Advice so good, it is bound to be ignored by those who need it most.

The Vatican tries to teach American Catholic "education professionals" how to be Catholic.

Good luck with that.

Catholic News Service (via Catholic Online): U.S. Catholic colleges need to focus on faith’s identity, Vatican official says

BRIGHTON, Mass. (CNS) – One of the greatest contributions Catholic institutions of higher learning can offer society is their "uncompromising Catholicity," the secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education told an audience that included presidents and faculty members from several Boston-area Catholic colleges.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller stressed the importance the Vatican places on America's Catholic colleges and universities in an address Sept. 11 at Jesuit-run Boston College in Brighton.

"Not unaware of this country's superpower status and despite the fact that only 6 percent of the world's Catholics are American, the Holy See recognizes the unique role of the United States in the globalized world of higher education," he said.

"The health of the American institutions matters a great deal to the Vatican," he said.

The address was sponsored by Boston College's Church in the 21st Century Center. The center describes itself as "a resource for the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States, engaging in critical issues facing the Catholic community and advancing contemporary reflection on the Catholic intellectual tradition."

Archbishop Miller focused on the need for U.S. Catholic universities to embrace their Catholic identity and to foster an integral humanism, counterbalancing those institutions that he said fragment knowledge and leave out any reference to the faith.

He challenged Catholic colleges and universities to be the leaven of academic renewal in this country.

He stressed that history shows the importance of religion and faith in the formation of culture, and criticized any view that would ignore or deny the relationship between faith and culture, calling that an "error of perspective."

Catholic colleges and universities must ensure the role of faith is addressed in academia and "in society at large," he said.

The archbishop devoted about half of his presentation to the need for these Catholic institutions to stress their Catholic identity, saying it must be an integral part of their mission.

According to the archbishop, the Vatican began to realize the importance of emphasizing this Catholic identity after 1968, when Pope Paul VI's encyclical, "Humanae Vitae" ("Of Human Life") on married love and procreation, met with widespread opposition among many Catholics in academia over its reaffirmation of church teaching prohibiting artificial contraception.

Quoting extensively from documents and speeches by Pope John Paul II as well as Pope Benedict XVI, the archbishop said the greatest challenge facing Catholic higher education in the United States is strengthening its Catholic identity and ensuring that identity plays an important role in all aspects of a school, including decision-making.

The Catholic witness must be institutional, he added.

Quoting from a recent speech by Pope Benedict, Archbishop Miller said that "a Catholic identity is in no way reductive but rather exalts the university."

The archbishop also urged Catholic colleges and universities to be like good Samaritans, becoming "academic Samaritans" who share resources with their counterparts in the developing world in need of such assistance.
Archbishop Miller reminded his audience gathered at a Jesuit institution of the purpose of Catholic education as understood by the Jesuits' founder, St. Ignatius: Catholic education aims to "help make God our creator and lord better known and served."

"It is only by the fidelity to the Ignatius vision that Boston College will be able to save its place among the best Catholic universities in America and in the world," Archbishop Miller said.

A couple of days later in Omaha, Neb., at Creighton University, which is also run by the Jesuits, Archbishop Miller focused on the importance of the Jesuit role in higher education. There are more than 177 Jesuit institutions in the world; 28 of them are in the United States.

"It is hard, perhaps impossible, to imagine a flourishing church in America without this network of higher education institutions for which the Society of Jesus is responsible," Archbishop Miller said Sept. 13. "Catholics around the globe owe the society an enormous debt of gratitude."

He called on Jesuit colleges and universities to embrace the original Ignatian spirit and remember their Catholicity.

"The church wants, indeed, it needs you to be distinctively Jesuit," he said. "Institutions born from the heart of the church, like Jesuit institutions, must continue to be attentive to their specific Catholic identity."

Archbishop Miller also talked about the importance of a good working relationship between universities and the local church.

"The local bishop is not an external agent, but he is a participant of the university's life," he said. "It is the bishop's responsibility to remain vigilant while respecting the university's autonomy as an institution with its own statutes."

He also said that "every Catholic university ought to reflect and to teach justice. A passion for justice should be enshrined at the heart of what every university values most – curriculum."