McGrath Institute Blog

The questions “Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?” are complicated for any high schooler, and perhaps even more so for young women attending a competitive, all-girls Catholic school. Sarah Shutrop, Director of Campus Ministry at Immaculate Heart Academy in Bergen County, New Jersey, helps many young women navigate the journey of self-realization and understanding one’s place in the community. On Church Life Today Shutrop discussed how the academic rigor of the college prep school often creates a culture of competition among women, making it difficult to feel a sense of belonging during a particularly formative period of their lives. The increasing influence of social media, especially Instagram, in which one’s image is carefully curated, adds to this problem by making it easier to label and define girls in superficial ways.

At what point do we become too old to read fairy tales? Ideally, never, according to Dr. David Fagerberg, professor of Liturgical studies in Notre Dame’s Theology Department. We outgrow fairy tales because they seem simple, and it’s not until we return to them with our own children that we recognize their depth and ability to transport us to another world. Adults would do well to recover the fairy tale, suggests Fagerberg, who is particularly popular for his classes on the fiction of C.S. Lewis. Featured in the McGrath Institute’s annual Lenten lecture series this past year, Fagerberg addressed what Lewis hopes for us to find in Narnia.

Revered for her heroic virtue, radical hospitality and contributions to the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day is the epitome of Christian love. But is she a saint? In her own words, she could do without the title. Dorothy was known to say bluntly, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily."