Editorials
Contents Volume CXIII, Number 6 Correspondence 162 Editorials 163 In the thick of it: James O'Gara 166 9 The'force of restraint: John Garvey 168 I Tough choices on campus: RaymondA. Schroth...
...There were plenty of no's, but they sounded less and less convincing, more and more scolding...
...With their emphasis on spiritual development, LIS schools aid students to find purpose in their lives...
...The danger of sliding back had to be resisted, and yet resistance itself threatened to become a preoccupation that drained all energy and attention from the underlying problem of maintaining both internal pluralism in the church and a vibrant identity...
...Catholics -- and all who treasure the witness of the church in our day -- have a lot riding on the outcome...
...Bill while we were getting out Today, and when he graduated from Chicago's Loyola he wanted to go on to study theology...
...CISCA had no money, but the magazine developed a pretty healthy circulation and quite a bit of influence...
...In some cases, furthermore, his differences with official teaching are extremely narrow...
...What, then, is responsible...
...In those days there was no place in the U.S...
...It is this outlook, we repeat, and not Charles Curran's, which constitutes the real threat to the full and faithful teaching of Catholic doctrine...
...The areas in which Cardinal Ratzinger, representing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has charged that Curran dissents from the established teaching include contraception, direct sterilization, abortion, euthanasia, masturbation, premarital intercourse, homosexual acts,'and the indissolubility of Christian marriage...
...Which is how it should be...
...Individual hopes were blasted and individual talents wasted, but the greater loss was the church's own...
...For a degree of such tension is built into the church's mission: to be a community of conviction as well as of self-correction, to proclaim the truth about God's reign in both word and act, to remain faithful to a teaching even while relearning and renewing it...
...in its dismantling of the citadel mentality that had thrown up fortified battlements between the church and world...
...It ignored the dogmatism and party spirit that existed in many quarters outside the church, sometimes even masquerading under the regalia of free thought...
...Telephone: (212) MU 3-2042...
...He has volunteered to withdraw formally from teaching courses in sexual ethics (which he has long since refrained from doing in any case...
...and Commonweal, a combination of newsmagazine and journal of opinion...
...for responsible dissent...
...No doubt, that view was oversimplified...
...And it was tragic...
...A compromise is possible...
...Most of the efforts in the post-conciliar years were not very successful...
...Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith argue that the church has the right and responsibility to see that its doctrines are taught fully and faithfully in the church's name and under its auspices...
...I want to underline the fact that I am a committed Roman Catholic believer, a Catholic priest, and a Catholic theologian," he told the press...
...It ignored the original and creative thinkers who not only existed within the church but drew sustenance from its spiritual riches...
...in part it was expressed in the very phenomenon of the council, 28March 1986:163in its rejection of an ahistorical triumphalism that denied the reality of change...
...Mediocrity flourished, and a smug certainty hardened like a crust over a deep fearfulness...
...Their time will come," declared one ,of these heresy-hunters about Curran's supporters in the theological community...
...Freedom had been consolidated bit by bit, sometimes with ease, sometimes after fierce skirmishes...
...I still think it was a good idea, but after raising a little initial capital we were told in New York that the "really big Catholic money" was available only if we toned down on issues of social justice, race, and the like...
...At Vatican II it seemed they had largely won the day...
...Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Christmas-New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...By and large the promise of the council has been kept...
...As a theologian Father Curran...
...most are not even new...
...LIS schools need stronger scientific and mathematics ,curricula...
...To paraphrase Clemenceau, the pre-conciliar church militant was to real Christian community what military music is to music...
...This two-pronged difficulty has loomed larger and larger as the tempo of Vatican actions against theologians has increased: Pohier, Kiing, Schillebeeckx, Boff, demands that imprimaturs be removed from books, suspicions voiced about seminary education, actions initiated against other scholars...
...Curran obviously disagreed with the bishops' affirmation of Humanae Vitae...
...only in mathematics do they not show comparable achievement...
...Such sobriety should not disguise the seriousness of the issue nor the firm response it demands...
...It is the first study to evaluate how such schools function, and how they are faring...
...The secular media, in any case, was soon done with the story...
...Box 29260, Washington, D.C., 20017, Such leners might well echo the thoughts of Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester: Ii ! FFATHER CURRAN'S status as a Roman Catholic theolo| gian is brought into question...
...If an outstanding Catholic and one of the nation's most respected moral theologians cannot be designated "Catholic," that fact will only devalue the designation...
...What must, however, be added to Cardinal Ratzinger's assertion is that a full and faithful teaching of Catholic doctrine not only allows but requires room...
...Moreover...
...My hope is that.., the Holy See will regard the bishops of our countr) as ones who can appropriately and ably communicate to the Holy See the shape o f . . . pastoral life in our particular churches...
...It retained important advocates in high places...
...With regard to these latter, Curran's positions are well within the mainstream, indeed often stand as moderating alternatives to much more radical positions...
...What an irony: at a moment when Catholic educators increasingly turn their attention to the problem of maintaining the Catholic identity of their colleges and universities (see "Tough Choices on Campus," page 170), the Vatican is making it a matter of intellectual integrity to shed that identity...
...One way or another, it lasted for twenty-five years before it finally went under...
...Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...Motivation among teachers and administrators is remarkably high in LIS schools, with a special sensitivity for lowincome students expressed by 84 percent of teachers...
...The central question is now whether an individual can remain iia good standing as a Catholic theologian and dissent responsibly from established hierarchical teachings...
...is unfailingly thorough and respectful in his exposition of the teaching of the church...
...in its .rehabilitation of theologians who had been denounced and censured...
...where a married man with two children could do this, so John took off with Commonweal: 166...
...Copyright 9 1986 Commonweal Foundation...
...but the manner of his disagreement, on this and other points, has admirably met their standards...
...Rights to the play were bought by Samuel French, and for all I know it may still be performed here and there around the country...
...That is true only to the extent that official pronouncements are at considerable odds not only with the considered judgment of the Catholic laity on questions like contraception, but also with the consensus of moral Commonweal: 164theologians and pastoral practice...
...While we were in the service, John and I agreed that we wanted to start a new magazine after the fighting stopped...
...28 March 1986:165A POSITIVE REPORT Catholic High Schools: Their Impact on Low-lncome Students is the second major report in two years from the National Catholic Educational Association on Catholic high schools...
...In an extraordinary public statement, Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester, New York, attested that Father Curran "is a priest whose personal life could well be called exemplary . . . a man deeply committed to the spiritual life...
...LIS schools have few discipline problems, generally high morale, and promote good study habits...
...A church which was belatedly learning to say yes to intellectual challenges also had to learn a new way of saying no...
...They're all guilty," declared another stalwart of repression...
...Discussion on those can continue...
...And rightly so...
...My further hc~ae is that an agreement will be reached which will allow Father Curran to continue serving the church as a theologian and will promote resolution of theological differences through the normal channels of ~,riting and debate . . . . '" I I Curran's own bishop...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...In 1968, even in a pastoral written under conservative leadership to uphold Humanae Vitae, the American bishops declared, "There exist in the church a lawful freedom of inquiry and of thought and also general norms of licit dissent...
...in other cases, he has offered conclusions in guarded terms...
...It demonstrates not only the historical commitment the Ameri~can Catholic church has made toward educating the less advantaged, but the fruits that endeavor continues to produce for the church and for the nation...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...foreign, $59...
...Not all new ideas are good ones...
...Curran, typically enough, has pointed in precisely that direction...
...A majority of teachers express satisfaction with their jobs...
...Academically, in nine out of ten measures examined, lowincome students in LIS schools gain as much as higher-income Catholic high school students...
...Unfaithful to the Spirit whom the church must enflesh in faith and love but never presume to contain...
...The answer to the first question is amply supplied by Readers wishing to support Charles Curran can write directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzjnger, Sacra Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei, Piazza del S. Uffizio 11, 00193 Rome, Italy, or to Archbishop James A. Hickc% Chancellor, Catholic Universi~.', P.O...
...The secondary question is whether Catholic institutions can claim any autonomy in judging such matters for themselves...
...The Catholic press, by contrast, was only beginning to follow it...
...In instances where Father Curran offers theological views which appear to be at a variance with the current official statements of the church, he always does so in a responsible manner...
...Father Curran has indicated his willingness to welcome a document from the Congregation specifying the errors it finds in his work while still recognizing his standing as a Catholic theologian...
...Curran's own public remarks refer only to the legitimacy of such dissent "at times" and "in certain cases...
...Whites and Hispanics make greater academic gains than black students, and the dropout rate remains higher for minority students...
...These are described as schools in which more than 10 percent of students' families have incomes below the federal poverty line...
...It is an impressive list and might lead the unknowing to suppose Curran at considerable odds with the church's teaching...
...Indeed, I have heard it said that few theologians have a better grasp of or express more clearly the fullness of the Catholic moral tradition...
...Curran, by his own statement, remains "open to further nuance or change in these positions in the light of persuasive and convincing reasons...
...The critics of such a closed and anti-intellectual system persisted, however...
...Catholic scholars have felt encouraged to confront even the most discomfiting of questions with a rigorous regard for the truth...
...A church which lacked the habits of persuasion and self-criticism was easily tempted to prop up its influence by compromising alliances with raw power...
...Schroth 170 Don't tread on us: Karen Sue Smith 173 Verse: Leah Shelleda Fulton 175 The wind & the rain: Neville Braybrooke 176 Stage: Gerald Weales 179 Screen: Tom O'Brien 181 Books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Paul Baumann 182 The Teacher Rebellion: Maurice R. Berube 184 The Bone People: Walter M. Miller, Jr...
...My posture is neither defiant nor disrespectful . . . . It is my hope and fervent wish that this whole matter will be an occasion for true growth and development in the Catholic church which I will continue to love and serve...
...Special two-year rate: U.S., $49...
...Canada, $30...
...The fact is that if Charles Curran's moderate, scholarly, nuanced manner of dissenting cannot be recognized as responsible, then virtually no one's can...
...At that time John was editing the Chicago Catholic Worker and running the C,W...
...The Curran case is a genuine scandal, an action by Rome so dismaying that it requires something beyond outrage -- a deep and determined reflectiveness about the church, Catholic commitment, and the rightful place of dissent in a teaching and learning community...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y, 10016 i .* " / / ' , nnm||oO| , P 9 w.~ ~q d, v ~ me , . ' ' s o !'" L-Ili'i' o m...
...There is a lot of good news in the 282-page report, as well as ample suggestions for improvement and further exploration...
...House of Hospitality...
...A non-pacifist, unlike most Catholic Workers, John eventually served from 1941 to 1945 in the Air Force...
...Indeed, the idea that the council's new openness might abolish all tensions between the church and the mind was always naive...
...Without such room, Catholic teaching is unfaithful...
...The preconciliar vision of a church in which thinkers are foot soldiers at the combat end of a chain of command stretching through the bishops to the pope remained a constant temptation...
...in its substitution of dialogue for anathemas...
...What is ultimately at stake in Father Curran's defense is not an individual theologian but the church's larger fidelity to its own truthfulness...
...n, ", am, mab ~ '69AVA v' 9 DOCTRINE & DISSENT: THE CURRAN CASE 1 I I T IS NOW CLEAR that the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome is set upon denying Father Charles E. Curran the right to teach as a theologian at Catholic University of America...
...This second study concentrates on 106 selected schools which the report calls "low-income-serving schools" (LIS...
...T HE CONSEQUENCES of the Curran affair promise to be disastrous...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $28...
...The gulf between the church and the inquiring intellect appeared to narrow...
...In those days there was no independent lay edited paper like the National Catholic Reporter, and what John and I had in mind was a kind of cross between N.C.R...
...expression of dissent "with propriety and with regard for the gravity of the matter" as well as "with prudence born of intellectual grace" and "with pastoral solicitude...
...Still, students in each income and race category in LIS schools are more likely to meet suggested curricula standards than is the average American high-school senior...
...So the old trench warfare between the church and the mind is over...
...There is little question that Curran has provided his students with the official teaching in a fuller and more faithful way than have many theologians considered ultra-orthodox...
...I joined him there in 1940, and we remained close friends from then on...
...But that was all in the future when I first met him back before World War II...
...Such norms involved" careful respect" for untutored consciences...
...It has been enthusiastically recognized as such by conservatives who would conduct a purge of theologians on the scale of the Modernist crisis -- and who denounce the bishops for not leading the way...
...able theologians may ~andon Catholic institutions altogether . . . . The church in the United S t a t e s . . . is struggling mightily to meet the challenge of Vatican Council il . . . . We have our faults to be sure and there have been hlse starts and mistakes, but we are a faithful people and we will continue to serve God's kingdom in the church with generosity...
...LIS schools, like all Catholic high schools, are having a difficult time communicating faith values to their students...
...The initial study, The Catholic High School: A National Report, systematically detailed the nature of Catholic high schools -- their teachers, students, administrators, purpose, and achievements -- and their positive place in American education in general...
...Curran, of course, could find a prestigious position tomorrow at any of a dozen prominent universities...
...I fear a serious setback to Catholic "education and pastoral life . . . . Theologians may stop exploring the challenging questions of the day . . . because the), fear actions which may prematurely end their teaching careers...
...A flurry of stories in the secular media linked Curran's plight to differences over "sexual issues," and most of the public could be forgiven if they saw here only one more of the almost endless number of religious confrontations between "progressives" and "*conservatives...
...What has replaced it, however, is something less than the utterly harmonious idyll that, at certain moments during the council, might have been anticipated...
...In part this bridging was expressed in the conciliar documents...
...And now the case of Charles E. Curran...
...Unfaithful to the penitential recognition of massive failings in past teachings and of the need, therefore, for constant selfcorrection...
...Catholic institutions are second to none in their respect for academic freedom...
...Before he went in, however, he wrote a play at the request of the Catholic Labor Theater -- a comedy about a film star who wanted to become a nun, thus managing to combine two of John's great loves, Hollywood and the church...
...Today was published primarily for college students and was oriented toward Catholic social action and the lay apostolate...
...For a play staged by amateurs, with both his future wife and mine in the cast, I Wouldn't Want to Live There was a great success, with the proceeds paying off all the accumulated bills of the House of Hospitality...
...We hope this report has a salutary effect in that regard...
...186 Staff Editor...
...Remembering John Cogley I IIII IN THE THICK OF IT HONESlaf, INTELLECT, & FRIENDSHIP EN John Cogley died on,March 28, 1976, the New rk Times said he was generally regarded as the ost prominent Roman Catholic journalist of his generation...
...My positions are neither rebellious nor radical...
...Time and again those who confronted new problems, who dared to think new thoughts or rethink old ones, were silenced or scorned -- worried into a subterranean existence or simply driven from the ranks...
...Nor is it necessary to defend every manner of dissent -- flamboyant, contemptuous of existing doctrines, heedless of scholarly standards -- to question the attitude of Cardinal Ratzinger's Congregation...
...For much of modem history, the Catholic church has been seen as inhospitable to the inquiring mind...
...This does not mean there are not problems...
...Previously the Catholic Press Association had given him its St...
...Note that we have repeated responsible dissent...
...But the central question is not the merits of all Father Curran's detailed arguments in the field of moral theology...
...It had a powerful appeal for many of the faithful -- drawing upon reserves of familiarity, of nostalgia, of untapped zeal, of a desire for simple truths, clear boundaries, and unambiguous marching orders...
...I am personally aware of his commitment and know by testimony of others that he is a respected spiritual guide for people who seek counsel in their journeys of faith...
...Authoritative, non-infallible teaching, after all, could be reasonably construed to cover a great deal that one might want to insist a Catholic theologian hew to if he or she is teaching in the name of the church -- the condemnations of racism, for instance, or slavery, or judicial torture...
...Unfaithful to the church's obligation to be a sign of true freedom and mutual dialogue...
...But the gulf between the church and the intellect was real...
...The question as put is: What do LIS Catholic high schools do that is or isn't effective in promoting academic achievement, religious faith and values, and the acquisition of important life skills among students from low-income families...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...Like the Supreme Court, one needn't attempt an all-encompassing definition when it will do to look at the case in hand...
...And according to Bishop Joseph A. Francis, the 'Catholic community needs "to act decisively in placing lowincome Catholic schools high on the list of the church's Ipriorities...
...in every case, his arguments have been carefully nuanced, respecting the claims of continuity with established teaching as much as possible, and proposing new teaching only when compelled by other, more fundamental, principles of Catholic Christian morality...
...As so often, Rome will most likely produce quite the opposite of its alleged objective...
...Canada, $53...
...The new respect for critical and questioning inquiry had not, of course, fallen like a fresh backdrop as the church passed from one scene to the next...
...In sum, the case against Curran is a case against dissent itself...
...No criticisms of the church are more demanding and effective than those now voiced, not by outsiders, but by Catholics...
...The point is not contestable, although considerable discussion could be directed to the different modalities through which the church, which is more than the papacy, more than the Vatican, more than the hierarchy, might act to carry out that right and responsibility...
...Peter Steinfels Assistant Editors: David Toolan, Karen Sue Smith, Patrick Jordan Production Editor: Anne Robertson Poetry: Rosemary Deen Movies: Tom O'Brien Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, Patricia Mazzola Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher...
...W HO EXACTLY is this Curran and why is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith saying such bad things about him...
...LIS schools show strain because of higher student/teacher ratios, greater financial insecurity, and higher teacher turnover (64 percent say their jobs do not provide a decent salary...
...Both academic standards and the climate of LIS schools (sense of community, morale, and nurturance) appear relatively healthy...
...For more of Bishop Clark's observations, see the accompanying box...
...10016...
...To defend Charles Curran it is not necessary, as some suppose, to maintain that every dissent from authoritative, non-infallible church teaching is justified...
...Not even Rome has accused Curran of misrepresenting official doctrine or of confusing his own positions with established ones...
...foreign, $33...
...Francis de Sales award for his coverage of Vatican II...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...If the theology department at Catholic University of America -- and by the new extension of canon law (see page 173) the departments at other Catholic universities -- should turn out to be subject to direct interventions from Rome, that fact will only impugn the academic freedom of those institutions and fatally injure the credibility of whatever is seen as official Catholic theology...
...After the war John and I both finished college on the G.I...
...Unfaithful to the Catholic principle of development of doctrine...
...bank...
...We dropped that idea and instead got Jesuit Father Martin Carrabine of Chicago Inter-Student Catholic Action (CISCA) to sponsor publication of a new venture, Today, the national Catholic student magazine...
...In keeping with Father Curran's own attitude, protests have been mounted at Catholic University and elsewhere with extraordinary thoughtfulness...
Vol. 113 • March 1986 • No. 6
