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ROTC and the Catholic Campus

College of the Holy Cross wthomas{at}holycross.edu

Among the more perennially contentious issues on the campuses of many Catholic colleges and universities is the presence of the Reserve Officers'Training Corps, or ROTC. While opposition to ROTC has been by no means limited to Catholic schools, the centrality of moral and religious principles to the mission of these institutions has provided purchase for many of the arguments of ROTC critics. This article examines the major arguments put forth in support of the claim that ROTC is fundamentally inconsistent with Catholic Church teaching and, therefore, at odds with the mission of Catholic colleges and universities. The article concludes that each rests on interpretations of Catholic moral thought and teaching that are not only incomplete but also incorrect and that claims of a basic contradiction between the religious identity of Catholic institutions of higher learning and ROTC programs do not stand up well to scrutiny.

Key Words: ROTC • Catholic teaching • military institutions • military ethics

Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 33, No. 2, 224-237 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X06288806


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