One of the things I picked up yesterday while attending Latin Mass was a copy of The Angelus, Ave Maria’s student newspaper. I had already heard a lot about this paper. It is referenced in Bill Donahue’s story in last month’s issue of Mother Jones and had made several other appearances in publications about Ave Maria. Being of curious mind, of course I had to read the document for myself.

Since it is not available on-line, here are some excerpts from President Nicholas J. Healy Jr.’s Letter from the President entitled “Educating Leaders to Engage a Troubled Culture.”

“Education ought to develop the life of the mind; to enable one to appreciate fine art and music, and also understand the essentials of what will be for many their primary vocation — that of husband, wife, father or mother. Financial success does not guarantee happiness, nor, much more importantly, does it guarantee eternal life with God; and that, after all, ought to concern us more than anything else….

Our most serious internal challenge — which might be expressed as the collapse of the Judeo-Christian moral vision — is reflected in our degraded popular culture…

What does contemporary art in America reflect? In the broader sense of art, what values are reflected in our music, out theater, our paintings and our cinema? Mush of it cannot be discussed in polite company. At best we can say there are still pockets of our culture that uplift the spirit and proclaim truth and beauty. We need to recover the moral vision that gave us the inestimable treasure of art and culture in the West, and which, not incidentally, also laid the foundation for the political and economic freedoms that have made America a beacon for much of the world.

Externally, and even to some extent internally, we face the menace of militant Islam. Especially since 9/11, much has been written about the nature of the threat of international terrorism. In reading this, I am struck by how shallow is the understanding of Islam. It is as though many in the West cannot conceive of a people motivated and ruled by religious convictions. The West is desperate for clear thinkers who have a grasp of history and yes, philosophy and theology, to help determine what is at stake and how to respond to what may be the most profound challenge of this century.”

Read the entire letter here:

Nicholas Healy Letter from the President

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Ave Maria, Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.