Ex Corde Ecclesiae -Reply

[Emily Hartigan]

The "ugly" quality is the Vatican's refusal to make any of the
modifications requested by the US bishops.
It remains to be seen whether the application will be as immoderate as
some think, but the recent treatment of Grammick and Nugent (the
silencing of the two workers-with-homosexuals, after they agreed to
stop their ministry but not to let Bruskewitz, the champion
excommunicator of Lincoln, NE, silence them.... so the Vatican did the
silencing) does not bode well.

Emily Albrink Fowler Hartigan
St. Mary's U. School of Law
San Antonio, Texas 78228
hartigane at law.stmarytx.edu
Fax: 210-436-3717
Phone: 210-431-2273

>>> Kim Daniels <danielsk at BOO.NET> 06/15/00 08:08pm >>>
Prof. Hartigan mentions a colleague who has tenure but would refuse to
seek
a mandatum (in other words, give assurances to his bishop that what he
presents as Catholic theology in fact accords with Church teaching).
One
reason many Catholic univerity presidents have reacted negatively to Ex
Corde Ecclesiae is their fear of costly lawsuits in such situations. Any
thoughts on how those suits would play out?

Note that Ex Corde does not specify what would happen to schools that
keep
or hire professors who refuse to seek a mandatum (in that way, and in
many
others, it's actually much more moderate than Prof. Hartigan makes it out
to
be). Some have surmised that the bishop would declare that such a
university
is no longer considered Catholic by the Church, but that seems unlikely to
happen except in extraordinary cases.

In a wrongful termination suit, then, would the success or failure of the
university's defense turn on whether the local bishop (ie, the governing
ecclesial authority) had directed the university in some specific way to
conform its theology department to Church norms, or could the university
pursue such a course without direct ecclesial involvement and remain
within
the law?

As a quick aside, I have to say I find it hard to read Ex Corde as an "ugly
Church action".  Ex Corde simply asks for truth in advertising -- if you
tell your students that what you're teaching is Catholic theology, then it
should in fact be Catholic theology.  Catholics have a clear interest in
preserving the Catholic nature of their colleges and universities, so as to
prevent, say, Notre Dame's Catholicism from going the way of
Princeton's
Presbyterianism -- present in the guided tour's "Quaint Stories of Long
Ago," but absent everywhere else.

Kim Daniels
The Thomas More Center for Law and Justice

-----Original Message-----
From: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
[mailto:RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu]On Behalf Of Emily Hartigan
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 6:50 PM
To: RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu
Subject: Ex Corde Ecclesiae -Reply


 There is cause for alarm but also cause for interest and some
affirmation despite the Bishops' capitulation.  Canon 812, the basis for
requiring a mandatum or stamp of approval from the local bishop for
those teaching in the theological disciplines, is the most troubling.  We
here may be faced with a theologian who has tenure, but refuses to
seek a mandatum.  I suspect that will be a creative process and far from
isolated.  The other "strict" requirements are that the President be
Catholic and the faculty "as much as possible" be majority Catholic.  The
language of the canons is of course legal, and thus subject to legal
argument.
     I personally think that ugly Church actions have always existed, and
this just makes them a bit official; resistant actions have always existed
also, and will continue to exist.  I would never, for instance, teach that
the official Church teaching was other than it is, but I don't identify the
magisterium with the plenary didactic powers they claim, and many,
many Catholics do not so identify them, either.  I have a view of Church
that is not as the current Magisterium tries to portray it, but mine is
based
on centuries-old sacred Church authority, and manifests what David
Tracy calls the "plurality and ambiguity" of the Church.  Pool old JPII can
huff and puff, but it doesn't make him right, and the statistics on US
Catholic use of birth control show that almost no one in the Church takes
those old guys as the sole voice of God, bless their anachronistic hearts.
    They can't put Vatican II back in the bottle.  And Catholic universities
have every right to be Catholic and resist secularism in a deconstructed
culture.


Emily Albrink Fowler Hartigan
St. Mary's U. School of Law
San Antonio, Texas 78228
hartigane at law.stmarytx.edu
Fax: 210-436-3717
Phone: 210-431-2273