Papal Admonitions and Presidential Perceptions

As Catholic college presidents issued a collective sigh of relief following Pope Benedict’s address at the Catholic University of America last month, those who teach and study on these campuses remain curious about the future. Since there was no “overt” mention of Pope John Paul’s 1990 encyclical, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and its controversial requirement that all theologians obtain a mandatum, or a certificate from the local bishop attesting that their teaching was in communio or in keeping with official Church teachings, Catholic college leaders claimed that the threat to academic freedom posed by Ex Corde had passed. 
 
In an interview published in The Chronicle, Rev. Thomas J. Reese, the former editor of the Jesuit magazine, America, pointed to Pope Benedict’s reaffirmation of academic freedom as particularly important: “He very clearly said that he affirmed and respected academic freedom.” Likewise, Mary Lyons, President of the University of San Diego and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities praised the papal speech as “affirming and generous” and dismissed the controversies surrounding Ex Corde as “so ’90s.”  
 
Indeed, since 1990, many faculty members and administrators on Catholic campuses have viewed Ex Corde as a threat to their academic freedom and independent governance. In a commentary in America, Notre Dame’s previous president, Fr. Edward Malloy, and Fr. Donald Monan, chancellor of Boston College warned of “havoc” if it were adopted and called the mandatum requirement “positively dangerous” to Catholic institutions in America. The faculty senate at Notre Dame voted unanimously for the guidelines of Ex Corde to be ignored. In an especially hyperbolic article, one theologian likened the approval of Ex Corde to the “Doomsday Clock” for Catholic higher education. Drawing upon the metaphor of the doomsday clock, a vestige of the cold war, when the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists showed how close the world was to the midnight of mass nuclear annihilation, Jon Nilson, theology professor at Loyola University, Chicago, warned of a similar annihilation for Catholic colleges. It is understandable that Catholic college leaders would welcome what seems to be the apparent absence of references to Ex Corde in Pope Benedict’s address.
 
But, for those of us who have studied the document carefully and longed for the implementation of Ex Corde on our campuses, it is clear that Pope Benedict’s address is a continuation of the conversation that began with the papal document ­–and a reaffirmation of its tenets. While Pope Benedict stated that he wished to “reaffirm the great value of academic freedom,” he reminded those in attendance that “it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church’s munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.” The presidents must know that Ex Corde Ecclesiae is translated as “from the heart of the Church.”
 
Rather than a document that remains mired “in the ’90s,” Pope Benedict reaffirmed Ex Corde Ecclesiae by reminding Catholic college leaders that they continue to have a duty “to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom.” And, he warned that “Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.”
 
For Pope Benedict, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, Catholic colleges and universities are integral to the mission of the Church to evangelize — to save souls by “proclaiming the Good News.” Decrying the moral relativism that has undermined Catholic teachings, Pope Benedict warned that the “crisis of truth” that exists in society is rooted in a “crisis of faith.” And, he reminded the Catholic leaders that Catholic colleges have a responsibility to “evoke among the young the desire for the act of faith, encouraging them to commit themselves to the ecclesial life that follows from this belief.”
 
In what is surely one of the most controversial components of Pope Benedict’s recent address, the pontiff called on Catholic colleges to avoid “the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of risk, bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love.” Distributing condoms, providing opportunities for internships at Planned Parenthood, sponsoring performances of The Vagina Monologues, and honoring pro-choice politicians may be viewed as violating this tenet.
 
It is difficult to predict whether Catholic college presidents will heed Pope Benedict’s admonitions­, especially when some of them believe that the pontiff has already “moved beyond” Ex Corde Ecclesiae. What is clear is that Pope Benedict has renewed Pope John Paul II’s mandate to the bishops to ensure that Catholic colleges remain committed to their Catholic mission. His rejoinder that “the shepherd must know his flock…and the flock must know its shepherd,” may begin to resonate on Catholic college campuses.