Washington D.C., Jul 25, 2023 / 13:50 pm
The governance of Catholic higher education in the United States is continuing to shift as fewer and fewer of the faithful enter into religious vocations and a growing number of secular directors take over leadership roles in educational institutions.
The findings come from a report issued by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, a membership organization representing more than 200 Catholic institutions in the U.S. and around the world.
The ACCU said in its report that for several decades the leadership of U.S. Catholic colleges and universities “has been progressively handed over by the sponsoring body to lay professionals.”
A “sponsoring body” is defined in the report as “intermediary bodies and individuals” that hold “official Church status,” which often in the U.S. has been a religious community of nuns or monks.