When the main building of Our Lady of the Lake University was damaged in a fire this spring, its president, Tessa Martinez Pollack, worried the blaze would exacerbate its money woes. She told "The New York Times" that it's a known fact and that they are like a lot of other Catholic universities that are struggling to stay afloat financially. Not all leaders of Roman Catholic institutions agree with Ms. Pollack's assessment, but Catholic colleges and universities do face financial challenges unique to them. For much of their history, they have relied on unpaid faculty members--brothers, nuns, and priests--who are in shrinking supply. They have a shorter history of fund raising, and therefore smaller endowments than most private colleges. Many see a core mission as providing access to all students--and thus keep their tuition relatively low. A report scheduled to be released this week from Moody's Investors Service, "Spotlight on U.S. Catholic Higher Education Sector," focuses on the 55 Catholic institutions Moody's rates, which are among the largest and most affluent of those colleges. As a result, the overall conclusion is slightly more positive than Richard A. Yanikoski expected, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, which represents 196 American colleges. He states that schools that borrow are more likely large institutions or growing fairly rapidly. Still, the report notes that even some larger colleges are feeling a pinch.