EDITORIAL Does Catholic U. hold patent on Catholic
education?
The intent to require all faculty in
the School of Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America to seek
formal church permission to teach is an example of the leverage the document
Ex Corde Ecclesiae provides those who equate a good Catholic university
with total control of theological thought.
Just as the bishops recently told the academic world that it had
nothing to fear from Ex Corde, the relatively new president of Catholic
University, Vincentian Fr. David M. OConnell, is telling faculty they
have nothing to fear. Of course, the opposite is true. The colleges, and in the
case of CUA, the individual faculty members, have every reason to fear.
For it is impossible to view this latest move apart from the
steady, slow march by Rome and those doing Romes bidding in the United
States to grab control of theology faculties and rid the academic landscape of
annoying questions.
It has happened in such tiny increments and over such a long
period that the erosion goes largely unnoticed until the ultimatum comes down
from the presidents office.
Faculty at Catholic University certainly can draw little cheer
from the recent case of Professor Michael Stoeber, denied tenure in the
department of religion and religious education by the universitys board
of trustees despite near-unanimous faculty support at every level of review.
Stoeber, a scholar of Eastern religions, apparently got into trouble for some
too positive remarks on the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation (NCR, July
2).
A former dean of the School of Religion at Catholic University
said talk of reorganizing the school predated OConnell and was prompted
by a lack of logic in the internal structure of the school.
Undoubtedly there were confusing aspects to housing faculty
members that had the churchs nihil obstat, or clearance to teach, with
those not required to hold such clearance in the same discipline.
But an OConnell memo on the matter said that the new
requirement for faculty was the stated preference of the prefect of the
[Vatican] Congregation for Catholic Education for CUA, the chancellor of the
university, some members of the board of trustees and my own
preference.
The preference is an extension of sentiments that OConnell
has determinedly stated in public in several contexts: That Catholic University
should lead the way in showing what it means to be Catholic and what it
means to be a university. Apparently as a way of backing up that claim,
he made a public show at his installation of taking a controversial Profession
of Faith required of almost anyone who teaches at any level in the church, but
formally taken by few.
Without disparaging anyones motives for taking the
Profession of Faith or Oath of Fidelity, OConnell had to know that his
statement was also steeped in the politics of a debate in which he has been
afforded a clear advantage.
While other college presidents and theologians had debated for
nearly a decade the merits of Ex Corde and the terms of its
implementations, only OConnell was given front and center at two
consecutive bishops meetings to declare that Catholic educations
hope lie in a full embrace of the most stringent proposals for the papal
document on higher education.
The bishops, at least at recent annual meetings, never heard from
representatives of the majority of academics and Catholic college presidents
who, over the years, have strongly opposed strict juridical norms for
implementing Ex Corde.
OConnell has staked his claim -- Catholic University will
show us all what it means to be Catholic and a university. One can only presume
that many who have labored long and hard in the arena of Catholic higher
education at institutions they regard as fully Catholic would find his a rather
arrogant claim.
The question remains whether OConnells vision will
advance Catholic thought in the best tradition of the academy or show that a
university can actually be a theologians most dangerous threat.
National Catholic Reporter, December 17,
1999
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