IIT is currently investigating reports that the class gift of the Wyoming Catholic College (WCC) Class of 2020 will be a down payment for opening a cause for the canonization of Dr. John Senior. Senior (1923-99) was a Professor of Humanities and Classics at the Universities of Wyoming and Kansas, and founder of the Integrated Humanities Program (IHP) at the second. A convert to Catholicism he is most famous as author of the The Death of Christian Culture (1977) and The Restoration of Christian Culture (1983).
His extremely popular IHP program influenced many of the founders of WCC such that even though Senior never saw the school, he is treated there nearly as a patron saint already among students which gave rise to seniors’ plans to make this official. As a high ranking WCC senior close to their class leadership told us, the gift of such a payment would be “the highest offering we could make to the school” and “its seriously under consideration with a final decision to come by May 1st.” Other options under consideration to fulfill the unrequired but long-standing custom of classes giving a gift to the school upon their graduation include “gifting a school mascot, gold-leafed toilets for Frassati, and possibly paying for a new drain system for Frassati” according to the same source.
Past classes have given gifts to the school upon their graduation ranging from benches to wall painting and statues to copies of the Roman Missal. While “a little out of the ordinary,” IIT Faith analyst, the Average Muslim Liturgist tells us “sponsored canonizations are a new rising trend in the Catholic Church that a few more ‘trendy’ students are just starting to latch on to.”
Church officials have not yet commented on this rumor for an investigation into the cause for canonization of Senior, which would require multiple levels of ecclesiastical interest in the case and approval. It’s currently unclear who would direct the investigation into the case and even how expensive such a process would be.
The senior’s final decision on their class gift is expected April 31st.