Educators want social teachings on
campus
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Special to the National Catholic Reporter New Rochelle,
N.Y.
Peace and justice matters might hold a significant place in the
realm of Catholic teaching, but few Catholic colleges and universities pay much
formal attention to such issues, according to peace and justice educators who
met here recently.
The educators gathered to discuss ways to incorporate church
teachings into the curriculum of Catholic colleges and universities and to
combat the apathy and opposition that often greet such programs.
Courses in peace and justice are essential if the
church is to communicate its social teaching to future generations, retired
Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis told educators at the
national symposium Peace and Justice Education on the Catholic
Campus June 25-27 at Iona College. About 200 representatives of 60
Catholic colleges and universities attended the meeting, which was sponsored by
the college.
But such courses are not part of the curriculum at most of the
nations 220 Catholic colleges and universities. While 32 institutions in
the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities offer courses in peace
and justice education, most schools address such issues in campus organizations
rather than in the classroom.
Conference participants heard from a half dozen schools that have
implemented peace and justice education pilot programs sponsored by the
association.
A growing percentage of students and faculty at Catholic
institutions are not Catholic, speakers noted, and those who are Catholic are
often unaware of, or resistant to, the churchs social teaching in areas
such as just war, human rights, welfare reform and labor.
Many professors are like monks, said Joseph Fahey, a
Manhattan College professor who taught in the first Catholic peace studies
program there. They make good lecturers and researchers but dont
want to be priests or prophets, he said.
Carl Procario-Foley, who directs campus ministry at Iona, said
peace and justice teachers are often seen as countercultural or the
liberal bastion by their peers.
Although research by the University of San Diego on last
years freshman class revealed that 75 percent have done volunteer work,
there is a great disconnect between their voluntarism and their knowledge
of Catholic social thought, said Kathleen Maas Weigert, who heads the
Office of Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame. Catholic schools
must find a way to reconnect the churchs teaching to areas of service and
citizenship, she said.
Association director Monica Hellwig suggested following up the
radicalizing moments of students voluntarism with heavy
analysis and reflection on the systemic causes of human suffering. This
requires investigating what it is in economic structures that leads to
unemployment, homelessness and poverty in generation after generation,
Hellwig said, including examining how the U.S. economy contributes to poverty
overseas. She urged that such analyses take an interdisciplinary approach,
drawing on the social and physical sciences, to create a more
intellectually focused next generation.
Activities within the Catholic church and its educational
institutions can be an obstacle to those who want to pursue peace and justice
studies, Fahey said. His list of concerns include the tension between the
current generation of women and the church; the policy of restricting
collective bargaining at many Catholic colleges; and the fact that many
Catholic colleges welcome ROTC programs and job recruitment by
military-industrial corporations.
Catholic schools have to get out of the war business,
Fahey said. War is legitimate mass murder. Those who engage in it are
serial killers, and we have to say so.
What many scholars see as threats to academic freedom from church
officials also present difficulties, Fahey said.
Hellwig acknowledged that relations between scholars and the
hierarchy are not ideal. The church believes it has the truth, and the
truth is unchanging, as if it is saying, We have given you
the truth in sufficient formulations. You need only apply it, she
said.
However, she said, divine revelations unfold through a
never-ending process of history, experience, consciousness,
questioning and tradition. Hellwig urged patience in dealing with Rome, in
doing the doable and moving things a little.
Roach, who led the U.S. bishops task force in a new effort
to communicate the churchs social teaching (NCR, July 3), saw less
difficulty dealing with Rome than with the resistance in American society to
the churchs taking an effective stand on public policy. If the
church doesnt stand for gospel principles in public policy, then gospel
principles arent going to be enumerated, he said.
National Catholic Reporter, July 31,
1998
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