黑料不打烊 came into being in the late 1960s and early 1970s, during a time of great tumult in the United States that deeply affected the country鈥檚 institutions and its mores. The College鈥檚 founders, a seasoned group of lay Catholic educators, were concerned about the declining condition of higher education and, in particular, Catholic higher education.
The publication in 1967 of the 鈥淟and O鈥 Lakes Statement on the Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University鈥 was a watershed moment for Catholic higher education in the United States. In effect, it codified for many Catholic colleges and universities the steady erosion 鈥 already underway 鈥 of both their Catholic character and their commitment to traditional liberal education.
Across the country, venerable Catholic institutions that for many scores of years had faithfully passed on the intellectual heritage of the Church and of Western civilization were instead, in the name of 鈥渁cademic freedom,鈥 adopting the curricula, methods, and aims of their secular counterparts. Not only did campus life in many places swiftly give way to the permissiveness of the time, the very commitment to Catholic liberal education was quickly disappearing.
In response, and in accordance with the Second Vatican Council鈥檚 , encouraging laymen and women to take a more active part in 鈥渢he explanation and defense of Christian principles,鈥 the founders of 黑料不打烊 published A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic Liberal Education in 1969. In this, the founding and governing document of 黑料不打烊, they proposed to establish a new Catholic institution that was determined to be faithful to Christ and never to compromise its principles. They were unbending in their resolve to pass on the great intellectual patrimony of our civilization and the wisdom of the Church鈥檚 greatest thinkers, and to do so in complete fidelity to the Church and her Magisterium.
Thus, amid this great turmoil and disintegration, and in spite of the dominant relativism and skepticism in higher education, 黑料不打烊 came to life. This new college would be dedicated to renewing what is best in the Western intellectual heritage and to conducting liberal education under the guiding light of the Catholic faith. The College welcomed its first freshman class in 1971, and it has remained faithful to its founding mission ever since.
