Professor Anne Hendershott, writing for Catholic World Report, opines that the U.S. bishops’ Ten Year Review of the Application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae reveals little of the reality taking place on a majority of the country’s Catholic college and university campuses.

Hendershott was a longtime sociology professor at the University of San Diego and is now Distinguished Visiting Faculty Member at The King’s College in New York City. She is the author of Status Envy: The Politics of Catholic Higher Education.

Released in January, Hendershott describes The Final Report for the Ten Year Review of the Application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae for the United States as a one-page document that lauds “collaboration” and “dialogue,” but beyond that says very little. That's because despite what some might have anticipated from a "ten year review," the bishops' Education Committee never intended to assess Catholic colleges in its review and final report.

Hendershott spends much of the article highlighting the Catholic identity abuses reported by The Cardinal Newman Society. It is presumably with these in mind, that the bishops state flatly that "there is still work to be done."

Among the good news in the article, Hendershott reports that Sr. John Mary Fleming, OP, the executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Catholic Education, pointed to the creation of a group of bishops and college presidents working under Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, the current chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, to “continue the dialogue about strategic subjects on a national level.”

According to the USCCB website, the working group will begin gathering “information on best practices, will offer suggestions for local conversation, and, as needed, develop resources.”

Catholic Education Daily is an online publication of The Cardinal Newman Society. Click here for email updates and free online membership with The Cardinal Newman Society.