Since the time of Father Thomas P. O’Malley, S.J., the President of LMU has sponsored a week-long summer seminar for faculty to help them gain a deeper understanding of the Catholic character of LMU. This annual event, sponsored since 1996, once provided a collegial setting in which to explore an aspect of LMU’s ethos as a Catholic, Jesuit-Marymount university.
It was one of the few institutionally provided opportunities for LMU faculty to better understand and explore the distinctive Catholic mission and identity of the university.
President Snyder has canceled this program for 2017. With fewer and fewer Catholic professors, and more and more signs of loss of Catholic identity, LMU needs programs like the Summer Institute now more than ever. Under President Snyder, LMU’s Catholic identity is moving from the magis to the minus.
Story from Renew LMU.
I suppose LMU is admitting what the rest of us have known for years, the university has long ceased to be Catholic. Like Notre Dame, Fordham, Boston College and the rest, they bear no resemblance to the Catholic institutions that were founded by religious orders.