Continuing the conversation: Catholic colleges: A historian and a bishop comment
Leibrecht, John J.
A bishop's View At their November 1998 general meeting, the Catholic bishops of the United States discussed a draft document which applies the norms of Ex corde ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II's...
...He is also chairman of the U.S...
...bishops prompted recommendations to the committee of bishops guiding the implementation of Ex corde in this country...
...bishops should be based on mutual trust, cooperation, and respectful dialogue...
...Already agreed upon is that the relationship of Catholic colleges and universities with U.S...
...The media have highlighted the current draffs neuralgic language on certain points: that presidents of Catholic colleges and universities make a profession of faith and an oath of fidelity, that a majority of faculty and trustees should be "faithful Catholics," and that professors of theological disciplines are to have a "mandate" from the local bishop, even though the local bishop has no authority either to hire or to fire professors of theological disciplines because that would be interference in the internal affairs of the institutions...
...Earlier this month, dialogues on the draft now before Catholic institutions of higher education and the U.S...
...The publication of Ex corde provided the occasion for what has probably been the first and certainly the most sustained dialogue between the U.S...
...Within a few months, however, the media turned their attention to it, but unfortunately many reports failed to reflect clearly not only what happened last November but what has been going on for the better part of a decade...
...The Most Reverend John J. Leibrecht is the bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri...
...What comprises Catholic identity in its relationship to academic freedom and institutional autonomy is an issue which inevitably occasions differing, even conflicting, analyses...
...Without that understanding, the issue of the ingredients of Catholic identity in Catholic higher education can never be constructively addressed...
...After hearing from the bishops and representatives of Catholic colleges and universities, as well as from other interested parties, the committee of bishops responsible for a next draft implementing Ex corde in the United States will provide that draft in the early fall of this year...
...The point in question is not one of control but of relationships...
...The participants agreed that the dialogue has become necessary and has been worthwhile as well as timely...
...Those neuralgic issues should not overshadow the consensus previously reached in past dialogues...
...Dialogue continues on a draft which seeks to find a way of maintaining the Catholic identity of Catholic colleges and universities within the necessary framework of "academic freedom" and "institutional autonomy" called for by Ex corde itself...
...Discussion of and vote on that draft will take place at the November 1999 national assembly of bishops in Washington, D.C...
...Just as the colleges and universities have a certain form to their relationships with those entities, Ex corde seeks additional specific clarity on the form of their relationships to the church...
...bishops will control these institutions...
...bishops' implementation committee for Ex corde ecclesiae...
...The draft drew little attention from the media covering the event...
...In view of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in Catholic colleges and universities, the application of Ex corde within the United States can in no way mean that the U.S...
...That, of course, is a valid and important matter...
...Catholic colleges and universities have relationships to civil authorities, accrediting associations, academic and professional associations, athletic associations...
...bishops and the leaders of Catholic higher education in the United States...
...A bishop's View At their November 1998 general meeting, the Catholic bishops of the United States discussed a draft document which applies the norms of Ex corde ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic institutions of higher learning, to the Catholic colleges and universities of the United States...
Vol. 126 • May 1999 • No. 10
