This One Question Is Commonly Asked at Many Faithful Catholic Colleges

I have been at my present university, a fairly faithful (and generally earnest) Catholic university, for the last two academic years. During the previous decade, I was at a state university, and I frequently considered leaving it. Two year ago, I became quite serious in my efforts to leave, and I landed interviews at several universities, including a few Catholic ones. I noticed that these latter fell into two general camps: generally faithful Catholic universities, and universities which happen to be Catholic.

I applied to a few of what are reputed to be both type of college, and I had the opportunity to visit several of each type. By and-large, my impression is that these colleges have each earned at least some of their reputation--some are or try to be vibrantly Catholic, for others Catholic is a part of their identity which has generally fallen by the wayside.

Oddly enough, there is one question in the application process that the former had, and the latter did not. It was not "Explain how you will contribute to our mission" or "...to our identity," nor was it "Please write a general set of your beliefs" or "Explain your relationship to the Church." Instead, every one of the reputed "good Catholic" colleges--and none of the "marginal," "culturally," or "historically" Catholic ones--asked me to write a reflection on the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesia (the Apostolic Constitution written by Pope St. John Paul II on Catholic Universities).

Perhaps this is a good starting point for a number of "nominally Catholic" universities which are interested in becoming something more than nominal.