Don't tread on us
Smith, Karen Sue
norT TREAD ON US CANON LAW & CATHOLIC COLLEGES C ATHOLIC EDUCATORS may be increasingly concerned about maintaining a distinctive Catholic character in their institutions of higher learning,...
...William McGinnis, S.J., president of...
...While McGinnis would reject any semblance of '. legal bonds between the Vatican and this country's J~eR :,', schools, he emphasizes the strong pastoral relationship :..::, which properly exists between them...
...All three groups have expressed disUlicfaction with the basic premise of the document...
...They have flourished here in an environment of church-state separation, educational decentralization, and a distinctive mix of private and public institutions at the college and university level...
...and an ad hoc group of tlniversity presidents called together for consultation by Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., president of the University II II I I of Notre Dame...
...Gallin acknowledges that in a country where the gov, ernment is hostile toward the church -- where unive.~itie, a are being nationalized, for example -- a document on educational norms from the Vatican could strengthen the fragile position of a Catholic college, Similarly, in the countries where theological studies are largely in the hands of state universities, as in many European nations, it makes sense for the church to regulate theological professors rather than leaving these powers to the state...
...The Vatican view may also pose particular problems for the many U.S...
...Bat this is not the situation here," GaUin says...
...Three groups of American college presidents have sent written responses to Cardinal Baum's office in Rome: the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), which represents 90 percent of the U.S...
...I It ~P.EN SUB SMJ'[ll ,~ III I I I I1( . . . . . . . . ::~:~28 March 1986:173...
...How can it stay Catholic...
...norT TREAD ON US CANON LAW & CATHOLIC COLLEGES C ATHOLIC EDUCATORS may be increasingly concerned about maintaining a distinctive Catholic character in their institutions of higher learning, but they are not at all willing to have such a character defined ~d imposed from outside...
...Basing his r . upon involvement in a prior legal battle, in which the nccd .. to establish the separate legal status of a church organiza...
...the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, which is comprised of twenty-eight institutions and represents 'one-third of the nation's Catholic student body...
...Finally, the outside controls envisioned by Rome could raise serious questions about the accreditation and government funding of Catholic schools...
...tained...
...After all, the United States leads the world in the number of Catholic colleges and universities...
...No one is denying Rome a role in any such discussion...
...The congregation's proposals show little understanding or appreciation of the ways in which Catholic higher education has adjusted to America's church-state separation...
...This "Proposed Schema for a Pontifical l)ocument on Catholic Universities" builds on canons 807-814 of the new Code of Canon Law, some of which ilad already disturbed U.S...
...But McGinnis and others feel that the role should be pastoral, not one of issuing juridical regulations...
...Catholic educators by assigning to an undefined "competent ecclesiastical authority" the right to Specify a college or university as "Catholic" and the power officially to "mandate" all teachers of theology: The new Vatican document reinforces these canons, suggesting in effect that decisions over hiring and firing theological faculty would be overseen by bishops and perhaps even by Rome, and underlining the power of .outside authorities to withdraw "Catholic" status...
...Such proposals counter the deeply rooted belief that basic decisions affecting academic life should be made within the academy itself -- and according to the academy's own standards, including its religious standards in the case of religiously affiliated institutions...
...at all...
...For McGinnis, one value of the entire discussion so far is the impetus it has given Catholic educators to define ' what, exactly, is a Catholic school...
...On the other hand, a heavy-handed effort by the Vatican to guarantee"Catholic identity" will probably make any drift away from that identity appear all the more inevitable and attractive...
...The juridical tone of the document does ~ 'i ~.' fit American Catholic colleges," which arc genea'ally....~ "not linked directly to the hierarchy, but are governed by'" independent boards of trustees...
...Ameri'can Catholic educators may just know a thing or two about solving their own problems...
...The document is inappropriate for us," explains Sis., ter Alice Gallin, O.S.U., executive director of ACL"U,,,,~,.: which has collected written responses from 235,cdlqlr presidents...
...So special are these circumstances when compared to other nations that James A. Coriden, in the massive commentary on the new canon law code commissioned by the Canon Law Society (Paulist, 1985), questions whethar the new canons ought to be applicable to the U.S...
...with Sister Gailin's assessment...
...Why is it Catholic...
...Catholic institutions of higher education...
...Catholic colleges and universities which have opened their doors to numerous non-Catholic students and faculty members, some of the latter teaching in theology departments...
...the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities says the unanimous response from the twenty-eight Jesuit colleges concur...
...That explains why a collective 9 groan seemed to arise from Catholic campuses a year ago when Cardinal William Baum, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education (VCCE), distributed the second draft of the congregation's proposals to regulate Catholic colleges and universities...
...tion was pivotal, McGjnnis cautions that the legal inde~, S", pendence of Catholic schools must be scrupulously main...
Vol. 113 • March 1986 • No. 6
