Uses of spectacle
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL HINDS Abigail McCarthy THE USES OF SPECTACLE THE POPE MEETS CATHOLIC EDUCATORS ¥he visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States this month, as we all know, has been planned as a...
...Archbishop Roach of St...
...But whether he accepts and un-derstands or not, those responsible for Catholic higher education in America have rediscovered its strengths and rejoiced in them...
...The concept of a simple Catholic people easily confused and scandalized is strong in this pope's mind...
...For example, Georgetown University, now in its two-hundredth year, represents the beginnings and continuity of Catholic liberal.arts education in the U.S...
...Mary's College in Los Angeles has a double thrust...
...On its main campus, high above the Pacific, it has long been part of the significant contribution of religious women to the widespread education of American women...
...In addition, under the strictures of a Communist government he learned the uses of spectacle — no world leader has drawn bigger crowds — and the way in which the visual sends the messages it is best not to commit to words...
...No one of them has used the opportunity more astutely than planners for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities...
...No matter how strong the goodwill, a few days can hardly undo the attitudes of a lifetime...
...In this mixture of speakers and in the array of leaders before him there are unspoken messages about what the American experience offers to the universal church...
...After a kaleidoscopic overview, the video highlights ten institutions, each for a purpose...
...Their very place of meeting is symbolic and carries a message...
...The medical school of Loyola in Chicago is representative of the many professional schools...
...To do this the ACCU planners have taken, as the saying goes, leaves from the pope's own book...
...Sister Catherine McNamee, C.S.J., president of the NCEA...
...John Paul II's sense of theater is well known...
...And second, he is to see and hear in video a dramatic presentation of the institutions themselves professionally prepared by Golden Dome Productions of Notre Dame and narrated by NBC's Bryant Gumbel, a Xavier trustee...
...Still, we can hope that he is not totally unmoved and unconvinced by the presentations in New Orleans...
...Other levels of education now moving in this direction can look to higher education for a model...
...He is a master in the use of the symbolic...
...All this the ACCU planners have apparently borne in mind...
...From the very beginning," says Sister Alice Gallin, "members of the laity have played a large part in Catholic higher education in the United States — as co-founders, as donors and trustees, as members of the faculty and administration...
...There are more Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States than in the rest of the world put together," notes Sister Alice Gallin, O.S.U., director of the ACCU and mistress of ceremonies for the occasion...
...Women obviously occupy positions of high authority in this sector of church life and work easily and effectively with bishops and laymen...
...If in this sector, why not in others...
...OF SEVERAL HINDS Abigail McCarthy THE USES OF SPECTACLE THE POPE MEETS CATHOLIC EDUCATORS ¥he visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States this month, as we all know, has been planned as a journey during which the pontiff is to listen and to learn as well as to teach...
...It is interesting to speculate as to how much this experience will alter his less than approving perception of Catholicism in America, but the very possibility has been a source of hope and inspiration to the planning committees...
...Xavier University of Louisiana, the one Catholic university founded for blacks in an intolerant time, bears testimony to a system which, unlike the European, was meant not for the elite but for all...
...The pope will have visual and aural confirmation of this startling fact — first, in the long, impressive procession of the presidents of the colleges and universities wearing their academic gowns and colorful hoods, and in the massing of over 3500 leaders of higher education before him...
...At their meeting with the pope in New Orleans on September 12 they will share — with the rest of the National Catholic Education Association — the responsibility for illuminating Catholic education in all its facets and history...
...Frank Carins, chairman of the board of the ACCU...
...It is hoped that the pope will draw the inference but, if he does not, the parallel will surely be made in the welcoming speeches which precede the video: freedom and the health of education go hand in hand...
...Paul, chairman of the board of the NCEA...
...Although he may know it intellectually, and although the evidence is before him, it may be hard for him to envision a Catholic people who, because of education, have no large number of "simple faithful" to be shielded and protected from a sudden shift on the part of an educated few...
...and Dr...
...John Paul II, wearied by travel and at the end of a long day in an unforgiving climate, will have seen and heard in New Orleans what he chooses to see and hear...
...In addition to Sister Alice Gallin the speakers will include: Dr...
...Altogether the representative institutions tell the story of a system designed to serve the people — of a system which sociologists say has done more than any other to lift immigrantdescended students into the mainstream of business, government, science, the arts, and the professions...
...He understands the impact of the modern media — no world 472: Commonweal leader has dominated newscasts more often than he...
...11 September 1987: 473...
...The entire evening is thought of as a double celebration — of the bicentennial of Catholic higher education in this country and the bicentennial of the Constitution which guaranteed the religious liberty which made that education possible...
...And American Catholics will know, perhaps for the first time, how valuable the American Catholic experience in education has been for us, for our nation, for our church...
...it stems, no doubt, from his brief acting career...
...now on its downtown campus it responds to the educational needs of a new community of women — inner-city whites, Asians, Hispanics, and blacks — by offering the Associate in Arts degrees and the specialized Masters degrees they need...
...The large numbers of laity among the presidents, executives of associations, and trustees, bespeak the fact that in American Catholic higher education there is a pattern for the partnership of clergy and laity which could well be followed everywhere...
...The citation of Mount St...
...Norman Francis, chairman of the board of Xavier...
Vol. 114 • September 1987 • No. 15
