NEWS STORY: Bishops struggle with implementing Vatican rules on colleges

c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ What does it mean to be a Roman Catholic university? Pope John Paul II raised that question _ and largely answered it _ in a 1990 document, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” (“From the Heart of the Church”). But nine years later, the Vatican, U.S. bishops and leaders of the […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ What does it mean to be a Roman Catholic university?

Pope John Paul II raised that question _ and largely answered it _ in a 1990 document, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” (“From the Heart of the Church”).


But nine years later, the Vatican, U.S. bishops and leaders of the 220 Catholic universities and colleges in the United States are still struggling over how to implement the pope’s ideas.

The norms _ or principles _ outlined by John Paul aim at maintaining the Catholic identity of the church’s colleges and universities in an increasingly secular educational atmosphere. Coming up with rules to do that without overriding the fiercely held principle of academic freedom, however, has at times pitted bishops against the educators as well as divided the bishops and educators among themselves.

But the Rev. David Tyson, president of the University of Portland, Oregon’s largest Catholic school, has proposed a way to get all sides talking.

The problems are many.

Practically, universities fear government aid and the very future of Catholic higher education could be threatened with a heavy-handed implementation of the papal edict.

A plan under consideration by bishops worries presidents of some of America’s most prestigious Catholic universities. For them, the most troubling parts call for:

_ Theology professors to have a mandate to teach from the local bishop.

_ University presidents to recite a profession of faith and oath of fidelity.

_ Faculty to be composed of more than 50 percent “faithful Catholics.”

Tyson suggests that _ rather than proposing rule after rule _ as universities do their regular 10-year accreditation review, a further study be conducted in light of “the general norms established by the Holy Father.” The analysis would be done by a five-member visitation team drawn from bishops, administrators and faculty.

Sister Carol Dempsey, an assistant professor at the University of Portland and a member of the board of the nationwide College Theology Society, said she likes Tyson’s plan because it allows for more than one voice to be heard.

“These voices can be similar voices, diverse voices, liberal voices, conservative voices, but we’re going to be talking and listening to each other, and that’s what’s important,” Dempsey said. “The presence of the Holy Spirit is in the conversation, in the midst of people coming together.”


A national subcommittee headed by Bishop John J. Leibrecht of Springfield, Mo., will consider Tyson’s proposal when it meets June 28 and 29 in Washington, D.C.

In November the annual fall session of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops will take place. Bishops from across the country will vote on what step to take next. If the bishops agree, their plan must still be accepted by the Vatican, which rejected a previous approach submitted in 1996.

How Tyson’s plan will be greeted nationally, much less in the Vatican, is difficult to assess. Leibrecht has a three-inch stack of proposals, including Tyson’s, on his desk.

When John Paul II wrote “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” he acknowledged the need for vigorous academic exploration without falling into what he called moral relativism.

The vast majority of Catholic universities are in the United States, where academic freedom has been increasingly emphasized over moral absolutes.

“We clearly know what has happened with our Protestant counterparts,” said Tyson, referring to the fact that Harvard, Yale and other leading universities began as religious institutions but evolved into secular schools.


After their first plan was rejected by the Vatican, Catholic bishops have been considering an alternative that goes into specifics and church legalities, as the Vatican requested. The alternative would call for bishops to approve theology professors, presidential oaths of faith, Catholic faculty quotas and other mandates.

In an article, the Rev. Edward Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame, and J. Donald Monan, chancellor of Boston College, called those requirements “profoundly detrimental to Catholic higher education.”

Tyson said he would be willing to take a fidelity oath, even though it’s contrary to American academic tradition. But he is worried courts may find discrimination if universities use Catholic hiring quotas.

In addition, said Tyson, state and federal financial aid for students could be threatened if it’s determined Catholic schools are controlled by the Vatican.

Despite all this tension, Tyson sees a benefit to more academic input from local bishops.

“If you start from an assumption that no bishop should get involved except to dress up at Baccalaureate and show up at cocktail hours with potential donors, then I have to ask, `By what basis do you call yourself Catholic?”’


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