Correspondence: ts the CTSA Catholic? Disputation continued
Estne tu Romano? Do you ever say (in Commonweal) "Roman Catholic" instead of just "Catholic?" I'm a Catholic too, and not an Anglo-Catholic (!), although I'm a parishioner of an Episcopal...
...The writers are co-chairs of the Roman Catholic Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion...
...I was there, and cannot understand how Steinfels could so describe Gary Macy's plenary address on "spiritual communion" in the Middle Ages-particularly since Steinfels admits that it was "a paper well-calculated to destabilize conventional Catholic assumptions" about a lot of issues...
...It is a sign of what Lonergan called "the impoverishment of contemporary theology" that an attentive journalist like Mr...
...The writer is associate professor of theology at Duquesne University...
...Discounts 5 percent, 3 times...
...22485...
...Moreover, one would have to consider the variety of workshops, panels, papers, and ongoing seminars and research groups, whose activities help constitute the organization...
...Like virtue and truth, grace is going to be found between the partisan alternatives...
...George Higgins, Catholic Serial Teaching, / Catholic University / -Kwan Kim, Int'I Economics, Notre Dame / -John Joyce, Int'l Labor Expert, Washington, D.C...
...participate actively in sessions...
...What, then, is to be done...
...As Bernard Lonergan insisted, without attaining the intellectual conversion underlying the theoretical achievements of Aquinas, the efforts of contemporary theologians to present the history of Catholic doctrine and theology will fall into historicism and relativism...
...Upon a moment's reflection, however, we were consoled by the obvious parallel between the Tilley/ Zagano complaint and the church's traditional demand that theological debate be kept behind closed doors lest it confuse and give scandal to the contented sheep in the pews...
...As for the metaphor of "wasteland," Dulles's criticisms of the presentations are on target...
...Loss of Christological normativity both propels and rationalizes the drift away from the words of eucharistic institution, away from the acknowledgment of the distinct sacramentality of holy orders, Commonweal 2 April24, 1998 away from full Catholic communion and toward a quasi-autonomous congregationalism...
...February 13...
...But journalism and theological investigation are separate undertakings...
...One can certainly find there represented more than one theological, ecclesial, and political standpoint...
...In any healthy family, school, university, or human association serious, thoughtful dialogue ought to be admired and encouraged...
...The discussions within the CTSA and in other scholarly meetings and journals are respectful investigations by professionals...
...00 Nolre Dame, IN 46556 , r ~, Te'/" 2~ ' ~ ' ~ 6 ' 3 4 Bishops-Popes Fax: 219,~31-7886 @ Commonweal 30 April 24, 1998 ment on the Proceedings of the conference...
...But his address, at once steeped in the Tradition and creative, was not representative of the convention's direction, nor, alas, does it appear to herald the Society's future...
...However, as one who was an active participant in the convention, I want to suggest that the "unacknowledged grid" that Steinfels found operative runs deeper than the issue of the ordination of women (important as this undoubtedly was...
...Manuscripts Wanted MANUSCRIPTS WANTED...
...REV...
...It is the prerogative and duty of the president-elect each year to select and invite plenary speakers, usually to reflect his or her own theological expertise and commitments...
...I locate it in the growing substitution of generic appeals to the Spirit in place of the very particular appeals to Jesus Christ as Lord...
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...Regent of Studies, Foundation House/Oxford or Registrar/GTF/USA...
...Professor Tilley is president of the College Theology Society...
...REV...
...Boston College I Congratulations to Commonweal for providing what the 1997 CTSA Convention conspicuously failed to provide: a robust and critical exchange of theological views...
...But this kind of traditionalism, flying in the face of Newman's own dynamics of theological development, is a presumptuous action bound to create an equally presumptuous adverse reaction...
...And I wonder what Gordon Marino would have to say of this bit of history ("Apologize for Slavery...
...submit scholarly proposals to our program committee...
...SI~USSER Pittsbu~Rh, Pa...
...Residential degrees by coursework and supervised thesis (Oxford/Rome/USA...
...Fellowship FOUNDATION HOUSE/OXFORD and Graduate Theological Foundation/USA, offering Oxford Foundation Fellowships for short-term residence...
...At the meeting where the committee presented its statement to the convention, Sister Catherine Hilkert of Notre Dame, a committee member, stated publicly that "our task was to refute the Vatican document...
...Some Catholic scholars avoid the meeting because it is "too churchy" and "too Catholic...
...The writer is professor of theology at Boston College...
...Repeated attacks in newspapers and popular magazines are hardly contributions to theological work...
...Should Cinqu6's descendants have to apologize for his selling his fellow Africans into slavery...
...Sadly, discussions of the history and authority of the church relative to many issues have moved from being reported upon in the public press to being debated there in a nonscholarly and noncollegial fashion...
...We welcome intellectual debate and reportage, each with its proper substance, tone, and fora...
...The precise nature of this resolution was reported on by a number of journalists and remains a topic of debate among academics...
...15 percent, 12 times...
...The responses to the major papers were little more than r6sum6s or endorsements that merely reinforced the direction that Peter Steinfels rightly characterizes as being "away from positions taken from Trent through Vatican II and toward positions much more congenial to the Reformers and in general to their liberal and lowchurch descendants...
...12 word minimum...
...At least Newman could envision "a new pope and a new council" righting the balance...
...So this committee and the resulting statement unfortunately illustrates plainly the truth of Cardinal Bernard Law's judgment that the CTSA "has become an association of advocacy for theological dissent...
...I challenge any member of that committee to state publicly that he or she accepted the full Vatican position and argued for it...
...This was reflected in the 1997 plenary addresses on the Eucharist...
...In the wake of Vatican II, which allowed the hermeneutics of suspicion into the house of theology, Dulles and even more traditionalist theologians are calling for a countervailing hermeneutics of trust, but end up defending the clerical monopoly on all three offices of teaching, governing, and sanctifying (which means keeping the clergy male, celibate, and compliant...
...As several colleagues mentioned to me sadly at the time, it was more like a kangaroo court where scholarly objectivity and Catholic wisdom were set aside for biased political advocacy...
...and concentrate more on positive advocacy for their own take on Catholic tradition than on labeling their colleagues' endeavors a "wasteland...
...Normatively, Dulles can certainly dispute the positions taken by theologians and by the CTSA, and we would encourage him to do so in the proper fora...
...As I have argued elsewhere (see, America, May 26, 1990 and Crisis, December 1997, February 1998), there is much more that Catholic graduate programs should be doing to hand on the intellectual virtues and skills needed to measure up to the great achievements of Catholic wisdom and theology...
...Back Issues TO OBTAIN A LARGE GROUP OF Comnlonweal back issues, simply write Edwina O'Toole, Box 256, King George, VA...
...MI(.I IAEI...
...Newman himself lamented that, in the wake of Vatican I, there were so many bishops for whom obedience to authority was far easier than believing...
...Those who want the CTSA to consider more or different views should attend the conventions...
...The writer is professor of theology at Boston College...
...Thank you for helping us do that, vis-d~-vis the CTSA, as we try to balance our God-given rationality and our respect for the magisterium of our beloved church...
...From the heartland Just a note (from the heartland) to thank you for publishing three careful and documented views on whether the Catholic Theological Society of America is a "wasteland" ("How Catholic is the CTSA...
...On the other, the same convention featured a panel discussion of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's "Catholic Common Ground Initiative," at which Archbishop Oscar (Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) Lipscomb (chair) was a presenter...
...An 'Amistad' coda Unlike Richard Alleva [Amistad, February 13], I enjoyed the film so much that I went home and took down my copy of Samuel Morison's The Oxford History of the American People to learn more about the case and the man of the film...
...Master Macy Peter Steinfels taxes the major addresses at the 1997 CTSA meeting with "imbalance...strange Pollyannishness,...inexplicable lack of irony, self-doubt, or tragic sense...
...This shocking and disturbing fact is missing from Speilberg's epilogue to the film in which he plays upon our emotions by telling us only that Cinqu6 returned to Africa to find his family missing or killed...
...less obvious, but equally powerful, is the twist given to the ecumenical question of intercommunion (if spiritual communion is the reality we seek in the Eucharist, then we may do it now, and sharing sacramental communion can, as the Vatican urges, be postponed until unity between the churches is completely consummated...
...Sister Mary Ann Donovan falsely claims that the committee's statement contradicting the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the impossibility of ordaining women, and the CTSA in approving the resolution supporting the statement so overwhelmingly, "do not collectively oppose anything...
...Patrick Mason, Minorities Economist, Notre Dame -Benjamin Radoliff, Political Economy, Notre Dame ~ . -Rev Patrick Sullivan, CSC, Catholic Serial TeacNngs,~ Notre Dame / ;ontact for detailed information: Zakas, Or, ce M auger -Marry Weir'son , Economics , Notre Dame . H~ins ~ Research Center . . . . Cost of Regstratlon, Rm 1125, Gcace Hall Laltv-Pnests-Rehelous .e...
...Surprisingly, Father Dulles has removed himself from scholarly debate and now presents his views--in this case with anger and sarcasm--in newspapers and other popular publications...
...10115...
...Reporting on them in popular media is legitimate...
...But as I was listening, I was also working out a lot of the other implications of Macy's data, and they stubbornly resist ideological categorization...
...Invited to address a preconference session on what makes a theologian "Catholic," Dulles listed fifteen criteria, a rather high proportion of which involved adherence to the magisterium as presently defined by the Vatican...
...Would Steinfels have been less dismissive if Macy's address had been less ()pen to multiple constructions...
...The errors in his Commonweal commentary were accurately diagnosed by Sister Mary Ann Donovan, CTSA president...
...The writer is professor of theology at Boston College and past president of the CTSA (1992-93...
...1-800-695-9599...
...At the same time, he seemed to want to preserve the centralization of the theological endeavor that the Vatican has championed from Newman's time to now...
...PAUl, E. DINTER Bronx, N.Y...
...Truth is an annoyingly complicated factor in human life, but it is the truth that shall make us free...
...I only want to add that, if one desires to size up the current state of the CTSA, one needs to survey the plenary addresses of the past several years, not those of any one year in isolation...
...In addition, Dulles is terribly wrong about the Catholicity of the CTSA...
...This better accounts for the multifaceted "diffusion" that Steinfels acutely perceives...
...In fact not one member of the committee accepted the full Vatican position...
...Anyone who reads the current literature, is familiar with theological faculties, or attends conferences knows this well...
...Sister Mary Ann Donovan mounts a defense that is not in the end compelling because, though it appears to refute Dulles, she ends up for the purposes of defense placing herself in a position considerably to the "right" of the operative convictions of American sacramental theology--a position I do not believe she generally inhabits...
...LISA SOWLE CAHILL Boston, Mass...
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...Perhaps the strongest implication is for catechesis on the Eucharist: If consuming the consecrated species is not the main thing, but is supposed to feed spiritual communion, then we will need to emphasize recollection, reverence, and reflection, and give instruction on how to pray interiorly...
...Newman's answer A prelude to Father Avery Dulles's disaffection with the CTSA took place before the group's last meeting in New York a few years back...
...RtiV...
...I, like other Catholics, was brought up to think of "spiritual communion" as a lesser recourse "when actual reception of [sacramental Communion] is illicit or physically impossible" (NeTu Catholic Encyclopedia), not as the goal of such reception, a goal attainable even where the priest alone receives sacramentally...
...Wrong venue We are dismayed by Avery Dulles's commentary about the academic work of the CTSA, whose members through Commonweal 2 8 April24, 1998 prayer and discussion inductively reached a communal decision to endorse a report documenting serious doubts about the CDF's assertion that limitation of priestly ordination to males is a matter pertaining to the deposit of faith...
...It was anything but respectful and responsible...
...But we cannot allow the two to be either combined or confused, for such is a disservice to both the church and the academy...
...The editors regret: We were both dismayed and amused to learn that Professors Tilley and Zagano think that Commonweal and other demotic rags are not an appropriate place to air the heady theological disputes that preoccupy the clerisy...
...Can we hope for as much...
...Boston College I I Mary Ann Donovan and Peter Steinfels responded fairly and effectively to the attack of Avery Dulles on the CTSA...
...Macy's paper offered discomfort to everyone in the audience no matter what their theological positions, while indicating a new" w'ay to think about perennial and largely intractable problems...
...Yes, Macy offered an analysis of that practice in terms of trade-offs in ritual power between laity and clergy at that time, with advantages accruing to each, and drew attention to parallel phenomena in the church today...
...405, N.Y., N.Y...
...Morison concludes: "The ironic epilogue is that Cinqu6, once home, set himself up as a slave trader...
...The "unalloyed approval" given to his paper reflects the fact that theologians in the CTSA will gladly learn new" ways to think, even at the cost of some disturbance to what they thought they knew, and even though those new insights come from scholastic theology...
...I'm a Catholic too, and not an Anglo-Catholic (!), although I'm a parishioner of an Episcopal church...
...JAMES P. SHANNON Wayzata, Minn...
...M. FRANCIS MANN[ON Salt Lake City, Utah mm~.mm ,m:~m.-m:m m ~ m .mm ,m RATES: $1.10 per word...
...On the one hand, the 1997 convention saw essentially receptive discussion of a report highlighting the disputed nature of the authority of a Vatican statement on women's ordination...
...1-800-4235983 or fax 219-935-8480 or e-mail gtf@skyenet.net...
...Boston College III As one who attended the CTSA convention last June, I concur fully with the stark assessment of Father Avery Dulles...
...Hollywood and Spielberg are not interested in truth, but reviewers and columnists might provide a better service if they did a little more homework in pursuit of it...
...Macy described a widespread medieval understanding that the sacramental sign serves to engender spiritual communion--that the latter is the goal of the former, not its pale imitation...
...Peter Steinfels's wise words said as much...
...March 27...
...Nevertheless, I do agree very much with Donovan's call for careful and respectful dialogue...
...MATTHEW L. LAMB Boston, Mass...
...ALL TYPES...
...10 percent, 6 times...
...I think it is true that few in attendance at CTSA conventions are in total agreement with magisterial teaching on every issue, and that most are advocates of strong lay participation (along with clergy) in Catholic theology and ministry...
...And, I wish they (we) had a publication as good as Commonweal...
...Clearly a student of Newman, l)ulles seemed almost wistful, admitting how attractive Newman's analysis was to him...
...Keep talking Being neither a member of the CTSA nor an attendee at the 1997 convention, I am not in a position to cornCommonweal 2 9 April24, 1998 O z O o Workshop May 26.29, 1998 Notre Dame ins Labor Research Center Topics: atholic Tradition and Workers Global Economy Challenge olic Teaching on Global Economy ( { ~ -Challenge of Global Economy and Workers I ~,~"H------~'~ to Priests/Seminarians/Religious/Laity I FR[,e31 l ! Speaker: ! ~ , ~ , l ~ l , ~ j p -David Cormier, Labor Economics, Indiana University I "~'~"~3 -Charles Craypo, Labor Economics, Notre Dame | ~ -Patti Davis, Political Economy, Notre Dame k,~ -Teresa GNarducd, Labor Economics, Notre Dame -Msgr...
...Does Steinfels want to canonize the "conventional Catholic assumptions" incorporated in the New Catholic Encyclopedia...
...Everyone knows there was not one, not even one...
...ROBERT P. IMBELLI Boston, Mass...
...JOHN FESPERMAN Mitchellville, Md...
...Like Dulles and Steinfels, I am less than thrilled at the prospect before us...
...f towever, everything to which Father Avery Dulles objects is common currency in the field of presentday sacramental theology...
...They obviously favor promoting adoration of the Blessed Sacrament...
...Research degrees by thesis and examination...
...And, on these issues, CTSA members do not seem at great variance with the U.S...
...But one wonders how grace will out when even the loyal opposition (what the CTSA represents) gets pilloried for not toeing the Vatican line...
...Public campaigners who take theoretical arguments and insights out of context, subject scholars to personal attack, and fail to present evidence for their own conclusions, all without engaging their opponents' evidence or conclusions, violate both the ecclesial vocation of the theologian and the ordinary norms of academic integrity...
...The keynote presentations, as well as other publications of the presenters, indicate a lack of the intellectual habits needed to understand the theoretical achievements of, for example, the eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas influencing the doctrines of the Council of Trent...
...MSGR...
...Steinfels has so little experience of a genuine theological garden that he cannot recognize a wasteland when it is all around him...
...Justice demands acknowledgment of the clearly Christocentric "Presidential Address" of outgoing CTSA President William Thompson...
...GEOFFREY B. GNEUHS New York, N.Y...
...Intellectual debate within the confines of professional societies and journals is a legitimate and necessary part of church life, supported by the instruction Communio et progresso (January 29, 1971): "Experts enjoy the freedom required by their work and are free to communicate to others, in books and commentaries, the fruits of their research . . . [although] new opinions circulating among theologians, at times, circulate too soon and in the wrong places...
...Catholic laity generally, especially those in their fifties and younger (see Dean R. Hoge, "Get Ready for the Post-Boomer Catholics," America, March 21, 1998...
...The more things change...
...If Spielberg's researchers knew that much then they must have known about Cinqu6's complicity in the slave trade...
...Commonweal, better than most publications, is well positioned to advance such dialogue...
...I am not aware of any reviewer calling the public's attention to this gross distortion...
...A recent letter from CTSA President Mary Ann Donovan informed members that a CTSA research group on "family as domestic church," formed in 1993 at the request of Cardinal Bernardin (then chairman of the NCCB Committee on Marriage and Family Life), has completed its work, work largely carried out in sessions at the annual meetings...
...If it were, the committee would have had some members who could have argued for the full Vatican position stated in Ordinatio sacerdotalis and the Responsum...
...TERRENCE W. TILLEY Dayton, Ohio PHYLLIS ZAGANO New York, N.Y...
...By contrast to the annual meeting of approximately 7,000 members of the American Academy of Religion and Society for Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL), the annual convention of some 470 members of the CTSA is so deeply concerned with Catholic issues, so devoted to the life of the church, and so centered in the liturgy that its true Catholicity is indubitable...
...Nor is the CTSA statement, as Peter Steinfels avers, respectful, responsible, and conservative...
...Advance payment required...
...The implied conflict, which has since erupted into the open with his charges that the CTSA is full of neoReformers, results from Dulles's explicitly clerical norm of conformity taking the place of a properly theological obedience of faith...
...During the questions and discussion, I asked how his criteria squared with Cardinal Newman's distinction between the hierarchy's governance of the church (the office of ruling) and the separate function of the teaching office carried on by theologians, both (Continued on page 28) Commonweal 4 April24, 1998 E t [ . ] ;tl ;11:41.1 , . I . l l ', II .l1:4111141 :!1 (Continued h'om page 4) in and out of the hierarchy...
Vol. 125 • April 1998 • No. 8
