A remarkable resurgence of Catholic education and formation

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 07, 2025

Have you noticed the more recent developments in post-secondary Catholic education in the United States? This is no longer a matter of looking back to the 1970s when Thomas Aquinas College in California, Magdalen College and Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts in New Hampshire, and Christendom College in Virginia were established—and when Fr. Michael Scanlan spearheaded the renewal of Franciscan University of Steubenville, or when Benedictine College in Kansas was restructured. Although Magdalen had to close last year, these small Catholic liberal arts colleges have been augmented more recently by other new foundations, such as the University of Mary in North Dakota and Wyoming Catholic College.

The most widely-known of the new foundations is almost certainly Ave Maria University in Florida, which was established in 2003 through the support of Tom Monaghan, the Catholic entrepreneur who founded Domino’s Pizza. There are quite a few more good options as well, including older institutions which have maintained or revived their Catholic identity such as the University of Dallas and Catholic University of America. If you are thinking about college or graduate school, you may wish to check the list of recommendations in The Newman Guide, published by the Cardinal Newman Society. There is even a new liberal arts college in Maryland, The Collegium, which has not yet been in existence long enough to earn more than “provisional recognition” in The Newman Guide.

Granted that these superior institutions educate only a very small minority of those who go to ostensibly “Catholic” colleges or seek education “in the Jesuit tradition” (a sobriquet increasingly trotted out to mask a lack of Catholicity), they are an important sign of vitality in American Catholicism. But what I find most interesting at this moment is the extension of this authentically Catholic intelligence into vocational training, on the one hand, and serious scientific endeavor, on the other.

Liberal Arts plus vocational training

It is too soon to assess the long-term success of the newest developments, but several new trade schools have opened recently for the specific purpose of combining faith formation with a foundation in the liberal arts and the learning of a trade. The one I have read most about is The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio. One of its best slogans is “The Word became flesh and picked up a hammer.” A succinct self-description explains:

Our curriculum places the liberal arts firmly within the Catholic intellectual tradition—everything from metaphysics to economics is taught as ordered toward the three pillars of the lay vocation: work, family, and the temporal order.

In the course of four years, students undergo a genuine Catholic spiritual formation, earn a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic Studies, and learn a trade by which they can earn a living while providing material service to others. Training is available in carpentry, HVAC, plumbing and electrical work. After the first year, students spend some time on job sites, where they get paid. Part of the goal is to make higher education affordable again.

As the online literature expresses it, students will...

...graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic Studies and be well on their way to journeyman status in their chosen craft. During this time they will receive broad training across all trades offered, as well as in-depth training in their specific trade. The program is four years of study and hands-on training in Steubenville, including three years during which they will be gainfully employed.

Catholics and science

Some of the greatest scientific advances have been made by Catholics. One thinks immediately of Copernicus and Galileo in astronomy, Mendel in biology, Pasteur in medicine, and Lejeune in genetics, among many others. Now the brand-new Catholic Institute of Technology—opened at the beginning of this academic year in the Fall of 2024—aims to continue this vital tradition. The Institute encompasses colleges of Engineering, Science, and Catholic Studies, as well as participation in Pontifical colleges with programs in ethics, philosophy and theology.

CIT’s St. Patrick College of Engineering covers biomedical, chemical, civil and mechanical engineering, along with electrical engineering and computer science. The St. Albert College of Science specializes in biology and physics. The College of Catholic Studies offers an MS in Technology Ethics. Moreover, participation in the programs of the Pontifical colleges is facilitated by a simple geographical fact: the Catholic Institute of Technology’s campus is located in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, the summer home of the popes and the site of the famous Vatican Observatory.

There is even a CatholicTech Summer Program in Castel Gandolfo for rising high school juniors and seniors from July 5 to August 4, 2025. Lest there by any doubt, however, this really is an American effort. The administrative offices and research campus are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the home of the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

More could be said

There are new and ongoing developments in everything from home-schooling assistance programs at the primary and secondary levels to new collegiate efforts such as those described here. If I have not mentioned your favorite new or renewed Catholic educational initiative, feel free to mention it in Sound Off! below, or through the email link in my byline. There is tremendous energy in the areas of Catholic formation and Catholic education in the United States. This is a Godsend for those willing to look for it and make a commitment to it.

I don’t know the situation in other countries, but I do know that few regions of the world have the same sort of do-it-yourself mentality that is still so common in the educational and non-profit sectors in the United States. To some extent, this is still an American trait, and it is often a good one. When it is combined with a sincere desire to know, love and serve God, our natural lament that “I don’t know what I can do” can often be transformed into boldness: “I don’t know what I can’t do!”

That authentically Catholic boldness must apply particularly to the formation and education of our children.