KEEPING COLLEGES CATHOLIC: WHAT'S AT STAKE?
Steinfels, Peter
Peter Steinfels A JOURNALIST'S VIEW Does Rome have the best answer? Hn May 1,1991, the front page of the New York Times carried an article describing the difficulties faced by Catholic colleges...
...HHH hat is the whole effort trying to accomplish...
...What is the real point, and will this serve or undermine the larger mission of assuring a Catholic Christian presence in the university world and the culture...
...In May 1997 that approach was rejected by Rome with the demand that the bishops take a more "juridical" approach...
...Different histories, different locales, different constituencies, different opportunities, resources, and aspirations suggest different models...
...Some of these articles contained errors...
...Refuse to be bullied by deadlines into rash or unwieldy or irrelevant or self-destructive actions...
...Clarity and realism about the objective are primary...
...The current discussion actually encompasses three distinguishable concerns: • maintaining a Catholic character and mission in American Catholic institutions of higher education...
...It would require institutions to answer for themselves exactly how they conceive of their Catholic character and mission, not just compartmentalized in one department but as affecting, in nuanced ways, the research and teaching agenda of the entire institution as well as the ethos of its communal life...
...These concerns are obviously related but not at all identical...
...This note is entirely in keeping with his vision of a "new evangelization" and of rescuing a crippled and demoralized humanism from its modern flaws by opening it to the transcendent and recentering it on Christ...
...Suppose that no Ex corde ecclesiae existed...
...How did we work ourselves into this counterproductive state...
...Catholic leaders would have been no less obliged to analyze and counter the many pressures driving Catholic institutions, like many other institutions before them, toward secularization...
...It would institutionalize procedures of self-scrutiny undertaken in conversation with the episcopacy...
...And if the price of putting an extra-academic, episcopal stamp on Catholic theology professors were to reduce their viability as conversation partners with scholars in other disciplines, or to reinforce the already existing tendency to fence off religion as a subject not susceptible to genuine inquiry, would it be worth it...
...It would require a definition of Catholic identity that was not reduced to extracurricular honorifics or equated with the generic "values" or even "ethics" so hallowed in academia...
...Or should the overriding concern simply be, first, to assure that Catholic institutions graduate students with a reasonable level of theological literacy and, second, to foster theology as an academic discipline that attracts serious and creative scholars passionate about knowing and serving God and equipped to engage the rest of the university and the broader culture in the way John Paul II acclaims...
...No one stroke is the answer...
...Commonweal I W April 9,1999...
...It is not mounting a weapon for penalizing dissenting theologians...
...Fathers Malloy and Monan cannot speak for all Catholic educators, but they speak for many...
...lluWJ Protecting students from exposure to heteroAjAjfl dox ideas...
...Of all the current initiatives to revitalize this identity on campuses across the nation—and there are many—I cannot think of one that would not have been undertaken even if John Paul II had never issued his directive...
...In questioning the wisdom of Rome's attitude or the realism of the current draft document, it is easy, for example, to skirt the fact that the threat to the Catholic identity of Catholic colleges and universities is very real...
...That may be prudent but it leaves the bishops as well as Commonweal I # April 9,1999 other observers uncertain whether the response by Catholic educators has yet been at all commensurate to the challenge...
...Hould this approach have muscle...
...theological disciplines," as it happens, include church history...
...It requires explanation, persuasion, consensus building...
...Controlling the Catholic theological guild as a whole by controlling one of their chief job markets...
...Let there be a strictly doctrinally defined Franciscan University of Steubenville and a cosmopolitan Georgetown and a more religiously homogeneous but academically open Notre Dame, and also liberal arts colleges serving working-class women or minority and often non-Catholic returning students...
...If the touchstone for any application of Ex corde ecclesiae and its norms to the United States were the on-the-ground problems of Catholic identity or even the papal vision, the effect would be a revision of the 1998 "application" going well beyond its contested parts...
...Similarly with the proposal that "faithful Catholics" constitute a majority of the faculty or the trustees...
...It is not abstract compliance with a code or even a papal text...
...For almost a decade, the discussion on how to apply Ex corde ecclesiae has been dominated by the question of canon 812 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which requires Catholics teaching "theological disciplines" to "have a mandate from the competent ecclesiastical authority...
...Stamping out hotbeds of heresy...
...It is not to keep Catholic students or the Catholic public innocent of objectionable ideas...
...Catholic Campuses Face a Showdown on Ties to Church" (New York Times...
...From 1988 to 1997 he was the senior religion correspondent for the New York Times...
...That responsibility is to recover, to preserve, to renew what has been built up in the United States over generations—and not simply to reach a paper solution or get a good report card from Rome...
...There was no danger of being scooped...
...Especially in view of the extent of his remarks, it is not unlikely that some of them may be mistaken or at the very least in need of qualification...
...Getting a hammer to use against individual outspoken critics of official teaching...
...For the bishops' part, they are currently moving toward a confrontation that is needless and, if not outrightly destructive [see Paul C. Saunders, page 24], wasteful of an opportunity that may not soon return...
...The doubts of many bishops notwithstanding, Rome is further demanding that the hierarchy take action by November 1999, and if not to approve the 1998 "application," then to approve something very much like it...
...Let the bishops show that the one university they already collectively control, The Catholic University of America, can finally, after more than a century, become a presence in the first rank of American universities...
...Take what time is needed...
...Out of the roughly forty courses required for a bachelor's degree, the majority of students at Catholic institutions take two in theology...
...Not that a show of will isn't called for (and been sadly lacking) in some cases...
...Back to basics...
...Return to the papal vision enunciated in the first part of Ex corde ecclesiae and, beyond that, to the concrete reality of the campuses...
...Others faced exaggerated, simple-minded, or downright ugly accusations of crassly abandoning their institutions' legacies...
...This is not an effort to be achieved by fiat, from the top down...
...Those who protest against "bending" canon 812 should explain if they are truly going to apply it strictly...
...He was the editor of Commonweal from 1984 to 1988...
...Meanwhile, writing in America (January 30,1999), Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, and J. Donald Monan, S.J., chancellor of Boston College, have warned that "juridical elements" of the sort proposed last November will prove unworkable, threaten "havoc within Catholic universities," and create a profound impasse for the church and its universities...
...The malleability of canon law, when malleability is desired, seems suggested by the virtual carte blanche that the "General Norms" of Ex corde ecclesiae give the Holy See to intervene regardless of existing church legislation...
...The point is not whether that circle can be squared...
...And given the danger that such a break could be irreversible, bishops would avoid it too...
...devising local "ordinances" that apply the general norms of Ex corde ecclesiae concretely to the United States...
...When this "application" was discussed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at its November 1998 meeting, the document did not receive a particularly warm welcome ("Ex corde ecclesiae: An Application to the United States," Origins, December 23,1998...
...If the Vatican's demand for a "juridical" approach were freed from its canon law specifics and simply translated into a search for some practical leverage, a workable compromise might be within reach...
...As a reporter then covering religion for the Times, I had worked on the story, off and on, for many months, interviewing dozens of educators, revising my drafts, repeatedly setting the project aside for more pressing assignments...
...Feeling duty-bound to defend reputations under unfair attack, these educators were reluctant to acknowledge anything lending credence to the accusations...
...They include market competition for students and faculty, the prevailing academic ethos, including its commitments to academic freedom and evaluation by peers, and finally an appreciation for diversity and individual conscience that runs as deep in the Catholic population as outside it...
...Some were caught up in the quest for academic excellence or just sheer institutional survival...
...Insist on the responsibility of bishops...
...All faithful, theologically literate, and grown-up Catholics know this...
...In fact, the relationship of Ex corde ecclesiae to these efforts has always been ambiguous...
...If the latter, then we have taken another decisive step...
...Should an approach based on communication and mutual trust need to be balanced with a little bit of muscle in reserve, this seems like a more flexible and restrained way than applying canon law...
...Which brings us to the 1998 text applying Ex corde ecclesiae to the American situation...
...It would require them to devise strategies for meeting those benchmarks and to assess their successes and failures frankly...
...How things have changed...
...Their motives were often understandable...
...The bishops had, after all, voted overwhelmingly in 1996 for a very different approach to the implementation of Ex corde ecclesiae, stressing mutual trust and communication between Catholic educators and bishops Peter Steinfels is visiting professor of history at Georgetown University...
...P9MH hat if the Catholic university's mission of esB wkvW tablishing a Christian presence in the universiAjAjfl ty world, or of freely and fearlessly pursuing HHHH truth, or of engaging the local culture, or of fostering dialogue between science and religion—all purposes eloquently emphasized by John Paul II—should, in given circumstances, directly conflict with his concern that nonCatholics not constitute a majority of the faculty...
...Of course, when the pope's statement finally appeared, after extended consultation, it proved to be a reflection rich in guidance about what being a Catholic college or university might mean...
...For that reason, and also to avoid tripping the hair-trigger sensitivities that can embroil campus relations, steps taken to remedy the loss of Catholic identity have often been taken quietly...
...Perhaps that vision will be best served by a variety of models emphasizing different aspects of the task...
...Those pressures are multiple and complex...
...Clearly, Ex corde ecclesiae, like other texts of any complexity, requires a controlling hermeneutic, a principle of interpretation...
...Making sure that dissenting positions are clearly labeled as such...
...complying with the apostolic constitution Ex corde ecclesiae...
...Note that canon 812 is technically not limited to theology departments...
...The original question of how Catholic higher education's religious identity might be defended or renewed has given way to a largely different topic, how Catholic higher education can be subordinated to canon law...
...see Alice Gallin, O.S.U, "Making Colleges Catholic," Commonweal, March 28,1997...
...The bishops might do well to devise procedures for insuring that such a declaration of last resort were used rarely and responsibly, in view of an institution's overall posture rather than some narrowly defined dispute, and only after an appeals process, broad consultation, and institutionalized opportunities for dialogue and resolution...
...Even so, moving from the original objective of retaining or renewing Catholic identity to the secondary or intermediate objective of complying with Ex corde ecclesiae has important Commonweal I 5 April 9,1999 consequences...
...Those are only the ones I have seen...
...Much the same can be said about the proposal in the "application" that Catholic presidents of Catholic institutions take a profession of faith and oath of fidelity...
...See which one of these institutions or, more realistically, which ones best live up to the pope's culturally evangelizing vision...
...If one is to be true to the document, which consideration is to give way...
...They are financial, legal, and cultural...
...Barring questionable Catholic theology from reaching the general Catholic public...
...It is hard to write about this situation with equanimity or with justice to the complexity of the present predicament...
...At the same time, the document—or the fears associated (not entirely without reason) with virtually any Vatican document—was often an albatross around the neck of campus advocates of reasserting Catholic identity...
...Apart from the potential flypaper of presuming to judge which Catholics qualify as "faithful," this is a standard that would probably be unproblematic at many institutions...
...The point is no longer to reach the destination...
...And many of the headlines were alarming: "Catholic Colleges See Peril in Vatican Push for Control" (Boston Globe...
...it is to pay homage to the road map...
...Hasn't there been enough mindlessness or avoidance on the part of Catholic educators to justify the Vatican's demand for a "juridical" approach...
...And money helps...
...First, the papal prescription for Catholic higher education, rich as it may be, has been substituted as the object of attention for direct confrontation of the problem on the ground...
...it retains ambiguities, inconsistencies, lacunae, and loopholes...
...Behind the furor was a draft document spelling out how Ex corde ecclesiae, Pope John Paul IFs 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education (Origins, October 4, 1990), should be implemented in the United States...
...As it is, canon 812 has become not a means to an end but an end in itself...
...But they will have to keep several things in mind...
...Can canon 812 be honored without impinging on the academy's principle that it alone should judge who is qualified to teach...
...The latter question is what is now being pursued regardless of its significance for the former...
...It is that enormous energy, ingenuity, and emotion have been expended trying to do so with virtually no examination of its real importance to the overall question of Catholic identity...
...But this note, it must also be admitted, is less apparent in the "General Norms," part 2 of Ex corde ecclesiae, than in the papal text that constitutes the bulk of the document...
...It would require schools to set benchmarks for measuring how they are living up to that conception...
...Efforts to address questions of Catholic identity and Catholic higher education predated Ex corde ecclesiae and continue to exist independent of it...
...There would be legal consequences but the reverberations would be potentially great, and I think most institutions would strive to avoid such a public rift...
...If the distinctively Catholic element in the curriculum or in the research agendas of the faculty is limited to the theology department, those two courses could be taught by the bishop himself without it necessarily distinguishing the Catholic campus from the state university down the road...
...Which is to prevail...
...Since January alone the topic of Catholic higher education and its religious ties has made headlines, often on page one, in major newspapers in Boston, Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati, Omaha, and Louisville...
...Rather than providing the framework for returning to the concrete campus reality and measuring it by the papal vision, the "application" currently on the table has become a further exercise in applying canon law...
...The goal is preserving the distinctly Catholic character of these institutions...
...Catholic bishops always retain the prerogative of unilaterally announcing that a college or university no longer meets the minimal conditions for being considered distinctly Catholic...
...I am convinced that the American bishops can find a way to implement Ex corde ecclesiae that has real bite but does not sabotage Catholic higher education and the current initiatives to affirm its Catholic identity...
...Other major stories have appeared in USA Today, the New Republic, and the Chronicle of Higher Education...
...Hhe challenge of retaining this country's exceptional network of Catholic colleges and universities as a key resource of scholarship and critical intelligence for the Catholic community did not arise because of Ex corde ecclesiae...
...For one thing, although some people consider it heretical to say, the pope is not necessarily the repository of all wisdom on this or any other subject...
...At least, to those who actually read it...
...This touchstone, I submit, is the pope's call for Catholic colleges and universities to assure an effective Christian presence, first, in the world of higher education and advanced learning and, second, in the culture generally...
...If a declaration of this nature were issued lightly or eccentrically by a local bishop, it would quickly backfire, generating solidarity from other schools, and alienating scholars and educated Catholics...
...Questions like that cannot be discussed without returning to the basic concerns...
...For altogether too long, many leading Catholic educators chose to minimize the danger, and a few still do...
...Presumably that includes bishops, even if they sometimes pretend otherwise...
...But it will prove fruitless without a thoughtful, long-range strategy tailored to the individual institution and its setting...
...So the question arises: Are those norms to be read in the light of the pope's text, especially in cases of conflict, tension, or ambiguity...
...It would change the entire focus and emphasis of the document...
...Let bishops be bishops, not errand boys...
...Anyone who thinks that these pressures can be dealt with by a simple act of will on the part of Catholic educators is blithely ignorant of the realities...
...As a Catholic and a historian teaching a course on American Catholic history in a Catholic university history department, I suppose I, too, need a mandate and should take Commonweal I 6 April 9,1999 an oath of fidelity—and, according to at least one canonist's opinion, would be required to do so even if I were teaching at Yale or the City University of New York...
...Then, a set of norms based on canon law has nudged even the papal prescription from center stage...
...Let canon law be a means not an end in itself...
...Hn May 1,1991, the front page of the New York Times carried an article describing the difficulties faced by Catholic colleges and universities in maintaining any distinctive Catholic identity...
...But overall the reports were accurate in conveying the urgency of the situation, the imminence of a showdown, and the likelihood of a destructive deadlock between Catholic educators and church officials...
...They are doing this against their own better judgment, pressured by Rome and by a minority within their own ranks...
...Catholic Church, Universities in Power Struggle" (USA Today...
...There is no single model for being a Catholic college or university in the United States...
...More importantly, Ex corde eccleske, like the majority of papal documents, is the farfrom-seamless work of many hands...
...What has happened is that, step by step, the discussion has slid from the first to the third, and in that process the subject has been radically changed...
...Once one got clear which of these goals are central, and which are inappropriate, unachievable, unnecessary, or merely secondary, then one could decide about how to use—or not use—canon 812...
...nurturing a Catholic identity demands a whole repertoire of initiatives that stretch from student life to recruitment of key faculty and administrators, from campus ministry to new course development, from research incentives to interdisciplinary conversations...
...Unquestionably the prospect of such a document, which was long in the making, concentrated the minds of not a few Catholic educators who might otherwise have preferred to avoid an uncomfortable self-scrutiny...
...Doesn't anything less leave the bishops and the church generally at the mercy of recalcitrant educators' protestations of good intentions...
...Or are they to be read independently of it, as though the text were a merely inspirational introduction to an extension of canon law...
...It reflects compromises among competing interests and priorities...
...Nor are the American bishops lusting to gain control over the colleges and universities in their dioceses—they have enough problems already...
...It would build on elements in the General Norms and the proposed "application" that are now subordinated to considerations of canon law...
...No one is proposing, for example, that only Catholics should teach at Catholic institutions or serve on their boards...
...Indeed, the General Norms introduce themselves as "a further development of" the Code of Canon Law...
...At others, however, it could be enormously mischievous to apply, destructive of collegial and scholarly relationships, and quite counter to that ideal of "an authentic human community animated by the spirit of Christ" the pope asks Catholic universities to pursue...
...The dynamics of secularization, furthermore, operate differently on small institutions than on large ones, on research universities than on liberal arts colleges, on urban commuter schools than on residential campuses...
...Relieving the bishops or the VatiHfli^l can of the burden of explaining to angry, disquieted Catholics that allowing such exposure does not automatically constitute scandal and betrayal...
...Since then he has written the biweekly "Beliefs" column for the Times...
Vol. 126 • April 1999 • No. 7
