Though Georgetown has a strong Jesuit and Catholic identity, I am not sure I was prepared for my introduction to the religious environment at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, PUC), especially since I do not consider myself Catholic. I was running late on the day of our first big test in one of my classes at PUC, and I slid into my desk just as the professor began to lead the entire class in prayer. This had never happened before, and after my initial confusion I realized she was praying for a minimum of violence in the citywide protests that would be held later that day (not, as I first thought, praying for us to do well on the test we were about to take). Everyone crossed themselves, bowed their heads, and closed their eyes. Some of the students clasped their hands together. The professor asked God to protect the people of Santiago and prevent anything too terrible from happening in the riots that would surely break out downtown in front of the presidential palace. I think I was the only person in the room with their eyes still open and looking around at this unexpected classroom scene.
In this same class at PUC we were asked to analyze several theories of education and the role education plays in society. There were several times when the professor would present the Catholic educational perspectives as truth and other theories as simply that—theory, a hypothesis that might or might not be true. Never was there an attempt to force the students to reject the other theories (although philosophy students are prohibited from reading Nietzsche). But the ideas of the Church received heavy emphasis and were implicitly endorsed by the professor. Furthermore, the class environment was one that was open for students to question the professor at any point during the class. Frequently there were questions about the material, but hardly ever was there a questioning of the material, especially the Catholic material. Perhaps this is not such a surprise; I was, after all, taking a class at a university with ‘Catholic’ in its very name and over a century of Catholic tradition. Nonetheless, the never-distant presence of religion in the academic environment made a strong impression on me.
Georgetown is one of many good universities in the United States. There is always strong competition to be considered a top 25 university, and the majority of the universities in that elite group are secular institutions. Thousands of kids receive a higher education in these diverse environments. PUC, on the other hand, is one of two top universities in Chile. It is known for having high academic standards for its students, and its students are considered to be among the best and brightest of Chile. Students from the families with better-than-average resources who have access to the best primary and secondary educations are funneled through PUC and its strongest competitor, the University of Chile (La Universidad de Chile), a state university. They both have similarly sized student populations. This means that about half of the Chileans who pass through the best academic institutions in their country are having experiences similar to the one I had in my classroom. This is to mention nothing of their primary and secondary educations, which (as I discovered in conversations with a few Chilean students) frequently have strong Catholic overtones if they went on to study at PUC.
Though it would be difficult to pinpoint the effects of a strongly Catholic-influenced higher education, I still strongly believe that it must have an influence on society. The students who pass through PUC and La Universidad de Chile are the most likely to achieve high-paying jobs, to take positions in the government, or to become important leaders in the business community. About half of those future graduates will arrive at their new jobs with a distinctly Catholic notion of education or never having read Nietzsche. I do not offer this as a verdict criticizing PUC and its methods, but it is something that should be noted since it may play a significant role in determining Chile’s academic, political, and professional future.
