Pope Benedict might be preparing to prune away some Catholic colleges that are CINO. Normally such rumors would be only that: rumors. But this comes from Archbishop Michael Miller, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
Archbishop Michael Miller, the secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, told an audience at the University of Notre Dame that “the measure of an institution can be judged by its Catholic integrity.” He suggested that if a school has lost contact with its Catholic heritage, “it might be a matter of truth and justice that such an institution is no longer upheld.”
The archbishop said that in light of what Pope Benedict has said and written, it is clear that the Pontiff expects Catholic institutions to promote the faith. He said the Pope believes that “it might be better for the Church not to expend its resources trying to preserve institutions if their Catholic identity has been seriously compromised.”
Now this could mean a couple of different things. It could mean that colleges that were founded as Catholic, but are no longer operated by dioceses or religious orders and no longer have a discernible Catholic mission—and indeed don’t want to be Catholic—can give up their official designation as such. Marymount Manhattan College is an example of a formerly Catholic college that gave up the designation.
Or it could be the much more interesting option of actively stripping the name Catholic from colleges that claim to be Catholic but spread heresy and heterodoxy and immorality, like, say, a few Jesuit colleges and universities we could all name. That would certainly be the more dramatic—and I must say, more useful—action to take.
