A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

The hell experienced by orthodox Catholics in leftist “Catholic” theology departments November 12, 2015

This article by Dorothy Cummings McLean is a bit old – two weeks – but it’s an extremely valuable post relating what it’s like for even a “centre-left” Canadian theology student at a major Jesuit “Catholic” college theology department – in this case, Boston College.  Her tale confirms others I’ve heard from more outwardly conservative souls, men with STLs from the Angelicum in Rome who have a hard time getting a job as a youth minister because NO ostensibly Catholic college would ever touch anyone so hideous as to be “conservative” and faithful, or women who graduated summa cum laude from highly reputable universities who are barred admittance to theology programs because they actually adhere to the Doctrine of the Faith.  The leftists populating the Catholic academia today are both lazy and ignorant, and they are terrified of well-formed orthodox students.  Beyond their easy (and very tired) leftist shibboleths, they have literally nothing to offer, save for personal immorality and dedication to leftist political agitation.

Some of the more troubling excerpts:

The brain-blowing combination of asserting that what is not Catholic teaching is somehow Catholic teaching and then shrieking like a frightened schoolgirl when the word “heresy” is uttered is what the American Catholic/Jesuit theological academy is all about, and I should know. I was in it for two of the most miserable years of my life………

…….That was what it was like for the next two years. Outrageous gossip about professors and theologians I respected as heroes. (“So, Dorothy, does X have AIDS?” “Y was a drunk, of course.” “I hope it’s true Z had a mistress.”) Conspiracy. (“Tell me, Dorothy, what does Professor Q say in his classes about….”) Outrageous remarks. (“Bishops are thugs!”) Boasting. (“And I said, ‘Senator…’”) And paranoia. Insane paranoia. (“Dorothy, don’t write that down!“)

To my amazement, I discovered that a professor I admired was nervous of me because he thought I was “conservative”—not a good thing to be in the Boston College theology department, let me tell you. (“But I thought I was center-left”, I wailed to a friend from home.) And after a visiting priest-professor had a neurotic hissy fit aimed at me before all my classmates—because I questioned his view that the ordained priesthood and Sunday Mass attendance were ultimately doomed—and I complained to the priest-professor in charge of this class, he suggested that this man, too, was afraid of me……..

……..What I did not know, when I blithely applied to study with them, was that the Boston College professors whose books I had admired did not publish what they really thought. I had no idea, for example, that one woman professor was all in favour of women’s ordination until I turned up in Boston…….. The delicate balance I had admired, the appeal to both liberals and conservatives while sticking to the bounds of orthodoxy, was just a clever trick.  The profs would say what they liked in class to their students; tape recorders were, of course, banned.

There was also a lot of theological arm-twisting. In one scarring incident, a pastoral theology professor showed up to my PhD seminar class with two large female henchmen-students and photocopies of an article about Archbishop Sean O’Malley’s obedience to the Roman directive not to allow Catholic adoption agencies to give children to same-sex couples. The topic of the seminar turned out to be, “How do we convince the Archbishop to disobey Rome?” As I tearfully (stupid tears!) defended a child’s right to a mother and a father, priest-colleagues stared silently at the table. [I’m going to say something harsh: but aside from some traditional exceptions, I would rate cowardice, moral, physical, etc.,, as one of the defining characteristics of the post-conciliar priesthood.  Bravery in the face of opposition is a defining masculine characteristic.  Very few priests have it]

U.S. Senators—particularly Catholic Senators—consulted the moral theologians of Boston College on a regular basis. One of my Jesuit professors, to the dismay of another Jesuit professor who ranted to me about it, testified that opposing gay marriage was not in keeping with Catholic tradition. This, I imagine, was technically true, since there had never been gay marriage to oppose before. But, naturally, that was another clever trick. [Catholic professors, even priests, supposedly dedicated to getting to the truth, instead offer sophistries and intellectual sleight of hand to advance their political-cultural agenda – IOW, their true religion.]

My theologate in Canada was run for the students; the theology department of Boston College was run for the professors.Students were pawns to be collected and either groomed to continue the professors’ intellectual legacy at other Jesuit colleges, pumped for information about other professors, or bored senseless by Big Names sitting firmly on their laurels….. [are you surprised that those whose very existence as Catholic theologians is a lie would have scruples of immoral behavior in many other areas?]

………“We don’t like to call it a ‘Catholic’ theology department,” said a professor to me while I was there. But, yes, they do. They do when it’s convenient…….

……What would Saint Ignatius have thought, I always wondered, of the one million dollar building named after him? What would he have thought of the $40,000-a-year undergrad tuition-and-board? What would he, who told his Jesuits not to take money for their teaching, have thought about the millions made off the bodies of the football players? Boston College was founded for the poor Irish Catholics of South Boston, but the only Southie accents I heard came from the lips of one ancient retired Jesuit, a secretary and the groundsmen toiling over the landscape so beautiful, manicured and dead.

It’s a bitter experience many Catholics go through, as they try to grow beyond the minimalist offering they are presented with in the vast majority of parishes, finding out that the Church today is not what she is supposed to be.  Quite the contrary, the discover the Church is not only possessed of a few shortcomings, but is in so many instances – in her offices, in her departments, in her priests, in her bishops – the very opposite of what Christ intends for her.  This process of painful discovery, forced on by spiritual starvation, has led millions out of the Church.  Who knows how many other potential converts have been turned away, when they seek to learn what the Catholic Church is all about from a priest or professor, only to be told they’re better off where they’re at now.

Because a lot of priests, and a lot more professors, feel the Catholic Church has nothing to offer anyone, except a cozy career and a launching pad for leftist agitation.  And the benefits are pretty good.  The copier works.  In short, it’s far more about them, than it is the Church, and its sure isn’t about the good of souls, about which they couldn’t give two @#%$s.

I mean, why would they?  Most don’t even believe in an after life (which is why they strain for “heaven” on earth), and if they do, they’re invincibly convinced everyone (except for faithful Catholics) goes there.

It is primarily episcopal cowardice that has brought this situation about.  Don’t forget that.