Some questions about a Catholic university can only be answered by looking more closely at Catholicism itself and especially at some of the influential movements within the Catholic Church in recent decades, especially the Second Vatican Council and the changes it brought about in the Catholic community.
A Quick Overview
Summarizing a vast and complex phenomenon such as Catholicism is probably a quixotic undertaking. There are some useful overviews, however, that try to capture the distinctive characteristics of the Catholic perspective, Catholic style, the Catholic mindframe.
- Rev. Richard P. McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, has written one of the best selling syntheses of Catholic theology. The introduction and conclusion of his Catholicism provide two orientations to this large subject.
- Rev. Michael Himes, of Boston College's Theology Department, has written a useful summary of the specifically Catholic hallmarks of education in a Catholic university "Living Conversation: Catholic Higher Education in a Catholic Context" (Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Fall 1995) which can serve as a complement to McBrien's survey of the primary characteristics of Catholicism. Another essay by Himes, covering much of the same material, is in As Leaven in the World: Catholic Perspectives on Faith, Vocation, and the Intellectual Life, ed. Thomas M. Landy (Franklin, Wisconsin: Sheed and Ward, 2001), 91-103.
Further Resources
- For a wealth of basic information about Catholicism see the online version of the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1909). Obviously untouched by developments in 20th century historiography, the encyclopedia's authority has to be put in context, but it is a good introduction to a number of topics in the history of the Catholic Church.
- For an understanding of Catholic doctrine, one might consult catechisms. These manuals of religious instruction for pastoral use, especially for the young or for converts, go back to the early centuries of the Church's life, but the term "catechism" was first used for a printed book that presented religious doctrine, usually in a question-and-answer format, during the Catholic-Protestant controversies of the 16th century. Luther wrote one (1529), as did Calvin (1537). The Jesuit St. Peter Canisius wrote a catechism (1555) that went through 400 editions in 150 years. The Roman Catechism, authorized by the Council of Trent, appeared in 1566. Older American Catholics will remember the Baltimore Catechism, which first appeared in 1885, with 1400 questions and answers. In the aftermath of Vatican II Pope John Paul II initiated the compilation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , which abandoned the question—and—answer format for a length expository description of Catholic doctrine. It was published in 1997.
- The Catholic Periodical and Literature Index 1981—1999 is available to BC users via the BC Library Resources index.
- The web page of the United States Catholic Conference contains a variety of information about current topics of interest; all major statements by the Bishops Conference; current and archived news releases from Catholic News Service; daily readings from the Lectionary of the Mass and an extensive glossary of terms associated with Catholic worship and life.
- The complete text of the New American Bible is available online and indexed by book.
- For young adults, an accessible glossary of catholic terminology is maintained by DisciplesNow.com.
- Understanding Catholicism by Monika K. Hellwig (Paulist Press, 2002).
- The Catholic Faith: An Introduction by Lawrence S. Cunningham (Paulist Press, 1987).
- Another useful resource is Trent and All That, Renaming Catholicism in The Early Modern Era by John W. O'Malley, SJ. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000). This small book came out of the Darcy lectures that O'Malley delivered in 1993 at Campion Hall, Oxford University; It is a treasury of updating the way we name and characterize the so-called Counter-Reformation. It updates the language of Catholicism in an engaging, familiar style.
- Those interested in developments in Catholicism over the last century might look to Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team, by Mark S. Massa, S.J. (New York: Crossroad, 1999).The subtitle gives you a good idea of the approach that Massa has taken, exploring the various icons of popular Catholicism as it moved from a ghetto subculture into mainstream American life.
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Vatican II
An ecumenical council is a gathering of the bishops of the Church to address doctrinal and pastoral questions and to issue decrees for the regulation of Church life. When the Second Vatican Council was opened by Pope John XXIII in 1962, there had not been a council of the Church for almost 100 years. Given the enormous social, political, and cultural changes of the preceding century, it is understandable that the work of Vatican II was so far reaching, so influential in changing the face of Catholicism, and so controversial. 
Most Catholics noticed the immediate effect of the Council in the decrees that reformed the celebration of Mass and other liturgical rituals and introduced the celebration of the sacraments in the vernacular languages of the world. Among the other notable documents of the Council was the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, "Lumen Gentium," which described the church in scriptural rather than juridical language. It is the source of the powerful image of the church as the people of God, a pilgrim people. It developed the idea of the collegiality of bishops to complement Vatican I's emphasis on the authority of the pope and for the first time offered a theology of lay ministry in the church. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church, "Gaudium et Spes," situated the church amid the needs and values of contemporary culture. Other important decrees offered fresh views on religious freedom, ecumenism, and on relationships with non-Christian religions, especially Judaism. The documents of Vatican II can be found online.
The number of books and articles assessing the significance and influence of Vatican II is enormous. Of particular interest are two scholarly articles by the eminent historian of religion, John W. O'Malley, S.J., "Reform, Historical Consciousness, and Vatican II's Aggiormamento," (Theological Studies, 1971) and "Developments, Reforms, and Two Great Reformations: Towards a Historical Assessment of Vatican II," (Theological Studies 1983) which set Vatican II in the context of two other great reformations in the history of the Church, the Gregorian reform of the 11th century and the Lutheran reform of the 16th century.
"Historical Thought and The Reform Crisis of The Early Sixteenth Century," (Theological Studies, 1967) by John O'Malley is a good accompaniment to his other research on Vatican II.
These articles are the best introduction to the meaning of Vatican II as a different kind of Church council, one that has introduced a methodology based on experience and historical reflection rather than on a philosophical / theological position that presents itself as atemporal. In this methodology lies much of what we mean by reform and renewal. Many of the above O'Malley articles have been collected in Tradition and Transition, Historical Perspectives on Vatican II (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1989).
O'Malley also contributed one half of a recent pair of articles in Commonweal magazine (9 March 2001) on the significance of Vatican II, "A Break from the Past." James Hitchcock, professor of history at Saint Louis University contributed the other, "A Continuum in the Great Tradition."
A briefer and more accessible consideration of the post-Vatican II Church is by Thomas J. Reese, S.J., "2001 and Beyond: Preparing the Church for the Next Millennium," (America, 21 June 1997; pp.10-18.)
Charles R. Morris, journalist and historian, lectured at Boston College in 1998. His remarks on the challenges faced by the contemporary Catholic Church were published in Boston College Magazine ("Cross Purposes," Spring, 1998). Morris is the author of American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners who built America's Most Powerful Church (Times Books, 1997), a well regarded history of the recent history of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
For an informed and thoughtful report on what it is like to grow up Catholic in the aftermath of Vatican II, see "The Making of a Post-Vatican II Theologian: Reflections on 25 Years of Catholic Education," by John J. Markey, O.P. (America, 16 July 1994).
For a more extended work, see Roman Catholicism after Vatican II, by Robert A. Bums, O.P. (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2001). This book was written by the chair of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Its focus is to reinterpret the contemporary Catholic experience in the light of and after some years of living Vatican II, either accepting and developing the major currents of that council or rejecting and 
enervating their significance. It is well done, covering Jesus, authority, the global church, the call to inculturation, and the validity of other religions The book is well laid out with a succinct introduction to each chapter, a systematic approach to the question from tradition, the current state of the question, and ending with a summary of the chapter and study questions. Obviously it would be an excellent textbook for class. But it also provides folks with a solid text for a quick read on key questions triggered by and at Vatican II and developed in the succeeding years.
The faculty at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts published a collection of essays, Vatican II: The Unfinished Agenda, A Look To The Future, edited by Lucien Richard, OMI, Daniel Harrington, S.J., and John W. O'Malley. S.J. (NewYork/Mahweh: Paulist, 1987).