Henri Nouwen Scholarship

Some interesting news from my alma mater, Yale Divinity School. From the press release:

A scholarship in honor of the late Henri Nouwen, who taught at Yale Divinity School for a decade beginning in 1971, has been established through a gift of $300,000 from a University benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Henri Nouwen Scholarship will be awarded annually to a deserving YDS student, with preference given to Roman Catholics—the first such scholarship to be created at YDS.  For most of the past two decades Roman Catholics have represented the second-largest denominational grouping at YDS, after Episcopalians, although the entire student population remains overwhelmingly Protestant.

Catholics at Yale, and Yale Divinity, have an interesting history, and it's heartening that a scholarship aimed at Catholic students is making its debut at the school (other denominations have had scholarships for their students for decades). The church has lots to add to today's intellectual challenges, especially as fundamentalist Christianity becomes increasingly loud and more mainstream. Catholic life at Yale has been strong for awhile now (in fact, the Catholic Center at Yale is one of the best Catholic campus ministries in the nation), and anything to make the financial burden to study theology a bit lighter for Catholic students is promising--though, admittedly, a couple years too late for me!

Michael O'Loughlin