WOF 429: Is There a Catholic Antidote to the Crisis in Higher Education?

WOF Show Podcast - Word on Fire

Dr. Matthew Petrusek

According to Fortune magazine, overall undergraduate enrollment experienced the steepest rate of decline on record from 2019 to 2022, and it has only worsened since then. There are several explanations, but one cause is entirely self-imposed: most universities and colleges have now replaced education with ideology, subverting the search for truth with political indoctrination. Today, we discuss the ideological takeover of higher education and how the Catholic conception of the university can help provide an antidote.

A listener asks, if priests are meant to represent Jesus, are nuns supposed to represent Mary?

00:00 | Intro
01:47 | Catholic social thought tradition and the higher education crisis
03:50 | Differences between Catholic and secular universities
04:50 | Seeking while knowing the truth
07:33 | Resisting relativism
09:30 | Catholic staff ratios for Catholic universities
11:16 | Segregating Catholic identity
13:51 | Academic freedom at Catholic universities
15:46 | Dicy freedom of speech claims
17:06 | Catholic universities and male participation
18:37 | Higher education and vocational training
20:35 | High costs and accessibility
21:51 | What can we do to course-correct universities that have lost their way?
24:50 | Listener question
26:01 | Word on Fire Institute

Links

• “Ivy League Presidents and the Collapse of Moral Reasoning” by Bishop Barron
• Statistic on men in 4-year schools: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/12/18/fewer-young-men-are-in-college-especially-at-4-year-schools/
• Learn more about the Word on Fire Institute: Institute.WordonFire.org

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