Universities Won't Reveal Theologians' Status

SPOKANE, Wash. — Chicago Cardinal Francis George and Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Weurl, chairman of the bishops’ education committee, both say universities should make public information about which of their theologians have a mandatum and which don't.

But, as parents are finding, many universities disagree. They are keeping their lips sealed about the canon law recognition a Catholic teaching theologian must seek from the bishop.

The problem isn't just at universities known for dissent — but even at some that have excellent reputations.

When her daughter was considering colleges last spring, Maureen Yantes called Gonzaga University here to ask if its theology professors have a mandatum, the recognition granted by the local bishop that Catholic professors who are teaching Catholic theology are doing so in communion with the Church.

“I felt, as a parent, we should know if someone has a mandatum or not,” said Yantes, of Rapid City, S.D. “It's a wonderful tool for parents” who are concerned about the kind of education, especially in the faith, their children will receive.

Someone in administration at Gonzaga told Yantes the mandatum did not apply at the university because it has a religious studies — not a theology — department. As it turned out, the person was misinformed on the subject: Gonzaga professors are subject to the requirement.

But the university official “assured me that [theology professors are] faithful to Church teachings,” Yantes said. Still, she was concerned and, even now, does not know which teachers have a mandatum. Nor does her daughter, who is taking a New Testament course.

Even a law professor at Gonzaga, David DeWolf, who has a son studying at the university, says he “can't identify whom I could rely on to teach Catholic doctrine.”

In this current semester, the first in which the mandatum is in effect — professors were required to have one by June 1 — it is being implemented in a wide variety of ways. Some professors — and some universities — boast about having one, while others seem to wish the matter would simply go away.

At Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., for example, having the mandatum is “a condition for professors teaching Catholic theology here,” said Edward Sri, chairman of the religious studies department. “We get a number of students who are looking for whether we support the idea of the mandatum or not.”

In some dioceses, however, the matter seems to have been put on hold. The sexabuse scandals of the past year have absorbed the attention of many bishops, leaving the mandatum at a low priority. But those scandals came about in large part, some observers argue, because theological dissent has been tolerated, especially in the area of sexual morality.

“How many of the priests and bishops who have brought such suffering to minors and scandal to the public were who have brought such suffering to minors and scandal to the public were encouraged by teachers and theologians to cut corners and dissent from this or that truth of Catholic faith and moral teachings?” Father Matthew Lamb, professor of theology at Boston College, wrote in a recent article for National Review Online.

He noted, for example, that the Catholic Theological Society of America has never ordered the reworking of “Human Sexuality,” edited by Father Anthony Kosnik, a book that “made excuses for” homosexuality, cohabitation, adultery and other sexual deviancies, even though it was criticized by the U.S. bishops and censored by the Vatican. The society has never publicly repudiated the book's dissent, Father Lamb noted.

In his April remarks to U.S. cardinals in Rome to discuss the sex abuse cover-up crisis, Pope John Paul II linked Catholic teaching and the sex abuse crisis when he said:

“People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.”

Newsweek magazine religion editor Kenneth Woodward kicked off a two-year academic inquiry into the sex scandals at Boston College on Sept. 18 by calling for, among other things, a better job on the part of universities at passing on the Catholic faith.

But some theologians in Boston have requested mandata from Cardinal Bernard Law and gotten no response. A spokesman of the Boston Archdiocese failed to respond to a request for comment.

Shawn Copeland, president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society and a visiting professor at Boston College, said she would not tell a student whether she had a mandatum or not. “These are private matters between a bishop and a theologian,” said Copeland, who normally teaches at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Critics have wondered how the mandatum, which is Latin for “mandate,” can have its intended effect in promoting the Catholic identity of Catholic universities if it is a strictly private matter.

“Some bishops genuinely believe it ought to be kept private. I don't think the argument behind that holds up,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, which works to restore a Catholic identity to the nation's more than 230 Catholic colleges and universities. “The original purpose of Ex Corde Ecclesiae was to ensure that Catholic theological teaching is authentic. The way this is set up, it doesn't accomplish that.”

According to the bishops’ “Guidelines Concerning the Academic Mandatum in Catholic Universities,” if a professor does not obtain the mandatum within the required time period, “the competent ecclesiastical authority should notify the appropriate authority in the college or university.”

But an ecclesiastical authority has the right to offer the mandatum on his own initiative. That would require that the theologian's commitment to teach in full communion with the Church is clear. It also would require an acceptance on the part of the theologian.

If a bishop is contemplating the denial or withdrawal of a mandatum once granted, the document says, “he should discuss this informally with the theologian, listing the reasons and identifying the sources, and allowing the theologian to make all appropriate responses.”

Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, amplifies the canon law requirement for the mandatum.

“A student has the right to be assured that a teacher is teaching authentic Catholic theology,” Reilly contended. Canon law is ambiguous, he said, and he would like the Vatican Congregation for Education to clarify whether the mandatum is meant to be public or private.

Shouldn't Be Secret

But Chicago's Cardinal George believes a mandatum is a public act, like baptism or becoming a professor. “It's part of being a Catholic theologian at this point,” he said. “It doesn't have to be kept as a guarded secret.”

The cardinal believes a student has a right to ask if a teacher has a mandatum. “If the facts are right, the facts are public,” he said. But he criticized attempts at making public lists of professors who do or don't have a mandatum, in particular a Web site that did so even before any mandata were issued.

And Bishop Wuerl of Pittsburgh, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on education, said in an interview earlier this year that although the mandatum is the concern of the professor and the local bishop, “there should be some provision for students to find out” whether a professor has one or not.

“It should be a concern of parents and students to know whether a professor has taken a stand with the Church,” said Alan Schreck, chairman of the theology department at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, which requires all theology professors to have a mandatum. “We see [being theology professors] as an ecclesial vocation.”

“It's important for us to know because so many theology and philosophy courses are required,” said Yantes, mother of the Gonzaga student.

Ex Corde Ecclesiae was issued in 1990, but debates over the mandatum held up its implementation in the United States. The Vatican rejected an initial proposal from the U.S. bishops because the proposal did not contain norms. The Vatican insisted that the implementation be not simply exhortative, but normative. Rome approved of a U.S. adaptation of the constitution in 2000, however the definition of what a mandatum is was left up to the U.S. bishops. The U.S. bishops issued guidelines on issuance of the mandatum last year.

One source of worry among theologians was that the mandatum would stifle their academic freedom of inquiry. They feared being regarded by their non-Catholic peers as being little more than catechists, repeating the official teaching of the Church.

According to the U.S. bishops’ documents on Ex Corde, the mandatum recognizes the professor's “lawful freedom of inquiry” and his “responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the Church's magisterium.”

Sri, at Benedictine College, says he has no fear of encroachment. “I don't believe the mandatum in any way limits my scholarly pursuits but rather enhances them,” he said. “After all, as a Catholic theologian, I have the responsibility and desire to teach in full communion with the Catholic Church.”