As a rule, I don’t go to the lapsed for my understanding of things Catholic, but in this case Rod Dreher has done yeoman’s work on the matter of the anti-Christian sentiments rife in much upper academia, including theological academia, and prominently including the doctoral programs of certain prominent Jesuit schools. A case in point was one signatory of the recent, risible, even cute in its precious pique, letter attempting to silence Ross Douthat (who I only agree with when he’s right, so to speak):
She offered in public, for the public’s consideration (which is why you upload something to Academia.edu), a paper about reading Thomas Aquinas through the lens of gender theorist Judith Butler, and concluding that the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church) has misunderstood the medieval theologian, who actually would have considered homosexual acts to be morally licit. She posted a paper in which she lauds gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur as a “theologian.” And she posted a paper in which she contends that the Eucharist and Baptism, the two central sacraments of the Catholic faith, are fatally compromised by white supremacy, and that the Catholic Church can only find redemption if it begins lobbying the government to force white people to leave their homes.
(source: Why Study Academic Theology? | The American Conservative)
Later, he quotes extensively from his further correspondences with some theologians one might call orthodox, who refer to Benedict XVI’s account of the pulpit in the Cathedral at Troia, with its image of the faithful hound trying to fight off the roaring lion who is seeking to devour the lamb–the lambs being the Church, which as Christ is always sacrificed (but never subject to the devil) and as His flock is always at risk from the devil (but protected by Christ and His under-shepherds). The faithful minister, and the faithful theologian, ought to be those sheepdogs.
Like the Order of Preachers, the Domini Canes of old, who are not incidentally the major contributors to the development of the modern university (and those among whom the Angelic Doctor was given to the world)–like those faithful hounds, we too must rise at the scent of lion’s musk and interpose ourselves before the faithful. And we pray and call out for the Lord to send stronger protectors, not only sheepdogs but shepherds and undershepherds, in obedience to whom we may pour ourselves out in proclamation and defense of “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
Anything else is infidelity, and should be plainly called so. At the highest level of authority possible, with as systematic an inquiry as possible, as transparently and as publicly as possible. Let the light shine.