Tea at Trianon: Enrollment at Catholic Colleges Skyrockets

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Enrollment at Catholic Colleges Skyrockets

From Catholic Vote:

A new report shows that a handful of Catholic colleges and universities are seeing their enrollment numbers skyrocket, bucking the overall trend of college enrollment plummeting during the past few years.
“As most collegiate institutions grapple with disappointing enrollment, a slew of faithful Catholic colleges are reporting surprising enrollment numbers and financial support,” wrote The Daily Signal’s Mary Margaret Olohan. Olohan cited several examples of Catholic institutions who have recently reported enrollment numbers at all-time-highs.

[...]

“We keep hearing people refer to a ‘Newman movement’ because these faithful Catholic colleges just keep growing and setting the example of how to attract families today,” said Patrick Reilly, founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“These colleges are traditional and counter-cultural at a time when most of American education is corrupted and on a path of self-destruction,” Reilly continued. “In addition, the ‘Newman movement’ includes faithful Catholic educators who long for and search for the environment these Catholic colleges provide.” The Cardinal Newman Society is a nonprofit organization that “promotes and defends faithful Catholic education,” according to its website. The Society calls the many successful Catholic colleges recognized in its Newman Guide “light in the darkness.” Meanwhile, recent years have been tough for the broader higher education industry, showing just how much of an exception faithful Catholic colleges are proving to be. (Read more.)