ABSTRACT
A systematic review of the mission and values statements of more than two-hundred Catholic colleges and universities reveals that a substantial number have carefully constructed their college descriptions to downplay their ties to Catholicism—and some have deleted the word "Catholic" from their own websites, catalogues, and bulletins. One of the strategies that many Catholic colleges like St. Joseph's have used is to refer to a Catholic "heritage" or "tradition" or to replace the word "Catholic" with the name of the founding religious order. Like the College of the Holy Cross, neither the College of Santa Fe nor Holy Names University describe themselves as Catholic colleges in their mission statements. The College of Notre Dame of Maryland's mission statement claims that the college "educates women as leaders to transform the world." The mission statement for Carroll College of Helena, Montana, states that it is a "Catholic, diocesan, liberal arts college in the ecumenical tradition of the Second Vatican Council.".
