Fisher-More College closing May 5 April 7, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, foolishness, General Catholic, Latin Mass, sadness, scandals, self-serving, Tradition.trackback
That’s the latest story I’ve heard from some folks very well placed to know. I do not believe the official announcement has been made, yet, but the financial problems at Fisher-More College have developed to the point – as many insiders thought they would – that the college will be forced to close its campus on May 5.
From what I understand, the hope is to keep the college open as an online-only college but Fisher-More does not have accreditation for such. In addition, the accrediting agency has previously only granted accreditation to online programs that develop from a real, physical college. It is unknown whether accreditation can be obtained for an online-only school.
There has been so much confusion and outright disinformation put out regarding this situation. I can say straight up that if Fisher-More College does shut its doors in a month, it will have absolutely nothing to do with Bishop Olson’s decision to deny permission for the College to offer the TLM, which I love and cherish as much as anyone. This is an entirely prudential and financial matter. A decision was made by the college’s president, Michael King, some time ago to hope against hope that funding could be found to support a facility well beyond the college’s current or historical financial means. No matter how good a deal was given on this facility, it was always way, way beyond what the college could afford, long-term, barring a literal miracle in terms of a massive and sustained increase of donations into 7 figures.
As an example, some well off Catholic could take a liking to my family, and offer to mark down their $10 million mansion and lakeside property in the country to $4 million. What an incredible deal that would be! They could even offer to delay payment on the property for a year. But the fact would remain that, barring winning the lottery or something like that (which, I don’t even play, as it is state-run gambling), that “incredible deal” would still result in our bankruptcy, and in short order, because it would be immensely beyond our ability to afford.
No matter how sweet the deal was, it would be profoundly imprudent for our family to enter into such an arrangement. One does not enter financial arrangements based on hopes of miracles. Many parents, faculty, administrators, former board members, etc., of both Fisher More College and Fisher More Academy felt the property FMC acquired last year was equally imprudent and would result in financial disaster. It appears those prognostications – made painfully, sadly – will be born out very soon. There are numerous details, of course, but I think it best not to go into them. The point is, FMC as a physical place of learning will close within a month.
It’s a very sad thing. Ecclesiasticus comes to mind. FMC was always a very small college, but it was faithful and for many years provided a top-notch Catholic liberal arts education. Whether it continues as an online place of learning or not, something significant will have been lost with this closing. The most tragic aspect is that this end was completely avoidable, at least until this imprudent arrangement was entered into.
So, given that this closing was seen by so many as inevitable, Bishop Olson’s action only blocked the Mass to a dwindling number of denizens of a dying Catholic college for a period of three months. There were no priests to offer the TLM there, anyway, so the number of Masses he really caused to be cancelled or denied could be zero. As for “denying the Mass to an entire college” line, we’re talking about a handful (maybe 8 or 10 souls) who relied on FMC for their primary TLM and couldn’t reach any easily available options elsewhere.
In closing, beware utopian visions. They almost always result in unhappy endings.
I will have comments open but if discussion deteriorates I may close them.
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A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 
This is sad…. I wont get into a nutty over this one, but I will just say it’s very sad, especially when “catholic” schools like Georgetown and San Diego State et al are doing so well…..
Yes, it is. There are a lot of broken hearts. There were some very good folks there, and they wanted to do very good things. But for certain decisions, they still could.
San Diego State is a public school, a campus of one of the two state-wide systems (University of California and California State University).
You no doubt are referring to the University of San Diego, a private and nominally Catholic school.
I thought it was sad to hear about the closing a few years ago of Southern Catholic College in Atlanta, which was a grassroots type college. I think Magdalen in New Hampshire was struggling until about four years ago when a newer president was hired. Now called the College of St. Mary Magdalen, enrollment has doubled.
Like John, I wish schools like De Paul in Chicago, St. Joseph College in Philadelphia, St. Mary’s in San Antonio, and a few others would either clean up or take the Catholic label off. I am pleased that schools like Benedictine in Kansas, Catholic University of America in DC, and the University of St. Thomas in Houston have had some positive turnover over the last 15 years, as has Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.
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Tantamergo, consider sending your kids to Christendom College in Virginia.
Chicago, St. Joseph College in Philadelphia, St
When I attended a Catholic college in San Antonio in the late 1980’s, there were several students who complained about having to take six hours of theology and nine hours of philosophy in order to graduate. My usual response to these complaints was, “if you do not want to take theology and philosophy, what is stopping you from enrolling at UTSA across town? Theology and philosophy (of course) were not required courses at the University of Texas at San Antonio.”
That turned a few heads.
Well said. Our oldest son will be graduating from Thomas More College in NH next month before heading to seminary in the fall. Our second son is at Chrsitendom. We have been very pleased with these schools & their faithfulness to The Magisterium.
Very sad. It’s a shame that a Catholic donor can give the Archdiocese of Atlanta $15M for an archbishop’s residence, but a staunchly Catholic college closes for lack of funds. Very sad, indeed.
Get your facts straight. THe Achdiocese recevied a bequest for $15 Million that was used for a variety of purposes: schools, endowing parishes, and other needs within the diocese as well as for the home parsih of the donor, Christ the King Cathedral. The $2.2 Million dollar residence of the Archbishop is under discussion and likely to be revised downward as a result of concerns expressed by the community to which the Archbishop has responded with great humility and care. It is certainly possible to discuss the various ways the moneymight have been spent and reasonable people will disagree but the fact of the mater is that you have grossly misstated the facts in a way that puts both the Archdiocese and the Archbishop–not to mention the donor–in a bad light. It is uncharitable at best.
Staunchly Catholic ? Not exactly and it was NOT a catholic institution.. only a college within the geographic area of The Diocese of Fort Worth, although they had a listing in the diocesan directory. Not only that but the views that were expressed at the college were becoming increasingly disturbing. There is a Latin mass at a church just two miles away from the present site of Fisher More College. By the way..
The 15 M. was given to the diocese for charitable works.. not for a posh house for the bishop.
I think it is always dangerous to comment publicly about situations where one does not have adequate knowledge. This is particularly true where the following apply: 1) the commenter has a specific agenda and fits events into a pre-designed template; 2) the reputation of real people can suffer harm thereby; and, 3) simple people of good will are easily led into scandal.
All three apply here.
And really, does it matter whether one risk the grave sin of calumny or the grave sin of detraction?
Just come out and say it. Your comment could be taken any of a number of ways.
You seem to be great on publishing negative news. My question is why are you coupling the two issues? Whether fisher more is solvent or not, Olson has NO RIGHT TO FORBID THE MASS!
Well, claim that all you like, the matter will be perfectly moot in one month.
I never said I felt the action was justified and certainly not charitable, just that a mountain was being made out a very small molehill. That Mass was attended by only a few dozen, and towards the end the college even had to make attendance mandatory and grade-affecting in order to get students to come, so poisonous had the situation surrounding the college become.
There are indications Bishop Olson is moving to improve the availability of the TLM in Fort Worth right now. I can’t say much beyond that, but the idea that he has some animus towards it will turn out to be unfounded, I believe.
Saw the title and knew you had stepped in it…. Again…. Very courageous…
He absolutely did have not only the right but the obligation – the parish/institution offering TLM is not supposed to do so in “ideological rejection” of the OF, which is still the OF. So if your institution is stating or implying that the OF is not valid, you forfeit your right to celebrate TLM.
Ordinarily, no, but … he does have the right to impose such restrictions when a priest of dubious bonafides is invited there, whether to celebrate Mass or not, and when speakers are invited who question the legitimacy of the reformed liturgy. (They can parse their words in public all they want, but that’s what it comes down to.) He also has certain dominion over a private oratory that would not apply to a parish.
There’s no compromise with the Vatican 2 agenda. Get on board or get out is the message.
Precisely. Either you are a Catholic or you aren’t.
Reblogged this on Karmalight.
“quality education” and “for many years” are questionable terms but it is sad that it ended this way, if Michael King was not such an egomaniac and more prudent I believe that this venture would have had a much greater chance for success but alas no.
How about relative terms?
[…] it has been reported (coincidentally, by the same “Dallas Area Catholics” blog I cited yesterday) that controversial traditionalist (more on that in a moment) Fisher More College will be […]
The misinformation about Fisher More College is annoying and sad. The College of St. Thomas More was founded in 1981.. the year that Fisher More college claims as its foundation. The Fisher More College is a parasite which infiltrated its host (The College of St Thomas More ) and sought from the beginning to destroy its life. The faculty and students were dismissed or frightened away and others put in place. A small really Catholic College was destroyed (razed to the ground, actually, .. even the brand new architect designed chapel ..there are pictures on the web of the destruction) and perverted from the original vision of the founders. The Bishop of Fort Worth had every right to forbid the Latin Mass there as the views of invited speakers ( and therefore probably the views of the administration) were worrying to say the least .. but certainly not in conformity with The church. It was not a recognized college in the dioces but rather only a society with an entry in the diocesan directory. The Mass was the only area of jurisdiction the bishop had … and he certainly did not ban all masses .. but it was not acceptable for the authorized Mass rites to be used. The priest who was saying the Latin Mass there had, at the least, dubious authority to exercise his ministry and had been forbidden to exercise his priesthood in the Diocese of fort Worth by the previous bishop. All the rather unpleasant activities were rampant when the previous bishop was translated to California… while the cats away.. the mice play. This four year old institution was built on misery, deceit and a philosophy that is in direct opposition to the Church. I believe that in God’s good time evil does not flourish.. and those faculty and students of the College of St. Thomas More who were most injured in this catastrophe will not only be vindicated but encouraged that their suffering at least gave them a first class classical education and introduced them to some of the great contemporary scholars…. which is so much more than can be said of Fisher More college.
Are there any other Traditional Catholic colleges like this out there?
I’m just wondering,..
To varying degrees, yes. Christendom is not traditional, per se, but tends that way and is very faithful. Benedictine is very solid, but probably less overtly traditional. St. Mary’s in Kansas is operated by the SSPX and, of course, completely traditional, but they do not have accreditation for some reason.
Magdalene College in New Hampshire. It is pretty much a traditional school but I think the NO will be offered at times. Thomas Aquinas in CA is also on the traditional side.
Oh, DUH! Wyoming Catholic College. Again, not 100% traditional but really, really leans in that direction. Very reverent Mass, lots of TLMs, but there will be NO’s, too.
That’s the shame of FMC closing, it could have been the first really traditional college out there with 100% daily TLM, but there were really bad administrative decisions and they started going off into questionable theology.
Here is a list of probably all the better Catholic colleges for English-speaking students. Not all of these are in the US. And most of them are not traditional. Some aren’t even fully faithful, as in, not having heretic professors or teaching error. But it’s a decent place to start.
http://www.catholicity.com/links/130/
University of Dallas is strong, not traditional, but strongly Catholic in its curriculum and its Theology faculty is top notch and faithful. there are many places in the area for the TLM so this is never wanting to the students in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
I was going to mention UD. It is not traditional, and there are problems, but the area (Irving) is very Catholic and you can assist at probably the largest and most vibrant and growing TLM parish in the world. It’s about 5 minutes away.
Tantamergo, thanks for your observances on Christendom and the College of St. Mary Magdalen. I know both schools have guidelines for students on proper attire and behavior. I also know that Christendom has a TLM on Sunday said by an FSSP priest.
Other schools like Georgetown are similar to state schools, where a professor or a T.A. does not care whether or not a student skips class, or spends Thursday night at a bar, and the T.A. wonders why class is empty on Friday.
Thank you, Tantum! 🙂
As a graduate of Christendom and one who lives down the road, I am surprised at the claim that there is a TLM offered on Sundays. I do not see it listed on the schedule, have never heard of it happening, and know the president of the college has always been opposed to there being multiple Sunday Masses. It has always been one community Sunday Mass, Latin NO. I often see students at the Sunday TLM I attend at our parish in Front Royal said by our parochial vicar. They do have one TLM a week on the schedule: 7:30 am Tuesdays.