Check out this article in the Washington Times about the increasing popularity of orthodox Catholic higher education.
When I was a reporter for the diocesan paper of Arlington, I covered many events that Christendom held, and I was always impressed at how they strove for sanctity without being priggish. I would be pleased if my children went to any of the institutions mentioned in the article, provided they don't get screwed up in the next 15-17 years.
A dissenting note to the article: I don't think things are so bad at Catholic universities in general. Yes, they are too enamored of secularism, but mostly that's out of weakness. Universities selected their staffs from the Herd of Independent Minds, and they tailor their views accordingly. When deans and presidents talk about "academic freedom" trumping an authentic Catholic identity, they're really saying, "We're afraid we won't get any respect from other people who work at universities, because they spit on our backwards papist religion."
For instance, I happen to know that Notre Dame, which is singled out as an example of a Catholic university gone wild, has quite a lot of Catholic character. I know many people who went there, by way of my friend Andy, and when I visited there I knew I was in a place where Jesus was alive and well. They have Masses in the basement chapels of every dormitory, and the architecture and statues remind you that you're not on a secular campus. Sure, there are some questionable faculty working there, and they could certainly stand for some improvement. But they're not lost, and neither, I suspect, are most Catholic universities.
