Benedictine scholar backs bishops' call to renew Catholic education

Benedictine College scholar Andrew Salzmann has put Atchison into a widening national fight over what Catholic education should be, backing a new bishops’ statement that argues schools must return to formation, tradition and Catholic culture. The statement, shaped at a May 27-28 summit in Front Royal, Virginia, lands as Catholic enrollment declines and classical schools gain momentum.

The bishops and scholars behind the Front Royal Statement pointed to a sharp long-term contraction in Catholic schooling. The document says Catholic schools grew from about 1,400 in 1874 to 2,500 within a decade, then to nearly 13,000 by 1960, educating more than five million students. Today, it says, about 6,000 Catholic schools remain for fewer than 1.7 million students, and an average of 100 schools have closed each year for 60 years.

Salzmann, who is associate professor of theology and director of Benedictine’s Sheridan Center for Classical Studies, joined other scholars in supporting the statement’s call to renew Catholic education from the ground up. The seven principles in the document say education is for heaven, human dignity is paramount, the rights of children and parents matter, the Church has responsibilities, teachers and schools share responsibilities, curriculum should transmit the Catholic intellectual tradition, and Catholic schools should transmit Catholic culture.

That is more than an academic argument. It asks whether Catholic education should be judged mainly by test scores, college placement or classroom technique, or whether it should be measured by how well it forms students in faith, reason and moral purpose. Salzmann said he came to see how some educational models deny the Catholic view of the human person, a line of thought that places the debate squarely around anthropology, not just pedagogy.

For Atchison, the significance runs through Benedictine itself. The college launched the Sheridan Center for Classical Studies on April 29, 2022, as part of its Transforming Culture in America plan, then announced two master’s degrees in classical education on Dec. 4, 2023, with enrollment opening for summer 2024. That background shows Benedictine has been building a public identity around classical and Catholic liberal-arts renewal for years, and Salzmann’s role gives the college another voice in a debate that could shape how Catholic families, parishes and educators in Kansas think about the future of their schools.