We are a Church divided! - 2 of 2

We are a Church divided! – 2 of 2
In pursuit of the truth – cinops be gone – Sunday, January 11, 2009

This concludes A. Hendershott’s insightful article in New Oxford Rev. Jan. 09

While the papal document (Ex Corde Ecclesiae) acknowledges that the Catholic university, as a university, possesses the institutional autonomy …, the document reminds those working on Catholic campuses that this freedom must always be viewed “WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE TRUTH AND COMMON GOOD,” and there must be “fidelity to the Christian message” as it comes to us through the Church.

For Pope John Paul II – and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI – the pursuit of the truth is the university’s way of serving at one and the same time both the dignity of man and the good of the Church. Literally translated as “From the Heart of the Church,” Ex Corde Ecclesiae calls for Catholic colleges to be accountable to local bishops. A key component of this accountability is the controversial requirement within the papal document that all theologians obtain a MANDATUM, or mandate, from the local bishop attesting their teaching is in communion, or in keeping with, official Church teachings. …

So alarmed with the demands of Ex Corde in the early days of its release were Donald Moran S.J. chancellor of Boston College, and Edward Malloy, CSC., president of Notre Dame University, that they wrote an article in the Jesuit magazine America warning that the implementation of the directives would threaten the status of their institutions: “The universities acceptance of the obligations spelled out here would mean the sacrifice of many of those prerogatives that make Catholic universities and their professional staffs the respected and influential members of the higher education community that they are.”...

Describing Ex Corde as “unworkable and dangerous,” the editors of AMERICA warned that the impact of the norms would be “disastrous” for Catholic colleges and universities. The faculty senate at Notre Dame voted unanimously to ignore the guidelines of EX CORDE. …

When Pope Benedict XVI addressed the presidents of Catholic colleges in Washington, D.C., this past April (2008), the Holy Father reminded them to remain faithful to Catholic teaching both inside and outside the classroom. He spoke of a “crisis of truth” rooted in a “crisis of faith” and warned of the creeping “dictatorship of relativism.” …

Until recently, most Catholic bishops have remained silent on these issues – acquiescing to faculty demands for academic freedom. Rejecting the role of the presiding bishop on Catholic campuses. FR. RICHARD McBRIEN, …, has been especially critical of episcopal oversight since the release of EX CORDE.

In an interview in The Chronicles of Higher Education, FR. McBRIEN made his views … clear: “The idea of even suggesting any kind of oversight by non-academic operations of a university – Catholic or not – is odious to anybody in an academic institution … I want criticism to come from people with credentials to criticize. Bishops should be welcome on a Catholic university campus. Give them tickets to the ball games. Let them say Mass, bring them to graduation. Let them sit on the stage….”

Most bishops have complied with faculty demands. Yet, there are signs that this is coming to an end. Since EX CORDE was issued, MARIST COLLEGE, MARYMOUNT MANHATTAN COLLEGE, NAZARETH COLLEGE, AND ST. JOHN FISHER COLLEGE have been stripped of their designation as Catholic colleges by their bishops. …

Pope Benedict XVI would likely favor “evangelical pruning” rather than maintain ties to Catholic institutions that have become too secular…. The time may have come for a “mustard seed Church.” suggesting a “much smaller presence, but with faith whose dimension could move mountains.”

Some of the most faithful members of this mustard-seed Church have been introduced in recent books like “God on the Quad” by Naomi Schaefer Riley and “The New Faithful” by Collen Carroll. … These students are increasingly demanding that the culture of their religious colleges reflect their faith. They are getting assistance from the Cardinal Newman Society…

George H. Kubeck