Jesuit Secondary Education in America and the Challenge of Elitism

For Richer, For Poorer: Jesuit Secondary Education in America and the Challenge of Elitism Author: Casey Christopher Beaumier Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104064 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2013 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of History FOR RICHER, FOR POORER: JESUIT SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AMERICA AND THE CHALLENGE OF ELITISM a dissertation by CASEY CHRISTOPHER BEAUMIER, S.J. submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2013 © copyright by CASEY CHRISTOPHER BEAUMIER 2013 For Richer, For Poorer: Jesuit Secondary Education in America and the Challenge of Elitism Casey Christopher Beaumier, S.J. Professor James O’Toole, Advisor In the 1960s American Jesuit secondary school administrators struggled to resolve a profound tension within their institutions. The religious order’s traditional educational aim dating back to the 1500s emphasized influence through contact with “important and public persons” in order that the Jesuits might in turn help direct cultures around the world to a more universal good. This historical foundation clashed sharply with what was emerging as the Jesuits’ new emphasis on a preferential option for the poor. This dissertation argues that the greater cultural and religious changes of the 1960s posed a fundamental challenge to Catholic elite education in the United States. The competing visions of the Jesuits produced a crisis of identity, causing some Jesuit high schools either to collapse or reinvent themselves in the debate over whether Jesuit schools were for richer or for poorer Americans. The dissertation examines briefly the historical process that led to this crisis of identity, beginning with the contribution of Jesuit education to the Americanization of massive numbers of first and second-generation immigrant Catholics as they adjusted to life in America in the first half of the twentieth century. As Catholics adapted, increasingly sophisticated American Jesuit schools became instrumental in the formation of a Catholic elite, and many of the institutions found themselves among elite American schools. This elite identity was disrupted by two factors: the cultural volatility of the 1960s and the Jesuits’ election of a new leader, Pedro Arrupe. While some Jesuit educators embraced Arrupe’s preferential option for the poor, others feared it would undercut the traditional approach of outreach to the elite. Through a case study of one Jesuit boarding school, the dissertation seeks to expand our understanding of the impact of 1960s social change into the less-explored realms of religion and education. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Historical Contexts: Jesuit Contributions to Catholic Education in America . 15 Chapter 2: Flourishing High Schools ................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Four Crises ....................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 4: A Sociological Study ......................................................................................... 153 Chapter 5: Jesuit Identity and the Emergence of the JSEA ............................................... 212 Chapter 6: Man or Maniac? Campion Jesuit High School: A Case Study ....................... 276 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 350 Afterword: Secondary School Developments and the Continuing Question of Identity. 361 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 380 i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the archivists at the Midwest Jesuit Archives who have welcomed me for fifteen years. I started to study Campion Jesuit High School while in graduate studies at Saint Louis University in the late 1990s and have spent too much time at the MJA. Fr. Barnabas Faherty, S.J. and Nancy Merz, who have since passed away, were sources of encouragement, as were Fr. Bill Mugan, S.J. and Mary Struckel. My friend Dr. David Miros, who is now the archivist at MJA, has been a crucial interlocutor as my project continued. The policies of the archives have changed since I began this work, so I had access to the collection in the late 90s and early 2000s that would not be allowed today. I have tried to be discerning in my use of this great Campion collection. My professors at Saint Louis, Sr. Elizabeth Kolmer, Dr. Lawrence Barmann, and Dr. James Fisher saw the very beginnings of my research on Campion and encouraged me to continue. Years later, in theology studies in Cambridge, Fr. Stephen Schloesser, S.J. and Dr. Robert Orsi guided me through a history thesis that furthered my work and gave me the confidence to pursue doctoral studies. I am grateful to the staff of the Burns Library at Boston College. The Jesuitana Collection at the Burns is world-class and my time spent with it was greatly profitable. I am grateful to my marvelous friend Dr. Peter Folan, a colleague at Boston College, who was working simultaneously on a dissertation considering secondary education. Our conversations were of tremendous value to me. I am indebted to Fr. Mark Massa, S.J., who helped me to reexamine my question during a period when the project had stalled. He and ii Fr. Joseph O’Keefe, S.J. were immensely supportive of me and helped me to renew my effort so that the project would reach completion. I am most grateful to my advisor, Dr. James O’Toole, who has been so supportive in seeing this project through to its completion. His work in American Catholic hierarchy, devotions, laity, and institutions made him an outstanding mentor and director. I would like to thank Dr. Marilynn Johnson, who helped me refine the topic at the very beginning stages. Both she and Jim O’Toole were crucial in helping me after comprehensive exams. I would like to thank Kelli Armstrong and Stephanie Chappe who helped me think about the data I collected and who organized it so that it could be presented in clear tables. I’m grateful to Ellen Kaplan-Maxfield who helped me with the careful work of footnote formatting. Finally, I am immensely grateful to Father William Leahy, S.J., the president of Boston College, who years ago during my undergraduate studies at Marquette University got me hooked on Campion and the Jesuits. His enthusiasm for Jesuit education and his excellent example have been the roots of this entire endeavor. I owe him an immense debt of gratitude and love. He is a wonderful priest, a superb Jesuit, and a true spiritual father. It is to him that I dedicate this dissertation. AMDG. iii LIST OF TABLES Number Page Table One: Jesuit High School Graduates Enrolled at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale ........... 5 Table Two: Number of Secondary Schools represented in Freshman Class at Yale .............. 6 Table Three: Jesuit High School Graduate Placement by Year ........................................... 73 Table Four: Percentage of Jeusit High School Graduate Placement by Year ...................... 74 Table Five: Number of Schools ............................................................................................ 87 Table Six: Total Enrollment ................................................................................................. 87 Table Seven: Total Enrollment and Number of Schools Over Time ................................ 142 Table Eight: Enrollment Increases and Decreases Over Time ........................................... 143 Table Nine: First Year Enrollment and Number of High Schools Over Time ................. 144 Table Ten: First Year Enrollment of High Schools Over Time ......................................... 145 Table Eleven: Enrollment Increases and Decreases Over Time ........................................ 201 Table Twelve: Enrollment Percentage Increases / Decreases Over Time .......................... 201 Table Thirteen: Average Enrollment per School Over Time ............................................. 202 Table Fourteen: Number of Priests, Scholastics, and Laity ................................................ 209 Table Fifteen: Percentage of Positions Reported by Year .................................................. 210 Table Sixteen: Campion Student Enrollment: 1965-1975 ................................................ 327 Table Seventeen: Campion Jesuit Community Membership 1965-1975 .......................... 329 Table Eighteen: Campion Jesuit Community Membership: 1965-1975 ........................... 330 Table Nineteen: Campion Curriculum 1974-1975 ........................................................... 335 Table Twenty: Enrollment at Jesuit High Schools in America .........................................

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