Sep 18, 2009
Dr. Anne Hendershott, a former faculty member at the University of San Diego has recently released her new book, Status Envy: the Politics of Higher Education, in which she explains that Catholic higher education is distancing itself from Catholic teaching in order to keep up with its secular counterparts.
Hendershott spoke to the Catholic Transcript, newspaper for the Archdiocese of Hartford, about how her experiences as a 15-year faculty member at the University of San Diego helped her to write her latest book on Catholic higher education.
In a description on the cover of her book explains that since Catholic universities are not generally regarded as "top-notch," they strive to define their success and status based on secular standards. Because of this, faculty and administration work to "distance universities from Catholic ideas and curriculum," she said. Hendershott explains that some schools "have distanced themselves so far from their Catholic origins that the church no longer recognizes them as Catholic institutions."
Some Catholic colleges and universities "have these beautiful statues and they take their prospective students and their moms and dads and say, ‘This is our statue of Mary,’ and, 'This is our grotto,’" Hendershott explained in her interview. "They don’t say, ‘This is where we have the transgender fashion show.’ They have this façade of pious people. But what goes on inside … it’s fake. I worked at one for 15 years. I know how fake it is."