CATHERINE MICHAUD, CSJ, DIRECTOR, MASTER OF ARTS IN THEOLOGY PROGRAM
A quarter century ago the College of St. Catherine made the momentous decision to launch its first graduate program, the Master of Arts Program in Theology. Celebrating this anniversary in the year that St. Catherine becomes a university invites reflection on the revolutionary chain of events that have brought us to this new juncture, but perhaps even more on what lies ahead.
St. Catherine University is emerging on this pluralistic and thoroughly secularized American scene just as the great universities of America and Europe have disencumbered themselves of their religious identities.
The mission statements of so many other "Catholic universities" swell with generic language, vacuous terminology and bland moralism. What will distinguish the mission of St. Catherine University? Will it stir us with its intent to be a vital center of Catholic "faith seeking understanding," of fidelity to its religious roots and vigorous engagement in the Catholic intellectual tradition?
In the words of Michael J. Buckley, S.J., professor of theology and director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College, "The fundamental proposition of the Catholic university is that the religious and the academic are intrinsically related." The university is where the pursuit of truth is the primary occupation. Any effort toward truth and meaning reaches out to the infinite, that is, to God in Christ and the Spirit; and likewise, the dynamism of faith seeks "understanding" — truth. This dual impulse drives the Catholic university. This is its purpose: to allow the dynamism native to each, the life of faith and the academic life, to reach its completion in the other.
May this new University deliver its promise, both religiously and academically.
A quarter century ago the College of St. Catherine made the momentous decision to launch its first graduate program, the Master of Arts Program in Theology. Celebrating this anniversary in the year that St. Catherine becomes a university invites reflection on the revolutionary chain of events that have brought us to this new juncture, but perhaps even more on what lies ahead.
St. Catherine University is emerging on this pluralistic and thoroughly secularized American scene just as the great universities of America and Europe have disencumbered themselves of their religious identities.
The mission statements of so many other "Catholic universities" swell with generic language, vacuous terminology and bland moralism. What will distinguish the mission of St. Catherine University? Will it stir us with its intent to be a vital center of Catholic "faith seeking understanding," of fidelity to its religious roots and vigorous engagement in the Catholic intellectual tradition?
In the words of Michael J. Buckley, S.J., professor of theology and director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College, "The fundamental proposition of the Catholic university is that the religious and the academic are intrinsically related." The university is where the pursuit of truth is the primary occupation. Any effort toward truth and meaning reaches out to the infinite, that is, to God in Christ and the Spirit; and likewise, the dynamism of faith seeks "understanding" — truth. This dual impulse drives the Catholic university. This is its purpose: to allow the dynamism native to each, the life of faith and the academic life, to reach its completion in the other.
May this new University deliver its promise, both religiously and academically.
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