Column Pizza bucks back hyper-Catholic law school
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
Puzzlement and annoyance were the
reactions of persons in legal education at the announcement that Thomas
Monaghan, founder of Dominos Pizza, will establish a new institution
called the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich. Monaghan, who recently
sold Dominos Pizza for a reported $1 billion, expects to invest up to $50
million in the new school.
The schools highly professional press release did not quite
say that the 24 existing Catholic law schools in America are not Catholic
enough, but that was clearly implied. Members of the board of the Ave Maria
School of Law echo these sentiments, suggesting that Ave Maria will somehow be
more Catholic than the 24 existing Catholic law schools, 14 of which are
Jesuit.
Fr. Michael Scanlan, president of Franciscan University of
Steubenville, Ohio, asserted that there is a serious need for a school such as
Ave Maria. Jesuit Fr. Joseph Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press, said that Ave
Maria offers an extraordinary opportunity for students. Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia is one of the advisers to the school. He flew to Michigan at
least once in the recent past to consult with the founders.
Monaghan asserts categorically that Ave Maria will conform to Pope
John Paul IIs Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which exhorts Catholic colleges
and universities to strengthen Catholic identity and tighten hierarchical
control over teaching theology. He makes no mention of the difficulties that
most bishops and most of the leaders of Americas 230 Catholic colleges
have had with that document.
The dean-designate of the new school is Bernard Dobranski,
currently the dean of The Catholic University Law School in Washington. I spoke
on two occasions with Dobranski about his aspirations. He is familiar with the
Michigan scene since he is the former dean of the University of Detroit Mercy
Law School. He is optimistic about the new law school, indicating that money is
not a problem.
I spoke also with Monaghans top aide. He was sanguine but
not willing to expand on the objectives of the school beyond the flattering
press release. When I suggested that the announcement hinted at criticism of
existing Catholic law schools, he backed away without disputing my
assertion.
The first professor to be hired at the new school is Robert Bork.
Former Judge Bork is not identified with any religious tradition. He will not
move to Michigan, but will retain his full-time position at the American
Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
I have spent 33 years as a professor and administrator at two
Catholic law schools, Boston College Law School and Georgetown University Law
Center. I know legal education and especially the problems and aspirations of
the 24 Catholic law schools. No one would deny that these schools could
theoretically be more Catholic, but most of these law schools have strong local
and regional reputations. Many of them have trained the dominant lawyers and
judges in their communities.
Some in Catholic legal education deem Ave Maria an affront. Some
also think that the new school is essentially a political statement by a very
conservative group of people who are utilizing Catholicism as a justification
for their political convictions.
The new law school will be a part of a new two-year Ave Maria
Junior College that is seeking accreditation from Michigan. The projected law
school will, therefore, not be really affiliated with a university! Thats
an essential requisite for any law school if it wants to be taken seriously in
the academic world.
Law schools are not mere instruments where the faith can be
proclaimed. The Catholic church founded law faculties at the first great
universities of Bologna, Italy; Oxford, England; and Paris. Law has always been
a part of universities that teach everything from architecture to zoology. All
of the 24 Catholic law schools are attached to universities. They interpret
their mission with the religious order or the university of which they are a
part.
Ave Maria will almost certainly continue its boast that it is more
Catholic than any other Catholic law school. It will be self-righteous. By
generous scholarships, it will invite students to attend a law school billed as
more loyal to the church than any other. It will mock other law schools as too
secularized and, in essence, unfaithful to the magisterium.
At the risk of rising to the bait in a premature way, let me talk
about Catholicism at Georgetown University Law Center. This school, established
in 1870, and now ranked in the top 12 out of 180 law schools, has three
full-time Jesuit lawyers on its faculty. Georgetown pays a full-time chaplain
and a Catholic nun as well as a part-time Protestant chaplain and a part-time
Jewish chaplain to give spiritual counseling; the Law School has daily Mass for
students and a beautiful chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is preserved.
Georgetown Law School publishes the prestigious Journal of Legal Ethics,
the nations premier journal in this field. The Catholic and Jesuit ideal
of engaging in public service is prominent in every expression of the mission
of Georgetown University Law Center.
It would be nice if Catholic legal educators could welcome Ave
Maria to their ranks. That will not happen. The school will have to struggle
for accreditation from the American Bar Association and then from the American
Association of Law Schools. It will not be easy.
Many in Catholic higher education will think of Ave Maria as an
irritant and a distraction from the heroic struggle in which Catholic colleges
and universities are engaged to retain and enhance their academic and
professional ratings. Ave Maria will be a holier than thou
institution that will deride the competition and seek to buy talent with money
from its billionaire patron.
On the other hand, perhaps we can hope that the Ave Maria School
of Law will be a reminder to all persons engaged in Catholic higher education
that a heavier emphasis on religious values can always be useful.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law Center.
National Catholic Reporter, May 7,
1999
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