Land O' Lakes at 50: The State of Catholic Higher Education
Various Speakers and Panelists
Date: October 11, 2017
Co-sponsored with听The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Office of the Dean of听Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, and the听Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties听at md传媒国产剧 College.
Abstract
In July 1967 a small group of Catholic educators and religious leaders convened at a conference center in the tiny town of Land O鈥 Lakes, Wisconsin to discuss how North American colleges and universities could participate in the post-Vatican II renewal of the Church. They produced an historic memorandum, later known simply as "Land O鈥 Lakes,鈥 that outlined a new understanding of relations between Catholic universities and the Church hierarchy in areas including governance, academic freedom, and academic theology. This document proved to be both influential and controversial, and the path it laid down continues to have a profound impact on Catholic higher education.
To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Land O鈥 Lakes, the Boisi Center is convening a group of distinguished scholars and university presidents for a public conference at md传媒国产剧 College in October 2017 to reflect on the impact this agreement had on Catholic higher education, the Catholic intellectual tradition in America, and, more broadly, the relationship between religion and American public life.
Speaker Bios
Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D., is a longtime leader in higher education and philanthropy with a history of executive positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States. The tenth president of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, and its first lay president, he joined the college in July of 2013 after serving as president of Marian University in Wisconsin. Dr. DiSalvo also serves on the boards of leading national higher education organizations like the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), where he is a member of the Board of Directors representing the northeastern states and leads the Committee on Student Aid.
Dr. Massimo Faggioli听is professor in the department of theology and religious studies at Villanova University. He writes regularly for Italian and English-speaking journals and magazines on the Church, religion and politics, has a column in听La Croix International, and is contributing editor for听Commonweal.听His most recent book in English is听Catholicism and Citizenship: Political Cultures of the Church in the Twenty-First Century听(Liturgical Press听2017).
Michael Hemesath is the 13th听president and first lay president of Saint John鈥檚 University in Collegeville, MN.听 Prior to returning to his alma mater, he served on the economics faculty of Carleton College for 23 years.
Elected in 2005 as the University of Notre Dame鈥檚 17th president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., has devoted himself to fostering the University鈥檚 unique place in academia, the Church, our nation, and the world. A philosopher trained in theology and a member of Notre Dame鈥檚 Department of Philosophy since 1990, Fr. Jenkins earned undergraduate and advanced degrees from Notre Dame, a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University, and a master of divinity and licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology. As president, Fr. Jenkins has been committed to combining teaching and research excellence with a cultivation of the deeper purposes of Catholic higher education. While pursuing academic distinction, he has brought renewed emphasis to Notre Dame鈥檚 mission, rooted in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University鈥檚 founding community, to educate the whole person 鈥 mind, body, and spirit 鈥 to do good in the world.
Gregory Kalscheur, S.J. is the Dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at md传媒国产剧 College. Fr. Kalscheur joined the faculty of the md传媒国产剧 College Law School in 2003, and from August 2012 to May 2014 he served as the Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Faculty Development in the College of Arts and Sciences. He received his A.B. in 1985 from Georgetown University and his J.D. in 1988 from the University of Michigan. After law school, he clerked for Judge Kenneth F. Ripple, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and worked as a litigator at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C.
William Leahy, S.J., a member of the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, became the 25 th president of md传媒国产剧 College in July, 1996. He came to md传媒国产剧 College from Marquette University, where he served as a faculty member for six years and then as Executive Vice President. Father Leahy holds a Ph.D in history from Stanford University, an MA in US history from Saint Louis University, and master鈥檚 degrees in divinity and sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. He is the author of听Adapting to America: Catholics, Jesuits and Higher Education in the Twentieth Century, as well as scholarly articles on religious and educational history in the United States. Father Leahy is a trustee of Santa Clara and Creighton universities and the Ecclesiastical Faculty at md传媒国产剧 College.
Dr. Linda M. LeMura became the 14th听president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., on听July 1, 2014. She is the first female layperson to ascend to the presidency of a Jesuit institution in the United States.听Before being named president, Dr. LeMura served for seven years as the College鈥檚 provost and vice president for academic affairs. She joined the College in 2003 as dean of arts and sciences.听Prior to Le Moyne, she served as a professor, graduate program director and associate dean at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include pediatric obesity, pediatric applied physiology, lipid and energy metabolism.听A听summa cum laude听graduate of Niagara University, she received an M.S. and Ph.D. in applied physiology from Syracuse University. She and her husband, Dr. Lawrence Tanner, a professor of environmental systems science at Le Moyne, have a daughter, Emily.
Since his inauguration as the University鈥檚 24thpresident in July 2005, Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J. has led Loyola University Maryland with vision and dedication. A native of Massachusetts, he formerly served at a sister Jesuit institution, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., as assistant dean and associate professor of Religious Studies. Fr. Linnane holds an A.B. degree from md传媒国产剧 College, an M.A. from Georgetown University鈥檚 department of government, and a master鈥檚 degree and Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He earned master鈥檚 degrees from the Yale department of Religious Studies, as well as a Ph.D. in Religious Studies. In 2015, he received a Doctor of Humane Letters,听honoris causa,听from Loyola University Maryland, in recognition of his first 10 years of service at Loyola鈥檚 president.
Mark Massa, S.J., is the director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at md传媒国产剧 College, where he is also professor of Theology. Massa received his Ph.D. in American religion from Harvard University, and is the author of seven books. His most recent book,听The Structure of Theological Revolutions: Catholic Debates About Natural Law,听is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. His monograph published in 1999,听Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team,听received the Alpha Sigma Nu Award for Best Work in Theology for 1999-2000. His ongoing area of research is American Catholic faith and culture of the past century.
John McGreevy received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He joined Notre Dame鈥檚 faculty in 1997, coming from Harvard University. He served as chair of the History department from 2002 鈥 2008, and since 2008 has served as I.A. O鈥橲haughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. He is the author of three books. The first,听Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth Century Urban North听was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1996. The second,听Catholicism and American Freedom: A History听was published by W.W. Norton in 2003. The third,听American Jesuits and the World, was published by Princeton University Press in spring of 2016. He has received major fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louisville Institute and the Erasmus Institute, and has published numerous articles and reviews in the听Journal of American History,听Commonweal,听the听New Republic,听the Chicago Tribune听and other venues.
Professor James O'Toole is the Clough Millennium Chair in History at md传媒国产剧 College. He teaches courses in the history of American religion and the history of American Catholicism. His interests lie in the history of religious practice and popular devotional life. He is the author, most recently, of听The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America听(Belknap, 2008) and he has just completed a new history of md传媒国产剧 College.
Father Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, JD, JCD, began serving as president of Franciscan University of Steubenville on June 1, 2013. A Third Order Regular Franciscan Friar, Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, he was ordained a priest in 2006. Father Sean obtained a doctorate in Canon Law from The Catholic University of America in 2009, writing a dissertation titled 鈥Ex corde Ecclesiae: A Canonical Commentary on Catholic Universities 鈥楩rom the Heart of the Church鈥 to Catholic Universities.鈥 Before entering the Franciscan Third Order Regular, Father Sean obtained a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985, and in 1990, a juris doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. His law practice in Sacramento and Pittsburgh focused on healthcare litigation, primarily with the representation of hospitals and physicians. An assistant professor in the School of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America (2009-2012) and a professor of theology at Franciscan University (2012-Present), Father Sean concentrates his research and canonical consulting in the areas of Consecrated Life and the Teaching Office of the Church.
Erik Owens is associate director of the Boisi Center and associate professor of the practice in theology and international studies at md传媒国产剧 College. His research explores a variety of intersections between religion and public life, with particular attention to the challenge of fostering the common good of a religiously diverse society. He is the co-editor of three books:听Gambling: Mapping the American Moral Landscape听(2009),听Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning听(2004) and听The Sacred and the Sovereign: Religion and International Politics听(2003), the last of which was called a "must read" by听Foreign Affairs听in 2009. At the American Academy of Religion, he chairs the听Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion听and leads its听Public Scholars Project. He received his Ph.D. in religious ethics听from the University of Chicago, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Duke University.
Margaret O鈥橞rien Steinfels is a writer and editor. She has edited a number of magazines and journals including听Commonweal,听Church,听Christianity & Crisis, and听The Hastings Center Report. She is the author of听Who鈥檚 Minding the Children: The History and Politics of Day Care in America听and editor of听American Catholics and Civic Engagement: A Distinctive Voice, (Sheed and Ward, 2003) and听American Catholics and American Culture: Tradition and Resistance, (Sheed and Ward, 2004). Those volumes were the result of听 鈥淎merican Catholics in the Public Square,鈥 a three-year Commonweal Foundation project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Her reviews and essays have appeared in听America, Dissent, the听Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The听New Republic, The New York Times, Slate听and the听Washington Post Book Review. She retired as co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture in 2012, and currently writes a column for听Commonweal听and blogs at dotCommonweal.
Peter Steinfels has been an editor at听Commonweal听and a reporter and columnist at the听New York Times. With Margaret O'Brien Steinfels he founded and directed the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. A Ph.D. in history (Columbia), he has been a visiting professor at Georgetown, Notre Dame, Dayton, and St. John's in Queens. He is the author of听A People Adrift: The Crisis of Roman Catholicism in America.听
Event Photos
Event Recap
On October 11, the Boisi Center hosted 鈥淟and O鈥 Lakes at 50: The State of Higher Education.鈥 This conference, co-sponsored with The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Office of the Dean of Morrissey College of the Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties, marked the 50th anniversary of the seminal document, signed in 1967 by a group of Catholic educators and religious leaders, that outlined a new understanding of relations between Catholic universities and the Church hierarchy in areas including governance, academic freedom, and academic theology. A dozen distinguished panelists鈥攊ncluding seven sitting presidents of Catholic universities鈥攇athered to discuss this influential and controversial document. Keynote addresses were given by University of Notre Dame historian John T. McGreevy and md传媒国产剧 College president William P. Leahy, S.J.听
The morning鈥檚 keynote address was given by John T. McGreevy, I. A. O鈥橲haughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. McGreevy noted three concurrent shifts within Catholic higher education that contextualize the Land O鈥 Lakes statement. First, the influence of Vatican II and the papal encyclical听Gaudium et Spes听cannot be understated. Just as Pope Paul VI called for the Catholic Church to engage the modern world, the Land O鈥 Lakes statement called for Catholic universities to modernize. The alternative to modernization, the argument went, was mediocrity.
Second, Catholic universities were increasingly turning to lay governance and faculty consultation regarding curriculum. While seeking to preserve their distinctive charisms, the attendees recognized that college faculty, many of whom had neither attended a Catholic university nor worked at one previously, held greater allegiance to their academic disciplines than to the Church.
Third, the Land O鈥 Lakes meeting was but one of many such gatherings convened around the world. Similar meetings in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines, and France resulted in similar documents that would establish the vitality of Catholic education, especially in what was then called the 鈥淭hird World,鈥 now the 鈥淕lobal South.鈥
During a question and answer session, audience members raised issues of the document鈥檚 reach and the make-up of the Land O鈥 Lakes meeting鈥檚 attendees. McGreevy suggested that the document itself was of modest significance because it was vague, but its drafting began a wider movement to strengthen the vision of American Catholic higher education.
The first panel, moderated by James O鈥橳oole, the Clough Millennium Chair in History at md传媒国产剧 College, reflected the changing demographics of Catholic university leadership. The panel鈥檚 discussion focused on some of the institutional changes facing the administrations of Catholic colleges and universities. John Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, started by describing the complexity of running a modern institution of higher learning and the necessity of lay leadership. Le Moyne College president Linda LeMura noted that Le Moyne faces competition from new tuition-free state schools in New York. She warned her peers that free education will come sooner or later to the whole nation, and Catholic institutions must demonstrate what they add that public Ivies do not. Sean Sheridan, T.O.R., president of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, noted a revitalization of Franciscan University鈥檚 heritage in recent years, which helped define what it means to be both Catholic and Franciscan. Michael Hemesath, president of St. John鈥檚 University in Minnesota noted that the school stresses its Benedictine roots despite an increasingly lay faculty. To this end, all of the panelists spoke to the distinctive curricula of Catholic education and Catholic social teachings, the formations of students, and mission-oriented hiring. Journalist and author Peter Steinfels noted the exchange of quantity for quality of theological education.
The second panel was moderated by Erik Owens, associate director of the Boisi Center, and associate professor of the practice of theology. This panel addressed the role of the university as 鈥渃ritical reflective intelligence鈥 and the Catholic intellectual tradition. md传媒国产剧 College鈥檚 Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., Dean of the md传媒国产剧 College Morrissey College of the Arts and Sciences stressed the Catholic focus on the education of the whole person and respecting the human dignity of students. Brian Linnane, S.J., president of Loyola University Maryland, praised the university as a place which can examine and regenerate the Church in response to its public failings. The panelists also expressed some anxiety regarding the state of Catholic intellectuals. Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, brought a European perspective, noting that Europe is grappling with a Catholic intellectualism dangerously influenced by a far right political vision. Margaret O鈥橞rien Steinfels commented that university autonomy has distanced the bishops from the intellectual centers of Catholicism; few bishops have experience with the academic freedom or rigorous theological inquiry that characterize higher education. To this point, St. Anselm College president Steven DiSalvo stressed the importance of regular communication between colleges and the local bishops.
William P. Leahy, S.J., president of md传媒国产剧 College, gave a concluding keynote address, which examined the legacy of the Land O鈥 Lakes statement, most readily visible in its use in later documents, notably听Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
Following Father Leahy鈥檚 keynote, the sitting presidents returned for an extended question and answer session. Audience members raised issues of the cost of Catholic education. One attendee, whose four children all attended Catholic colleges, expressed appreciation for the commitment to academic excellence and Catholic values.
Read More
Audio
, National Catholic Register staff
Articles
Stephen Beale,听, National Catholic Register
Stephen Beale,听, National Catholic Register
Anthony Esolen,听, National Catholic Register
John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.,听, America Magazine
John Garvey,听, National Catholic Register
David J. O'Brien,听, md传媒国产剧 College Magazine
Patrick Reilly,听, National Catholic Register
Michael Sean Winters,听, National Catholic Reporter
Michael Sean Winters,听, National Catholic Reporter
Video
Cushwa Center, Notre Dame University,听