Proceedings of a symposium that was designed to assess Catholic higher education are presented. Addresses of the five panelists are presented. In "Catholic Higher Education--An Overview," John H. Murphy considers historical developments in order to elucidate the current and future role of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. The focus is the identity of the schools as Catholic. Alice Gallin considers "The Environment of Catholic Higher Education in the l980s" in terms of enrollment, the location of numbers of Catholic colleges, population trends, student characteristics, and curricula. Edmund D. Pellegrino considers the present and future prospects concerning "Research and Graduate Studies in Catholic Universities," as well as some suggestions for Catholic foundations. Daniel E. Pilarczyk's "A Bishop Looks at the Contemporary Catholic College/University" discusses what the Church expects from Catholic universities in respect to the schools' theological activity. In "Catholic Universities as an International Community," Harve Carrier examines the present situation of Catholic universities in terms of numbers, location, cooperative efforts, identification, specific functions today, major problems that are emerging, and suggestions for combating these problems. (SW)