EDITORIAL Rely instead on the fidelity and holiness of the flock
Many Catholics agree that the
Catholic identity of church-related colleges and universities has been a
legitimate concern. With the decline in the numbers of priests and nuns and the
evident loss of religious identity in schools founded by other denominations,
there has been ample reason to consider what might be done.
However, the Vaticans response -- requiring theologians to
receive the mandatum, or certificate of approval, from a local bishop --
continues to provide more material for mischief than for solution. U.S. bishops
are forced to move toward implementation of a plan that many theologians
disdain.
Meanwhile, more positive approaches to the issue of Catholic
identity, such as the fledgling Catholic studies movement, go begging for
recognition and support.
The latest mischief spawned by the imminent mandatum
requirement is www.mandata.org, a Web site that purports to help parents
pick a Catholic college or university (see story page 3). One might argue that
even discussing the effort confers on it far more legitimacy than it deserves.
Such ad hoc monitoring efforts, however, have achieved an inordinate level of
credibility and influence in the waning years of Pope John Paul IIs
papacy.
This style of freelance orthodoxy policing, a kind of ecclesial
vigilantism, has gained unusual access to powers in Rome and has caused a level
of havoc at home that belies the small numbers pushing the levers. These groups
think nothing of impugning reputations and ruining careers. Their arrogance in
making absolute claims to being the purest repositories of orthodoxy is
boundless.
Nothing better demonstrates the condition than tactics of former
officials of the Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco who
prohibited Jesuits affiliated with the university from presiding over the
institutes daily liturgies.
Jesuit Fr. Stephen A. Privett, university president, provides
Catholic leaders with a model of how to respond to such groups (see story page
4). When critics accused Privett of trying to silence the voice of
orthodoxy because the universitys Jesuit community does not support
the Catholic church, Privett simply referred to the long history of Jesuits
through the ages and questioned how the group of critics could assume the
role of judges of orthodoxy.
If the bishops were to take that model and apply it to the wider
Catholic culture, leaning heavily on the deep and wide record of fidelity and
holiness of their flock, they might begin to bring some perspective to the
charges that often fly about, impugning the motives of so many who serve.
The mandatum may have been well intended as a tool to
assure Catholic identity. In other cultures it might fit well with how Catholic
institutions have historically seen themselves. For various reasons, it just
might not be that big a deal elsewhere.
But in the United States -- where law, down to the last comma and
conjunction, is taken seriously, and where a tradition of academic freedom has
flourished -- the net result is to set up new opportunities for punitive
actions and new fuel for the vigilantes.
National Catholic Reporter, February 23,
2001
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