In the mid-1990s, several hundred Catholic educators gathered at the University of St. Thomas, attempting to move the discussion of Catholic mission and identity away from a debate about juridical relationships and toward mission-inspired work for social and civil responsibility, with a commitment to research and teaching in Catholic studies. Concurrently with the origins and then the development of the issue of Catholic identity, Catholic colleges and universities in the United States were undergoing massive and sweeping changes in response to a whole range of a number of other stimuli. Responding to all of these challenges and opportunities, Catholic, and specifically Jesuit colleges and universities, have made dramatic strides in the past 40 years in academic and institutional quality, professionalism, and lay leadership that have led to new respect among their peer institutions. The most severe critics would claim that, in the process of making this very obvious progress, US colleges and universities have lost or are losing their identity as Jesuit and Catholic. Others see many opportunities for a vigorous, engaged Catholic identity and mission to transform not only the American Church but American higher education. In this paper, the author discusses the history of Catholic identity among Catholic institutions of higher education, and more specifically the development of Jesuit, Catholic identity within Jesuit colleges and universities. He presents recommendations for what Jesuit institutions can do as they face the decreasing presence of Jesuits on campus.