Across journals, podcasts, and the media, many observers describe a growing crisis in academia.[1] This crisis appears in falling enrollments, a declining perceived value of a college degree among students, families, and employers, mounting political pressures on major institutions, and a shrinking job market in education. If Catholic schools are part of the Church’s mission, and if the Church understands education as an essential ministry, then how should Catholic institutions respond to this moment? Since they are not simply private enterprises aimed at profit, their response cannot be guided by survival alone, but by fidelity to their social and ecclesial vocation.
This post is not intended to present solutions; rather, I would like to raise a set of questions that many in Catholic education are increasingly asking. At the heart of these questions lies a conviction: our present moment calls Catholic institutions to take the principle of solidarity seriously and to find creative ways to embody it. My reflection will focus on two aspects: building solidarity across institutions and building solidarity to stand against unjust power.
Solidarity across institutions
What does it mean to build solidarity when some institutions who share the same Catholic mission are forced to reduce programs or even close due to financial constraints? Scholars such as James Keenan and Gerald Beyer have examined solidarity within the framework of university ethics, particularly emphasizing the conditions of contingent faculty and the challenges of access for students from low-income backgrounds.[2] This work remains essential and much remains to be done. Yet another dimension requires attention: solidarity across institutions.
Although Catholic colleges and universities share in the Church’s mission, they often operate as competitors. They draw from the same pool of students, offer similar programs, and measure success in ways that can inadvertently disadvantage one another. Larger institutions can stabilize enrollments at the expense of smaller ones; growth in one place may contribute to decline elsewhere. As Beyer suggests, such dynamics risk reinforcing a “preferential option for the rich,” even within Catholic education.[3] While Beyer points out that students from wealthier backgrounds are disproportionately represented at larger and more prestigious institutions than those from other socioeconomic contexts, one might also add that current market dynamics similarly confer a “preferential advantage” on already well-endowed and established institutions, leaving smaller ones in an increasingly precarious position. Should this be the economic principle that governs relationships within the market of Catholic education?
Catholic institutions share a responsibility to uphold the right to education, particularly for the poor. I believe that this shared mission invites a shift in perspective: from competition to collaboration and from institutional self-preservation to collective responsibility. Solidarity across institutions may require sharing resources, expertise, strategies, and perhaps even financial means and facilities, not only to survive, but to serve the same mission of the Church. This mission is rooted in the conviction that education offers an important pathway out of poverty and serves as a vital expression of the Church’s mission in the world.
Many of my students are first-generation Americans or have recently emigrated to this country. When midterms arrive, I make it a point to meet with each one of them individually for an oral exam. Some of them, at first, are nervous, but this setting allows me to have a personal conversation with each of them. I start asking simple questions like, “How are you doing?” “What are you interested in?” “What is your major?” I recall one conversation that made me think. A student mentioned that they were majoring in finance. Knowing their passion for the humanities and literature, I was surprised. So, I asked, “Do you like it?” The student hesitated and responded, “It’s not really about what I like but about what my family needs. I will need to provide for them.” For many students, the luxury of asking, “What do I love?” or “How do I think my talents are best spent?” is simply not an option. A gap of imagination prevents certain career paths or life outcomes from even being envisioned. In this sense, for a Catholic institution to be true to its mission, it also means to fill what Patrick Reyes has famously defined the purpose gap. According to him, “the purpose gap exists where people cannot achieve what they were born to do. It exists when people are not able to fulfill their calling, resulting in lives of meaning and purpose stolen from future generations.”[4] Even more strongly, he states that the purpose gap is a “war on our children’s future.”[5]
Bridging the purpose gap requires cultivating a strong network of solidarity among Catholic colleges and universities. While acknowledging the real challenges, such as differing governance structures, boards of trustees, and financial constraints, these institutions must be seen as more than independent entities. They are partners in a shared ecclesial mission that transcends geography and economic interests. This shared commitment calls for collaboration beyond administrative restrictions, including the exchange of resources, expertise, facilities, and ideas, as well as a collective effort to envision and implement solutions rooted in the same ecclesial vocation.
What if the law is unjust? Autonomy and prophetic dissent
A second form of solidarity is needed to stay true to Catholic schools’ mission: standing together in prophetic action to safeguard our autonomy amid external pressures. What does it mean for a Catholic institution to remain faithful to its mission when norms, or even laws, conflict with justice? We can view this reflection as part of a larger theological tradition, one that has engaged figures such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Madre Cabrini, Karl Barth, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day, all of whom recognized that fidelity to the Gospel requires resisting unjust structures.
What if the law is unjust? In the United States, universities, including some Catholic universities, have historically served governments, providing research that advances national priorities, including military research and economic policies. Many institutions are now being called to reassess their admissions practices and their approaches to promoting equity and inclusion on their campuses. Yet, Catholic institutions must chart a different course. Their mission is not to reinforce power but to question it when necessary, advocating for a vision of society rooted in the radical vision of the Kingdom of God rather than state interests.
This commitment to autonomy is crucial. Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990), a document governing the relationships between Catholic universities and the Church, states that “Every Catholic University feels responsible to contribute concretely to the progress of the society within which it works: for example it will be capable of searching for ways to make university education accessible to all those who are able to benefit from it, especially the poor or members of minority groups who customarily have been deprived of it” (no. 34).[6] This places our institutions in tension with systems that prioritize profit over people, war over peace, uniformity over diversity, exclusion over inclusion, inequality over equality, and economic expansion over ecological responsibility. Catholic schools must remain free to critique unjust policies and advocate for the Gospel’s radical vision of justice.
Roger Bergman describes how Catholic education has long been a site of both knowledge and resistance, challenging social norms that exclude or oppress.[7] Similarly, Bryan Sokol et al. argue that civic engagement in Catholic schools is often at odds with political and economic interests, but this tension is necessary to maintain integrity.[8]
Many teaching orders arouse in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in stark contrast to the prevailing views of society on education. Voltaire, for instance, sought to limit education to the upper class, Rousseau believed the poor had no need for it, and others argued they had no time. Catholic schools must be willing to be a prophetic voice, even when it means going against the tide. A moral Catholic school must sometimes stand in dissent, advocating for those whom society ignores. This prophetic mission is not about rejecting all governmental collaboration but about ensuring that Catholic institutions remain committed to the truth of their faith, justice, and love, rather than power and convenience. This challenge, again, calls for building a network of solidarity and shared responsibility. Living out this solidarity will hold each of our institutions accountable to their mission and strengthen our collective impact on society.
Conclusion
In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis calls for a renewed commitment to solidarity grounded in the conviction that no one is expendable.[9] His vision challenged institutions to create forms of social life in which all can flourish, especially the most vulnerable. For Catholic education, this means becoming spaces where new possibilities for a just world are imagined and sustained. It means forming students not only for employment, but for participation in a more equitable and humane society. And it means recognizing that fidelity to this mission may require difficult choices: choices that privilege solidarity over prestige, collaboration over competition, and service over power. The central question, then, is not simply how Catholic institutions will survive the current crisis. It is whether they will respond in a way that deepens their shared commitment to the Gospel.
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[1] Philosophers Yaron Brook, Eric Kaufmann, and Catherine Liu recently engaged in an interesting conversation in the Podcast Philosophy for Our Times, published on March 31, 2026: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/philosophy-for-our-times/id1151965239?i=1000758367245
[2] See James F. Keenan, University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015); Gerald J. Beyer, Just Universities: Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Higher Education (Fordham University Press, 2021).
[3] See Beyer, 91.
[4] Patrick B. Reyes, The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2021), 4.
[5] Reyes, 4.
[6] John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities Ex Corde Ecclesiae (15 August 1990), at The Holy See, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html.
[7] See Roger Bergman, Catholic Social Learning: Educating the Faith That Does Justice (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011).
[8] See Bryan W Sokol et al., “Moral Character and the Civic Mission of American Universities: The Catholic, Jesuit Vision of Justice Education,” International Journal of Christianity & Education 25, no. 1 (2021), https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056997120972437.
[9] Francis, Encyclical Letter on Fraternity and Social Friendship Fratelli Tutti (3 October 2020) nos. 114-16, Assisi, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html.