Bishops to advise society
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Special Report Writer
Ten U.S. Catholic bishops have agreed to be advisers to the
Cardinal Newman Society, a group dedicated to preserving Catholic identity in
higher education through rigorous advocacy of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the
controversial Vatican document on Catholic colleges and universities.
The society made the announcement in late September from its Falls
Church, Va., headquarters.
Named after the 19th-century Anglican cleric and Catholic convert
who wrote The Idea of a University, the Cardinal Newman Society
describes itself as the only national organization dedicated to restoring
respect for Christ and his church at the more than 235 Catholic colleges and
universities in the United States. The group, which has access to high
officials at the Vatican, seeks to faithfully implement Ex Corde
Ecclesiae and to assist the trustees, administrators, faculty, staff,
students and alumni of Catholic colleges and universities in retaining their
institutions Catholic identity.
The 10 bishops are among the most conservative of the
more than 250 active U.S. bishops, at least when it comes to full support
and implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, said Patrick Reilly,
executive director of the society. The group sent invitations to 30 bishops,
sorting through lists of prelates and selecting those who had spoken in favor
of Pope John Paul IIs 1990 apostolic letter or those who were quoted in
press clippings as supporting the popes appeal for preserving Catholic
identity in higher education.
While all 30 responded favorably to what were
doing, only 10 agreed to be advisers. A lot felt overwhelmed by
their work loads, Reilly said, noting that the group had hoped to engage
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, who is one of five bishops charged
with developing procedures for granting the mandatum (mandate) to teach
theology in Catholic schools. The most controversial tenet of Ex Corde
Ecclesiae, the mandatum is to be given to theology teachers by the
local bishop, who also can revoke it. Exactly how the mandatum is to be
administered has yet to be worked out.
Fiercely loyal
One of the five bishops on the mandatum procedural
committee -- Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill. -- accepted the
societys invitation. He will be joined by Archbishop John Donoghue of
Atlanta; Franciscan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez of San Juan, Puerto Rico;
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb.; Bishop Raymond Burke of LaCrosse,
Wis.; Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty of Scranton, Pa.; Bishop Alfred Hughes of
Baton Rouge, La.; Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Martino of Philadelphia; Bishop John
Myers of Peoria, Ill., and Franciscan Bishop Sean OMalley of Fall River,
Mass.
These bishops are fiercely loyal to the Vatican and will be
much more interested in having Ex Corde Ecclesiae implemented than
many others among the bishops who voted 223 to 31 last Nov. 16 to set in motion
a plan for certifying professors who teach Catholic theology in Catholic
institutions, Reilly told NCR.
Following the bishops vote, the society has changed from its
role of advocacy for the Ex Corde to one of assisting those who want to
implement it, he said. We want to become a clearing-house of ideas, but
we want to ensure that what were doing is consistent with the direction
the bishops are taking. We need a few bishops to monitor what were doing.
We need bishops we can go to when we have a question, Reilly said.
Both the bishops and the society have the same agenda, he noted --
enacting the document. The question is How can the Cardinal Newman
Society best do that? We need their input and participation. We
dont want to go off on our own.
The Cardinal Newman Society is likely to run into opposition from
the nations Catholic theologians, many of whom are less than enthusiastic
about the new rules. In a recent report, a committee of the Catholic
Theological Society of America voiced continuing serious reservations about the
mandatum. The group has asked the bishops to establish a national review
and appeal procedure that could be invoked if a bishop wants to withhold or
withdraw a mandatum. Many theologians are deeply concerned that
any due process guarantees with which the U.S. bishops may agree are
nonetheless too likely to be subverted if a curial official decides to
intervene and unilaterally directs a bishop to withdraw a
mandatum, the report said.
Reilly noted that most of the communication with the bishops on
the new advisory group has been by letter, though members of the society have
met several times with Jesuit Fr. Terrence Toland of the U.S.
Bishops education staff, Reilly said. Weve had more contact
with the Vatican than with the U.S. bishops, he added.
During each of the past few years a member of the society has gone
to Rome to apprise them of our work, Reilly said. Earlier this year
Manuel Miranda, president of the societys board of directors, met with
Archbishop Giuseppe Pittou, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic
Education, and with Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the congregation.
Miranda is a corporate lawyer in Washington.
Catholic identity contradicted
Reilly, 30, helped initiate the society in 1993, along with five
other young Catholics. The founders were graduates of The Catholic University
of America and of three Jesuit schools -- Fordham, Georgetown and the
University of San Francisco.
As students and alumni of Catholic universities, all of them were
concerned that Catholic identity was not apparent, but that it was being
contradicted at their respective schools, Reilly said. Wed
expected something a little more focused on the spirituality of the whole
person, but we didnt find it, he said.
As a Fordham undergraduate, Reilly was excited to read Ex Corde
Ecclesiae. But he found few professors or students who knew or cared much
about it. As editor of The Ram, Fordhams student newspaper for
1990-91, Reilly sought to rouse debate on the editorial pages about the nature
and identity of a Catholic university. A decade later, he and his organization
have dispatched some 5,000 copies of Ex Corde Ecclesiae to bishops and
to staff, students, alumni and trustees of Catholic colleges and
universities.
Although the society has decided not to establish branches at any
Catholic institution, it reaches out to students, staff and alumni by
supporting alternative papers such as Right Reason at Notre Dame and
The Georgetown Academy at Georgetown. We want to turn our
attention to campus life and student affairs through these kinds of
publications, Reilly said. The society has also established links with a
number of antiabortion groups, including those at Franciscan University in
Steubenville, Ohio, the University of Dayton in Ohio and the University of St.
Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
While it has no close alliance with Opus Dei or the
Legionnaires of Christ -- which operate on several Catholic and secular
campuses -- it carries links to both groups on its Web site. They share
similar concern for the re-emergence of Catholic culture in the
university, Reilly said. Members of both groups have attended the
societys four annual conferences.
A fifth conference, to be held Nov. 10-12 at Georgetowns Law
Center, will feature presidents or heads of a dozen Catholic colleges and
universities, including Catholic University and Loyola University in Chicago.
The society hopes to engage the presidents with one or two bishops to discuss
collaborative ways to meet Ex Cordes challenges.
So far, only Bishop John Dougherty of Scranton, among the 10
advisory bishops, has agreed to attend the conference, which falls on the eve
of the bishops annual meeting.
Over the past few years, a number of bishops have donated a total
of $10,000 to the society, which garners 95 percent of its income from
individual contributions, said Reilly, the only paid employee. About half of
the adviser bishops have made contributions, he said.
Not an oversight
group
The 10 advisory bishops represent dioceses with 19 Catholic
universities and colleges among them -- 14 of which are in the Philadelphia and
Scranton sees. Five of the 10 bishops lead dioceses in which there are no
Catholic institutions of higher learning.
Should theologians worry about a society that now has an episcopal
advisory board that has access to top Vatican officials and that raised
objections last year to 13 graduation speakers at Catholic colleges and
universities -- finding them at variance with church teaching on abortion,
birth control and sexuality?
Gerald Zaboski of the University of Scranton saw nothing in the
societys literature to provoke anxiety. Theyre not an
oversight group like the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is
coordinating the dialogue between colleges, theologians, bishops and the
Vatican, said Zaboski, acting director of public relations at Scranton.
He pointed to the very collegial relations the Jesuit-run
university maintains with the diocese. All University of Scranton theologians
meet yearly with both Bishop James Timlin and with Dougherty. The university
has also established a subcommittee to study the mandatum issue and to
maintain and continue the dialogue over Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
Mercy Sr. Sharon Euart, associate general secretary of the U.S.
bishops conference, found little cause for worry: I dont
think any faculty should be concerned with the impact of an organization that
doesnt relate to them in any way, she said. Theologians will relate
to the local ordinary not to an advisory board of bishops.
As for the Cardinal Newman Society itself, Euart said its relation
to the U.S. Catholic Conference was that of an independent organization with
its own purposes and strategies. They are not an arm of the
conference, she said, but rather a group whose focus is the
implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae. This goal is not unlike that of
the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Canon Law Society, she
noted.
National Catholic Reporter, October 6,
2000
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