Katie and I support Notre Dame University’s Center for Ethics & Culture and received their latest newsletter today.
The director of the center, David Solomon, is a Baptist, and had these very insightful remarks looking back on his 40 years at Notre Dame:
At Notre Dame, there is a similar mixture of change and continuity….The faculty is more highly rated than when I arrived and much less Catholic. I was only the third non-Catholic hired in the history of the Notre Dame philosophy department. Each year now, as our president Father Jenkins has noted, the number of Catholics on the faculty drops and is approaching the point where (unless dramatic measures are taken) Catholic faculty will be in the minority.
It is sometimes said that this change in the faculty has contributed to intellectual diversity, but I doubt that. While the faculty is more diverse with regard to race and gender, and, of course, with regard to religious practice, I find that intellectually there is more group-think than when I arrived so many years ago. Catholic orthodoxy is not the only kind of orthodoxy, nor the most dangerous kind.
All I can say is, Dr. Solomon is an inspiration to me as a Catholic!
He eloquently points out that “diversity” is not an end in itself nor is true diversity achieved by a mere minimum number of faculty who are not “white males”.
A diverse-looking group of people can all believe as a group in things that are not true, which, rather than leading to true “intellectual diversity”, leads to the propagation of ideas that actually harm people instead of healing them.
I commend Dr. Solomon for his courage and humility in writing these words, especially in an age when attacking Catholics is one of the last hate crimes that is still tolerated.
