If truth did
not exist, or if it were unattainable, there would be no legitimate
reason for any college or university to exist. Christ's words
in St. John's Gospel, however, give us powerful direction:
"The reason I was born, the reason I came into the world
is to testify to the truth - anyone committed to the truth
hears my voice."
If I am a faithful Catholic, in my search for truth I must
hear the voice of Our Lord and have confidence that in so
doing I will apprehend truth. This is no less so for any institution
of higher learning which aspires to be faithfully Catholic:
to make good on its institutional commitment to truth, it
must heed the voice of Christ. Moreover, as our Faith tells
us, to listen to the Church as it speaks to us through the
Magisterium is to listen to Christ. What distinguishes a Catholic
university from other universities, in principle, is that
it acknowledges that the teaching Church has authority in
the intellectual life and that it has an ability to lead us
toward the truth and to protect us from error in our quest
to know. What I am affirming, in contrast to the Land O' Lakes
doctrine, is that the teaching Church should be a guide in
the intellectual life of a Catholic college and a guide that
should bear on what is studied, how it is studied, and how
the curriculum is ordered.
The great temptation for contemporary Catholic colleges is
simply to drift downstream with the currents of American culture
like their secular counterparts, particularly if, in the search
for academic prestige, they are willing to take their bearings
primarily from those secular institutions and distance themselves
from the teaching Church. The real task - and what takes courage
in our contemporary world - is to steer back to the One who
is the font of truth; to go against the stream and be a sign
of contradiction in a larger academic community that has,
by and large, lost its moorings.
But we can be more than hopeful that giving the Catholic
faith a formative place at the very educational core of our
Catholic colleges is the right course. As Our Lord says, "If
you make my words your home, you will indeed be my disciples;
you will learn the truth, and the truth will make you free."
These words should strengthen our conviction that true freedom
lies in the teaching authority of Christ and His Church -
after all, what enslaves us is not authority, but sin and
ignorance.
Of prime importance in a Catholic college is that the faculty
and administration have a living commitment of mind and will
to the principle that such a college's essential purpose is
to educate under the light of the Faith. They must resolve
to make institutional decisions and to conduct institutional
activities in accord with this principle. If procuring funds,
achieving secular prestige, maintaining personal friendships
and gaining human respect become more important than an institution's
reason for existence, then it will only be a matter of time
before the Catholic faith is no more than a curious vestige
with no effect on its intellectual life.
We at Thomas Aquinas College would rather risk our very existence
than compromise our Catholic character. We are reminded of
our Holy Father's exhortation, following Our Lord's: "Be
not afraid." Our entire experience at Thomas Aquinas
College shows that if we aim to make every important decision
reflect our essential purpose as a Catholic institution of
higher learning, no matter how difficult the material circumstances
may sometimes be, faith and understanding increase, conversions
to the faith abound, religious vocations flourish, and the
institution thrives in carrying out its vital mission.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2001
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