id author title date pages extension mime words sentence flesch summary cache txt news-005275 Crossroads | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame .html text/html 3967 143 44 But the controversy should not have been a surprise, because, for the past few years, Catholic universities across the country have been in the throes of an identity crisis. Ever since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and its mandate that the Catholic Church open itself to the world, Catholic universities have pursued secularization policies as a way of coming to terms with the world—and putting themselves on a par with the nation’s best research universities. cache/news-005275.html txt/news-005275.txt