Regardless of where you stand on the nasty public spat involving the president of the University of St. Michael’s College and some school faculty, it seems fundamentally obvious that a Catholic institution of higher education should promote a visible and distinctly Catholic identity.

Long-simmering tension between St. Michael’s College president David Mulroney and some of the college’s senior professors, librarians and administrators has broken out into the open.

TORONTO - The diplomat’s take on what it means to be educated includes getting out of your country and out of your comfort zone. For incoming University of St. Michael’s College president David Mulroney, his diplomat’s understanding of education also happens to be Catholic.

If you ever visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing on a Sunday and decide you would like to attend Mass at Our Lady of China, you will have to catch Line Two from the Qianmen subway station just south of the square and travel six stations to Dongzhimen. Walk about five minutes west from Dongzhimen and you will find yourself at the front gate of the Canadian Embassy. Inside the embassy on Sundays expatriates from Africa, Europe, Canada and elsewhere gather to form their own parish.