The Failure of Catholic Academia, by Stephen Sammut

‘Firsts’ in the City of Independence, by Joseph Pronechen
July 6, 2021
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: A Eucharistic Life & the Practice of Penance, by Christine M. Wohar
July 6, 2021

An abandoned facility of the university. [Photo Credit: Shutterstock]

By Stephen Sammut, PhD, Crisis Magazine, July 6, 2021

Stephen Sammut, BPharm, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Dr. Sammut received a BPharm from Monash University in Victoria, Australia and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Malta. …


In the preface to the first edition of the book
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions, after addressing the fact that he’s a secular Jew whose “religious education did not take,” who “barely remembers a word of Hebrew” and “cannot pray,” and after addressing the content of the book as a “defense of religious thought and sentiment,” with biblical verses being the “least of it,” David Berlinski, a mathematician and philosopher, makes the following striking statement: “A defense is needed because none has been forthcoming. The discussion has been ceded to men who regard religious belief with frivolous contempt.”

This statement summarizes the sad state of our current reality. Every person, in every role in society, has a responsibility toward serving the Truth. This is most especially true for academia and academics of faith. However, in reality, Catholic academia and academics have, overall, failed miserably at upholding the dignity and integrity of the academic vocation, of being the mind and source of true education of society, from inside and outside of the Church.