What should Catholic education look like today? As universities move toward more efficient and technical processes in higher education, is there still room for seeking truth and knowledge for its own sake? These are some of the questions explored by Timothy P. O’Malley, theology professor and director of education at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. OSV News’ Charles Camosy spoke with him recently about the state of Catholic higher education and his vision for its reform.
On a snow-covered winter day in 1842, Father Edward Sorin stood before a frozen lake in northern Indiana and did something audacious. He consecrated the land, the institution he was about to found and every soul who would ever study or work there to the Blessed Virgin Mary – and he did this not as an afterthought or pious decoration, but as the founding act itself.