A widening gap between Catholic youth and their spiritual leaders

Michael O’Loughlin, one of the bloggers at America:The National Catholic Weekly offers reflections and useful links on the widening gap between Catholic laity in America, especially young people, and their spiritual leaders and teachers, especially on homosexuality. His suggestion:

Despite the campaigns, statements, and preaching, lay Catholics lead the nation in support of gay rights. At some point, something has to give. Will the church change its stance on homosexuality? Of course not. Catholicism is the largest denomination in the US, but it is still a tiny sliver of the global church, and attitudes elsewhere, especially in the growing hotspots of global Catholicism, remain rigidly conservative. But church leaders may want to reconsider where they focus their limited time, energy, and resources. The battle for gay rights in this nation increasingly looks like it will be won-eventually-by those who support them. The church can continue to be a vocal minority in opposition to change, alienating the many people who increasingly know, love, and accept gay family members and friends. Or, it can refocus its efforts to highlight the love of God that animates a nourishing, life-giving, freeing faith, and attempt to reach those who need this love most: those who feel marginalized by the church now.

Colleges attend to student spiritual growth

Allie Grasgreen of Inside Higher Ed has a long piece on how Elmhurst College in Illinois and Wagner College in New York are encouraging student interest in spiritual exploration and growth. Ties the two case studies to the findings in Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives by Alexander Astin, Helen Astin, and Jennifer Lindholm (Jossey Bass, 2011).

Secular student groups rapidly expanding

The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription required] has a piece on the rapid growth of a network of groups for secular students, all affiliated with the Secular Student Alliance. Some of these groups are found on religiously affiliated campuses.

The national group expects clubs to be naturalistic (holding that natu­ral things are the only ones humans can understand), economically neutral, civil-rights-minded, and nondiscriminatory. Beyond that, individual groups have a lot of freedom.

The article explores in some detail the club at Cal Lutheran, looking at the experiences of several of its members and the reactions of the larger Cal Lutheran community.

Twenty-Somethings and the Catholic Church

On the always interesting group blog at America: The National Catholic Weekly, Michael O’Loughlin and Tom Beaudoin offer reflections on the conference held in late January at Fordham University called Lost? Twenty-Somethings and the Catholic Church. Here are some highlights taken from O’Loughlin’s post:

The church should avoid the temptation to become a political power player. Surveys repeatedly demonstrate that young adults are turned off from the church when it appears to be shilling for a particular political party. Minor gains in policy may come at a huge cost: losing a generation of Catholics from both sides of the political spectrum.

Race and ethnicity remain sensitive and critical challenges for the Catholic Church, especially with the rapidly growing Latino population. Young Latinos are taught a sense of ownership and belonging in their parishes that is not fostered and developed in traditionally Euro-centric parishes. As a result, these young adults sometimes leave the church altogether when their talents are underutilized in mixed parishes.

The split between church leaders and young adults on issues of gender and sexuality is growing. Young people are more likely to support same-sex marriage and female ordination than their older counterparts and the hierarchy, and many cite these issues as reasons they don’t feel at home in the church. Young adults won’t support any institution where they feel that any group of people is not fully welcome and included.

Beaudoin adds more summary and reflection.

While neither blogger discusses the potential influence of these trends on college students or on Catholic colleges, the importance of the issues for Catholic higher education are obvious.

Chronicle offers useful chart from 2010 CIRP freshman survey

The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription required] offers a useful chart summarizing key findings from the 2010 CIRP freshman survey, including the “current religious preference” of the surveyed students. It also offers a political  profile, including student views on whether gays and lesbians should have the legal right to adopt a child.

2010 CIRP Freshman Survey released

The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has released the Cooperative Institutional Research Program annual study of incoming freshmen. The HIRI website leads with the 25-year record low student self-ratings of emotional health.

Students’ self-ratings of emotional health dropped to a record 25-year low in 2010, according to the 2010 CIRP Freshman Survey, which is based on the responses of over 200,000 first-time full-time students entering four-year colleges across the United States. At the same time we see increases in the percentage of students that report feeling "frequently" overwhelmed as high-school seniors.

Additionally concerning is the sex difference in both cases, with many more incoming women reporting low levels of emotional health and frequent feelings of being overwhelmed than men.

Here is the press release and the “brief report” and the “research brief.” The monograph can be ordered. The survey also reports on self-identified religious affiliation, among other matters of interest to this blog.

Enrollment of Muslim students growing at Catholic colleges

The Washiington Post’s “On Faith” reports on the growing enrollment of Muslim students at Catholic colleges and on the experiences, both positive and negative, of some of the enrolled students.

Report on new book ‘Cultivating the Spirit’

Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm have just published Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives (Jossey Bass, 2011) and Beckie Supiana of The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription may be required] offers a useful summary. The book looks at the relationship between spiritual and religious qualities and outcomes like leadership ability, academic success, and charitable involvement.

How to Succeed in College—A series in America: The National Catholic Weekly

Raymond A. Schroth, S.J.,  an associate editor at America: The National Catholic Weekly, a Jesuit magazine, is doing an engaging series on “How to Succeed in College.” Here’s some background:

Fr. Schroth has taught or served as dean at five Jesuit colleges and universities and taught at three secular universities since he was ordained in 1967. Among his nine books are Fordham: A History and Memoir, Dante to Dead Man Walking, on books everyone should read, and The American Jesuits: A History. This post on "How To Succeed in College" is the first in a series that will appear every two weeks.

Here are the first four posts:

How to Succeed In College I

How to Succeed in College II: Make Friends

How to Succeed in College III: Studytime Strategies

How to Succeed in College IV: Cardinal Newman

Recommended for students and faculty, and not just those at Catholic institutions.

UC Irvine upholds punishment of Muslim Student Union for organized heckling of speaker

The University of California at Irvine has upheld its decision to suspend the Muslim Student Union for organizing heckling during the February speech of the Israeli ambassador to the United States. The suspension has been reduced to an academic quarter, not the originally recommended full year. Muslim students denounced the action as “collective punishment.”

[Los Angeles Times via Inside Higher Ed]