Academic leaders hope to head off
bishops vote on Ex Corde norms
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
NCR Staff
Catholic university presidents are making a last-ditch effort to
head off a Nov. 17 vote by U.S. Catholic bishops that many academics say could
threaten the future of Catholic colleges and universities in the United
States.
Until the vote, its an anxious waiting game for academic
leaders who are, for the most part, united against the fourth and latest draft
of implementation norms for Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul IIs
apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education. The 1990 document, whose
title is translated From the Heart of the Church, calls for
stronger Catholic identity -- and church laws to ensure it -- at the
schools.
Although the waiting has already extended over nearly a decade,
most theologians and university administrators say theyd prefer more
waiting to the proposed new rules.
Ironically, both proponents and opponents of imposing laws express
support for the popes intent: stronger Catholic identity.
Fr. Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit
Colleges and Universities, said bishops and university presidents are meeting
quietly and locally, following up on a suggestion by Bishop John J. Leibrecht
of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo. Leibrecht, who heads the bishops
committee working on the norms, proposed continuing informal talks in a letter
that accompanied release of the fourth draft in September.
Departments of theology and religious studies have also been
meeting around the issue, with most taking a wait and see
approach.
If the norms pass as written, theologians at Catholic schools will
have to ask bishops for a mandatum -- essentially a certificate of
approval -- to teach, and university presidents will have to recite a new
profession of faith and oath of fidelity, both objects of theological
consternation after they were promulgated in 1989.
Further, bishops could require theologians to recite the
problematic profession and oath before a mandatum would be issued.
The proposed norms also call for a majority of a schools
faculty and board to the extent possible to be composed of
Catholics demonstrably committed to the church.
Currie said he knows of no one willing to predict how the bishops
will vote -- whether they will adopt, reject, amend or, as many academics hope,
table the document. The Vatican, which gets the final say on any norms the
bishops pass, rejected a pastoral, non-juridical approach overwhelmingly
approved by U.S. bishops in 1996.
Two Catholic theology societies and the Association of Catholic
Colleges and Universities have written the bishops urging them to table the
document and extend opportunities for further discussions. Commonweal
published in its Nov. 5 issue an open letter from officials and professors at
the University of Dayton. The letter stressed that furthering Catholic
identity, an effort already well underway at many schools, depends on
relationships rather than rules -- relationships that would be damaged by
an overly juridical approach.
In a letter to U.S. bishops, Monika K. Hellwig, executive director
of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, asked bishops to
table the proposed norms or, failing that, to vote against
adoption. She enclosed talking points for discussion, including one that
read: We are aware that some of our member colleges have expressed the
opinion that they could work with this draft given their present particular
situation. However, the overwhelming majority finds some of
the requirements problematic and fears lawsuits, loss of
federal and/or state financial aid and other problems.
Officers and board members of the Catholic Theological Society of
America wrote to Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Oct. 20, presenting objections to the
present draft. Copies were sent to all U.S. bishops and college and university
presidents.
Among objections, the society said the document fails to set out
specific criteria for applying for, receiving, being denied or losing a
mandatum, and does not provide effective norms for resolving
disputes. More fundamentally, the letter objects to juridicizing
the role of theologians at all.
The challenge we now face is to affirm and nurture the
authentic ecclesial communion we all share in ways that serve best the mission
of the whole church, the theologians wrote.
The College Theology Societys board wrote college and
university presidents expressing support of those points.
In an interview, Mercy Sr. Margaret A. Farley, professor at Yale
Divinity School and president of the Catholic Theological Society, stressed
that theologians are almost without exception a faithful group that wants
to serve the church. Sure we need to worry about Catholic identity at
Catholic institutions, she said, but imposing external controls may in
fact undermine Catholic identity in the long run.
Some experts note that several Southern Baptist colleges,
including Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Mercer University in Macon,
Ga., have distanced themselves from their sponsoring denomination after church
leaders moved to impose strict theological controls. That effort followed a
conservative takeover of the denomination in the 1980s.
Similarly, Catholic traditionalists strongly support the proposed
norms. In mid-September, speakers at a conference at The Catholic University of
Americas law school insisted that legal norms were workable in the United
States. Texts of talks have been mailed to U.S. bishops with funding from
Thomas Monaghan, traditionalist Catholic financier. Monaghan, founder and
former owner of the Dominos Pizza empire, recently founded the
conservative Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Most theologians, though, argue that episcopal controls over
theologians would diminish respect for a field that already struggles for a
recognized place in academia. Terrence Tilley, chair of religious studies at
the University of Dayton, said the specter of outside control would almost
surely drive the most qualified graduate students in theology to more secular
schools such as Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Duke. The shift
would weaken theology departments at Catholic schools, producing the opposite
effect of what bishops intend, he said. I feel strongly that imposing a
mandate is shooting ourselves in the foot theologically, Tilley said.
The American Association of University Professors passed a
resolution in June supporting efforts aimed at norms that comport with
generally accepted principles of academic freedom and governance.
Jonathan Knight, associate secretary of the association, said in a telephone
interview that its committee on academic freedom and tenure has before it a new
statement, proposed for adoption just after this issue of NCR goes to
press, asserting that the latest draft does not allay our concerns.
The bishops public debate and vote on Nov. 17 will follow a
discussion of the document in a closed executive session the preceding day.
Leibrecht said the purpose of the executive session is to make sure bishops in
dioceses that have no colleges and universities have all the information they
need before a vote. Some of us began to be concerned that bishops
involved in the dialogues with university officials had certain
advantages over those who had not had those experiences, he said.
No vote, not even a straw vote, is planned for the executive
session, Leibrecht said, although he added that he cant be sure what
individual bishops might propose after the private session begins.
Leibrecht said voting would be by written ballot. Some academics
had expressed concern that a vote by show of hands -- allowing bishops to see
how their colleagues are voting -- might inhibit some bishops from voting to
table or reject the document.
Educational leaders who oppose legal norms have seized on a
statement by Bishop John M. DArcy calling for further dialogue on the
issues, especially with theologians. So far, discussions have involved mainly
bishops and presidents of institutions.
An educational leader who asked to remain anonymous said
DArcy had taken considerable heat from some cardinals and fellow bishops
after his views were published in Todays Catholic, the newspaper
of DArcys diocese of South Bend and Fort Wayne. Ind. The University
of Notre Dame, one of the nations top-ranked Catholic universities, is in
South Bend.
In an off-the-record interview with a reporter for NCR, a
highly placed church leader in Rome said Americans take laws too seriously.
In Rome they make nice laws, then everyone does what is realistic. The
law is very beautiful, but no one takes it literally. In America, a text is a
text. Everyone assumes you have to implement it just as it is.
Farley of the Catholic Theological Society said its
unrealistic to impose laws on Americans and expect them to react like Italians.
Weve been saying ever since Vatican II that we know there are two
different ways of approaching law in the church: the Anglo-Saxon way and the
Latin way, she said. You get inculturated into how you look at the
law.
Because Americans dont ignore laws, the Vatican should
resist imposing laws that are unworkable, she said.
National Catholic Reporter, November 12,
1999
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