The Pope and U.S. Catholic Universities

How hard will Benedict push them to enforce orthodoxy?
By Eve Conant and Daniel Stone
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 16, 2008

Freshman Rebecca De La Garza isn't so different from many of her fellow students at Georgetown—and that may be the problem. Georgetown is the oldest Roman Catholic and Jesuit university in America and is meant to serve as a Catholic institution. "But I don't feel aligned with the traditional church," De La Garza confesses without much guilt. She's Catholic but not deeply devout, and she didn't come to Georgetown to deepen her faith; she came because she liked the location and its art history department. She says campus convenience stores don't sell condoms but that students drink and engage in premarital sex "like at any other college." Most of her peers don't go to mass every Sunday, but they must take two semesters of theology, including one required class, "THEO-001: The Problem of God," in which her class has debated such questions as whether it's reasonable to have faith in God and whether there is reason present in the Bible. She didn't come away with any firm answers, but she's sure of one thing: "I think the Vatican would take issue with things at Georgetown, and I think the pope would have some apprehension about things here." the rest