DePaul is a Catholic university. Sort of. Kinda. Not that it matters. Or something.

The headline and subhead of this April 4th article in The DePaulia proclaim a strange mixture of triumphalistic ambivalence and congratulatory self-loathing that would be good for a chuckle if it weren't so embarrassing:

Religious tolerance trumps Catholic roots
Despite being a faith based Univeristy [sic], DePaul's mission runs deeper than spreading the word

Even the most jaded observer of "Catholic higher education" will marvel at the commentary and quotes that were apparently written and uttered without the least bit of irony or self-awareness (not to be confused with self-absorption):

Is DePaul a Catholic school? Of course, sort of. ...

"There are definitely a few things around campus that reminds me that DePaul is a Catholic school. But it really isn't evident unless you look really closely and carefully," said senior Vi Nguyen. "Besides the church, I know that there are a few crosses around campus, but I think we barely notice them." ...

"Catholicism is a collective noun. There's dozens of forms of it," said Rev. James Halstead, the Chair of the Religious Studies Program. "At DePaul, if you want a Catholicism that's rigid and rule-bound, we got it. We got the Catholicism for the Catholics who just want spiritual practice but wouldn't know a rule if it hit them in the face. We got the kind of Catholicism for the types of intellectual Catholics who know about the rules of the church, but they don't care about them."

In keeping with Rev. Halstead's undefined definition of Catholicism, DePaul's Catholic identity is as difficult to define as the average Catholic's beliefs. ...

Never mind that if "Catholicism" can mean anything at all, it must mean nothing at all. Never mind that if a Catholic school founded in the name of St. Vincent de Paul is not able to offer a basic definition of Catholicism, something is seriously amiss. Not that it seems to bother the folks who have been entrusted with not defining what it is they don't understand or care about when it comes to the religion they can't explain or profess:

So does DePaul stay true to its mission statement, of maintaining a Catholic identity while at the same time being religiously pluralistic? Somehow, yes. But does DePaul hold either of those concepts higher than the other?

In an address to the Faculty Council in 2006, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, DePaul's president, answered that question:

"I've received over 10,000 letters, e-mails and phone calls in the past 20 months…for somehow being 'unfaithful' to the Catholic tradition. They would have us become an institution 'of Catholics for Catholics,'" said Holtschneider. "That's not DePaul. It never was. DePaul has always been a place where people of every faith have been welcomed to study and to teach."

While there are undoubtedly a few folks who probably prefer that Catholic universities be for Catholics only, it's hard to believe that 10,000 people have demanded such a thing. Far more likely, they are puzzled or concerned or upset that a Catholic school is unable to articulate what it means to be Catholc, not to mention being proud to uphold and expound the beliefs of the Catholic Church. At the very least, it should be obvious that if the Chair of the Religious Studies Program believes there is a different sort of "Catholicism" for everyone then real, orthodox, and vibrant Catholicism is probably discouraged or dismissed by the powers that be. 

As for the subhead's statement, "DePaul's mission runs deeper than spreading the word", it's worth pointing out that Pope John Paul II, in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, his 1990 Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, wrote the following about evangelization:

The primary mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel in such a way that a relationship between faith and life is established in each individual and in the socio-cultural context in which individuals live and act and communicate with one another. Evangelization means "bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new... It is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and, as it were, upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, humanity's criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation".

By its very nature, each Catholic University makes an important contribution to the Church's work of evangelization. It is a living institutional witness to Christ and his message, so vitally important in cultures marked by secularism, or where Christ and his message are still virtually unknown. Moreover, all the basic academic activities of a Catholic University are connected with and in harmony with the evangelizing mission of the Church: research carried out in the light of the Christian message which puts new human discoveries at the service of individuals and society; education offered in a faith-context that forms men and women capable of rational and critical judgment and conscious of the transcendent dignity of the human person; professional training that incorporates ethical values and a sense of service to individuals and to society; the dialogue with culture that makes the faith better understood, and the theological research that translates the faith into contemporary language. "Precisely because it is more and more conscious of its salvific mission in this world, the Church wants to have these centres closely connected with it; it wants to have them present and operative in spreading the authentic message of Christ". (pars. 40-41).

And these words from Pope Benedict XVI, in his address at the Catholic University of America three years ago:

All the Church's activities stem from her awareness that she is the bearer of a message which has its origin in God himself: in his goodness and wisdom, God chose to reveal himself and to make known the hidden purpose of his will (cf. Eph 1:9; Dei Verbum, 2). God's desire to make himself known, and the innate desire of all human beings to know the truth, provide the context for human inquiry into the meaning of life. This unique encounter is sustained within our Christian community: the one who seeks the truth becomes the one who lives by faith (cf. Fides et Ratio, 31). It can be described as a move from "I" to "we", leading the individual to be numbered among God's people.

This same dynamic of communal identity – to whom do I belong? – vivifies the ethos of our Catholic institutions. A university or school's Catholic identity is not simply a question of the number of Catholic students. It is a question of conviction – do we really believe that only in the mystery of the Word made flesh does the mystery of man truly become clear (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22)? Are we ready to commit our entire self – intellect and will, mind and heart – to God? Do we accept the truth Christ reveals? Is the faith tangible in our universities and schools? Is it given fervent expression liturgically, sacramentally, through prayer, acts of charity, a concern for justice, and respect for God's creation? Only in this way do we really bear witness to the meaning of who we are and what we uphold.

In other words, there is no deeper mission than to spread the word—that is, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. To think otherwise is not only to think wrongly, it is a failure to think with the mind of the Church. And if a Catholic schools doesn't teach students about the mind and heart of the Church, then it is indeed unfaithful to its founding, nature, and mission.