Editorials
Loading the blunderbuss The more than two hundred Catholic colleges and universities in the United States constitute the largest segment of America's private institutions of higher learning. They...
...But while these revisions may indicate an openness on the part of the Congregation for Catholic Education, whatever openness exists has not yet produced a tolerable document...
...Actions that a university might autonomously take to maintain its Catholic identity will be tainted by the appearance of acting under episcopal pressure...
...It was in the name of national security that our government provided large quantitiesof deadly weapons to the government of Iran, in the hope of winning-the release of American hostages purportedly under Iran's control-this while officially branding the Iranian regime as terrorist, while solemnly condemning the very idea of ever negotiating ransom deals with terrorists, and while professing neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war in which the weapons were to be used, and were in fact used, with fatal consequences for many...
...Not only will these be made with regard to theology where the document's requirement for a mandate to teach directly conflicts with academic freedom...
...Catholic college and university presidents who argued that the 1985 draft ignored the reality of American Catholic pluralism and possibly jeopardized the eligibility of their institutions for government funds...
...they long for the battle cries of the Crusades, the Counter Reformation, and religious wars...
...And there are to be procedures: the bishops' .conference will establish them-"to be approved by the Holy See...
...Not possible, said the administration...
...In this instance the ultimate prosecutor is the attorney general...
...If the Congregation really wants to encourage, to listen to, and to advance the discussion going on right now-and there are signs that it does-then let it join in the debate...
...The upheavals of the sixties and seventies sometimes persist on Catholic campuses as a kind of curricular disarray that needs rethinking- and reordering...
...So the administration was asked to make them available...
...Codifying all of this will mainly provide the grounds for constant squabbles...
...who cares...
...The low level of religious practice among some students calls for a stronger pastoral presence on both Catholic and non-Catholic campuses...
...Not because we thought a trial on these counts would bring about startling new revelations in the han-contra affair...
...The prosecutor told the judge...
...Others will conduct themselves like the more unimaginative and cautious seminaries...
...He has used his discretion to keep the secrets safe...
...There is a small but vocal party of Catholics for whom denunciation is a kind of sacramental...
...New passages attempt to take account of the diverse nature of Catholic colleges and universities and the varied legal circumstances under which they operate...
...No, what's troubling is the process underlying this decision...
...The document insists on the right and duty of "the competent ecclesiastical authority"- usually the local bishop-to intervene directly in Catholic colleges and universities to protect the faith as he sees it...
...Bishops will be regularly confronted with demands to interject themselves into university affairs...
...There's more than irony here...
...The attorney general conveyed this decision to the special prosecutor...
...They are also the largest group of Catholic colleges and universities in the world...
...First, the issue the draft attempts to address is a real one: defining and maintaining the Catholic identity of Catholic higher education...
...But this effort to square the circle predictably fails...
...The heads of all relevant departments had been consulted, and all had agreed: Making the papers public would "compromise national security...
...Bishops will be caught in a vicious circle...
...of the academic autonomy and freedom that are expected of institutions of higher learning in societies like ours...
...Divorced and remarried faculty members...
...a rich dose of irony may be good for the national bloodstream...
...North's ingenious attorney is using every last procedural safeguard in the book on behalf of a client who once waxed eloquent in his scorn for legal and constitutional technicalities...
...And now, in the name of national security, documents that presumably reveal further details of what was going on in this period will stay buried...
...This document is made for them...
...Let it set aside its juridical web of norms and compose a document that pools the wisdom and experience of Catholic educators worldwide, that shows greater confidence in the powers of reflection and dialogue that are at the heart of the educational enterprise, that builds on a common vision rather than a chain of command...
...Theological illiteracy and cultural conformity among young adult Catholics point, to the need for a comprehensive exposure to theology and philosophy in their college years...
...Not, in our case, because the dismissal might mean lesser punishment for the accused...
...It was also in the name of national security that Oliver North saw to it that the large profits reaped from the arms sales were diverted from the U.S...
...And not because Mr...
...We are not persuaded that the nation is more secure...
...The source is the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education...
...There are qualifications: the intervention should "be conducted in a manner which takes into account the statutes and regulations of the institution (as well as accepted academic practices...
...Treasury, in part to private bank accounts, in part to effect the transfer of other weapons to contra forces in Honduras and Nicaragua at a time when the Congress had proscribed such actions...
...It can be presumed that he would not have used them to show that he didn't do what he has boasted of doing, but rather to demonstrate that whatever he did had approval from higher levels in government...
...As the law now stands, the judiciary has no power to override classification decisions by officials of the executive who may have a personal or political or bureaucratic stake in inflating or inventing the dangers of disclosure, or who may be committed to doctrines of the national security state in direct conflict with principles of democracy...
...North and others concealed their activities from some and lied about them to others in the governmesnt, Some of these operations entailed clear violations of international law: the mining of Nicaraguan harbors...
...but bishops will "have the right and duty of reprimanding or correcting members of the university community whose teaching or behavior is in conflict with Catholic doctrine or discipline...
...NATIONAL INSECURITY Some people-count us among them-experience a jolt of outrage and a large charge of uneasiness over the dismissal of certain charges against Oliver North...
...Is that what the church wants and needs...
...If it were promulgated, the present document would be a self-inflicted wound on the church's educational mission...
...It is tragic that such a threat should arise precisely when Catholic educators, concerned about maintaining their institutions' Catholic identity, need to deal with issues of curriculum, of criteria for hiring and promotion, of career ladders controlled by academic disciplines, of academic freedom-matters delicate enough within the accepted framework of institutional independence but virtually impossible to resolve under the shadow of supervision by the hierarchy...
...prosecutorial discretion reigns supreme...
...the threat is a new draft of a papal document on higher education (Origins, December 22, 1988...
...Condemnations are for them what purges were for Lenin, a sign that the movement is strong and pure...
...Members of the Notre Dame football team...
...that was never likely...
...The basic requirements of a government said to be of, by...
...Yes, the question of what makes a college or university Catholic needs serious and sustained attention, especially by those directly responsible-administrators, teachers, trustees...
...Even in its revised form, the document would most likely encourage the secularization of some Catholic colleges and universities and assure a loss of intellectual integrity and educational quality for a good many others...
...More prudent institutions may be moved to forestall this possibility by pre-emptively giving up any formal recognition as Catholic in the first place...
...and for the people, a government of laws and not,of persons, need not be weighed in the balance by a, competent and disinterested person or body...
...The piece of paper was duly produced, and the charges were dropped...
...American Catholic educators owe it to themselves and the church to say so unequivocally...
...Others brought terror, dismemberment, death to civilian targets of the contra forces: health workers, co-op managers and workers, mothers, children...
...Their millions of graduates include many of the readers, writers, and editors of this journal...
...And that is the crux of the issue...
...Episcopal authority will be undermined because in many cases it will be unenforceable...
...Having declared their prerogative to intervene, they will either have to exercise it or be held responsible for whatever occurs when they do not...
...of the essential and positive contributions of non-Catholic faculty and other religious traditions...
...Some speculate that they have to be kept out of sight because their disclosure would entangle other persons not now known to have taken part: a cover-up...
...And it was for the sake of national security that Mr...
...The second thing to be said is that this revised draft shows considerable responsiveness to the pointed criticisms of the initial draft (1985) by Catholic educators...
...Two things should be said immediately...
...On top of other challenges-demographic, financial, cultural-these schools face a new threat, from a source that one might have hoped would offer them help, not hindrance...
...And it's likely that many of us who are now living, voting, paying taxes, and judging where the nation has been and where it is going, will never know why...
...Others, perhaps more plausibly, think the papers would reveal a range of other unsavory and possibly unlawful projects, completed or still ongoing, and/or that their disclosure might put espionage or covert-action agents of the United States at risk...
...A blind vocationalism, an uncritical attitude toward technological development, and a narrow view of social responsibilities warp the education of many students in Catholic as well as secular institutions...
...A great many will be entangled in endless church-and possibly civil-disputes, pitting one phrase of these norms against others, encouraging shifting and unwritten policies, draining energy from educational and pastoral responsibilities...
...We are not to know...
...There is no reason, we suppose, that a local bishop or even a committee of bishops couldn't do that now for sufficiently grave reason...
...North demanded that certain classified documents in the possession of the administration be made available for his defense because, he says, they would serve to demonstrate his innocence...
...The judge went a step further, requiring the attorney general to put the decision in writing and sign it...
...What the "competent ecclesiastical authority" retains is simply the blunderbuss power to declare "that a university is no longer Catholic...
...Ambiguous cases Will either require painful and embarrassing interventions, or appear to enjoy church sanction when there is no intervention...
...These revisions may go some way in meeting the objections of U.S...
...The judge said the requested materials might indeed be relevant to some parts of the indictment and should be produced if these counts were to survive...
Vol. 116 • January 1989 • No. 2
