Chicago Daily Observer

DePaul University should be stripped of its designation as a “Catholic” university.

And not just for the reason that makes it no different from all other.

Sure, as with many other venerable Catholic schools, it waters down the teachings of the Church into a one-of-many options-an amalgam of views-without singling out any one objective truth. That goes for most of the colleges called “Catholic.” But with DePaul there are decidedly other factors, as this long study engaged by me-a former DePaul graduate student and an adjunct professor there and at a host of other schools, secular and Catholic for more than 30 years-proves.

The rap on DePaul that should deny it the name “Catholic” is this: In theology as in academic practice it is a psychedelic mockery of what a university is meant to be. It has gone berserk with at least two major derelictions.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the new Unforgiven of Western films: a remake of the 1957 Delmer Daves classic, 3:10 to Yuma. It is set in the post-Civil War rural west, where Dan Evans, a poor rancher, is indebted to a local railroad owner. While herding cattle, Evans and his sons happen upon a robbery undertaken by the notorious Ben Wade. Following an encounter with Wade, Evans finds and tells the bounty hunter the likely destination of Ben Wade and his gang. After finding Wade in a saloon, they arrest him and decide to put him on a train leaving from the town of Contention for a sentencing in Yuma. At first, Evans’ only reason for going along is to earn some money, but despite this, Evans has a certain sense of duty––to his family, to his land, and to himself––which perhaps developed from within the ol’ Western ... Read More...

In Addition to Depriving Him of His 1st Amendment Rights this “University” Betrays its Once Catholic Heritage.

Founded in 1898, DePaul University holds itself out as America’s largest Catholic University. Named for St. Vincent de Paul, who established the Congregation of the Mission (known as the Vincentians), the motto of the university is t“Viam sapientiae monstrabo tibi”. It’s from Proverbs meaning, “I will show you the way of wisdom.”.

Sometimes, I wonder if DePaul maintains its “Catholic” identity simply to retain tax exempt status. The classrooms and offices of the university have been almost completely denuded of crucifixes and religious artwork of any kind. After my time at DePaul, all that remains is inoffensive and nondescript representations of the saint making him appear unidentifiable.

Few of my old classmates express any loyalty to DePaul as our alma mater. Most who were graduate students described it as the most “secularized” of ... Read More...

The DePaul Conservative Alliance last week sponsored a showing of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West”, followed by a discussion at the DePaul University Student Center—but the importance to all of us continues to dominate.

. The event, was part of “Terrorism Awareness Week”, a series of lectures, seminars and films taking place on college campuses throughout the country. It was organized by David Hororwitz and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture to draw attention to the Radical Islamists’ intention to destroy western civilization.

“Obsession” presents a series of interviews with ex-terrorists, scenes of the carnage that results from terrorists bombing, interviews with experts on Islam and the Middle East, newsreels of Islamic leaders being entertained by Hitler, Islamic boys carrying guns, all testifying to Radical Islam’s hatred of and desire to destroy the West. I found it quite disturbing.

But the Islamists and their liberal allies ... Read More...

Keep Your Hands Where They Belong—Off our Propagandizing for

Gay Rights No Matter What the Church Says.

But Understand We Intend to Keep Mis-Advertising that We’re a Catholic University, Caveat Empteor!

DePaul President Reverend Dennis Holtschneider, C. M. responded last week to The Catholic New World column written by Francis Cardinal George critical of the university for promoting the “Out There” conference for teachers and students to make them “sensitive” to homosexual behavior. While the archbishop stressed the obligations of all Christians not to be hateful to others on grounds of sexual orientation, he nevertheless pointed out that portions of the conference promoted gay behavior.

The response acknowledges this but is as intellectually dishonest as is possible to be, evading Holtschneider’s own and his misnamed “Catholic” university’s obligations and hiding behind the tattered fabric of “academic freedom.” His naked rationale has become a part of secular universities. But for so-called ... Read More...

DePaul U. has hired two Catholic scholars for its new Catholic Studies program — Peter Casarella, of Catholic U., where he headed a Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies, and Farrell O’Gorman, from Mississippi State U.’s English department.

Casarella has written about Christian Neo-Platonism, theological aesthetics, St. Bonaventure’s Trinitarian theology of creation, the idea of emergence in contemporary physics, and the Hispanic/Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic Church, according to a release.
He and his wife, then expecting their second child, and their one-year-old lived with students at Catholic U., in a get-close-to students dormitory arrangement. He has his doctorate from Yale.

O’Gorman has a “critically recognized” novel to his credit, “Awaiting Orders” (Idylls Press, 2006), in which he tries “to explore how a Christian message of hope and redemption can attain credibility,” said the America magazine reviewer — a far cry, to be sure, from what fiction readers ... Read More...