More on Catholic hiring at Catholic universities

A few weeks ago, my Notre Dame colleague, Fr. Bill Miscamble, had a piece in America magazine, in which he discussed the importance to Catholic universities — at least, to those that aspire to be Catholic — of hiring and retaining Catholic faculty.  The piece was widely discussed in the blogosphere (and, I’m sure, in faculty lounges and bars where alumni hang out).  In response, another friend and colleague, Prof. John McGreevy, responded in Commonweal, and contended that Fr. Miscamble had both missed the good news that there is and failed to appreciate the nature of the Catholic-hiring challenge.

Fr. Miscamble has now prepared a reply to Prof. McGreevy.  Apparently, America magazine is not going to publish it.  So, I have reproduced the whole thing, here.  In his reply, Fr. Miscamble discusses, among other things, the importance of non-Catholics to the mission of a Catholic university, the caution that is (as Prof. McGreevy had pointed out) appropriate regarding a focus simply on “the numbers”, and the question of the “depth of the pool” of possible Catholic hires.