Latest from the Newman Society

The Biden Administration Poses New Threats to Catholic Education

In just the first months of the Biden administration, Catholic educators have been confronted by serious threats to their freedom to teach and witness to the Catholic faith. We knew the storm was coming. Over the last four years, schools and colleges enjoyed a brief respite before the anticipated return […]

Pro-Life Colleges Won’t Be Silenced

What an inspiration! Several Catholic colleges, undeterred by their inability to attend this year’s physical March for Life in Washington, D.C., have found new and exciting ways of witnessing to the gift of all human life. Every year, huge numbers of students at faithful Catholic colleges make heroic efforts to […]

Athletics Should Uphold Truth of Body and Gender

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine. Seeking “a fair and safe playing field for all children and young adults,” the U.S. bishops in October backed federal legislation to prevent schools and colleges from allowing male athletes—including those […]

Mission Fit: Working with Nontraditional Families

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine. Last year, when the child of a same-sex couple was denied admission to St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, Kan., the incident sparked public debate over Catholic school admissions policies. […]

Moral Witness at the Heart of Catholic Education

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that the “ministerial exception” applies to certain Catholic school teachers, a ruling hailed as protecting Catholic schools and colleges that uphold moral standards for […]

Catholic College Scholarship Contest Invites Applications

The Cardinal Newman Society is pleased to announce its fifth annual Essay Scholarship Contest. The winning essay writer will be awarded $5,000 toward the cost of attending a faithful Catholic college recommended in The Newman Guide (see https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/the-newman-guide/) in the fall of 2021. In addition, several Newman Guide colleges have agreed […]

Getting it Right: Witness and Teaching on Sexuality in Catholic Education

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine. In 2019, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education released Male and Female He Created Them, a response to the contemporary “gender ideology” that has sown confusion in American society […]

School of Athens

Father McTeigue Wants You to Learn Philosophy

Socrates had important answers to the big questions in life. But he was especially good at asking questions, helping his students use their own reason to discover answers that were available to them all along. I have had a similar experience whenever I am a guest on Jesuit Father Robert […]

Blessed Mother

College Students Organize Nationwide Marian Consecration

It only takes a spark to start a fire. That’s exactly what a passionate group of students at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida, are doing again this year. For the third time, students who are a part of the Mary and Mercy Center, which is adjacent to campus, […]

Newman Society Urges Ministerial Exception for Archdiocese of Chicago

In a federal lawsuit that has potential consequences for Catholic education and all religious employers, The Cardinal Newman Society filed an amicus brief Tuesday urging the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the ministerial exception and protect the First Amendment rights of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The brief […]

Catholic Colleges Should Fight Pornography

To combat pornography, Catholics should take the lead in the home and in our institutions. It should be a high priority for Catholic colleges. Recent controversy over the Netflix movie “Cuties,” now the target of a Texas indictment for “lewd visual material,” helped bring renewed attention to the devastating impact of pornography. […]

John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman, a Saint for Students

Here is an important saint for our times — and with a special love for students! Any student or parent seeking intercession would do well to pray to St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who was canonized last year and is celebrated on his feast day, Oct. 9. Newman has had […]

Today’s Youth Need Veritatis Splendor

Many Catholics have abandoned the faith—as many as 13 percent of American adults. Without a concerted effort toward renewed orthodoxy, we stand to lose many more. The road map for renewal, we believe, is found in St. John Paul II’s Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth). Catholic educators and youth ministers, and […]

us supreme court

Supreme Court Rulings Already Impacting Catholic Schools

This month, even before the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the Court’s importance to Catholics was made apparent — and Catholic educators especially should take notice. The Supreme Court’s summer rulings are now being tested in Indianapolis, where a teacher who was rightly dismissed from Cathedral […]

flag and Bible

Newman Society Grateful for Federal Defense of Religious Freedom

Two actions by federal agencies this week have great importance to Catholic educators seeking relief from hostility to Catholic beliefs and protection of their religious freedom. On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a brief at the Indiana Supreme Court, defending the Constitutional right of an Indianapolis Catholic high school to […]