Ex Corde Ecclesiae -Reply -Reply

[Emily Hartigan]

Will,
I did not intend to offend you, and meant the terms much more lightly than
you took them (but not vacuously, I confess).  The effects of "guidelines"
in a highly legalistic system of canon law, seem fairly subject to debate.
"Emotion-laden" as well as "derogatory"  have considerable emotional
content -- as does all human language.  And I find the abuse of the
power of such a highly articulated hierarchic system to be scandalous.
Like Julian of Norwich, I believe that "sin is necessary, and all will be
well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well."  So your
post could offend me, but perhaps we can be hopeful that the profligacy
of God's love covers us all -
Peace,
Emily Hartigan

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

>>> Will Esser <willesser at YAHOO.COM> 06/19/00 04:12pm >>>
By the tone of Prof. Hartigan's last two emails
regarding the Catholic Church's approval of the U.S.
application guidelines for Ex Corde Ecclesiae, it is
obvious that Prof. Hartigan disagrees with the wisdom
of this particular Church action. She describes this
action as "ugly" and a "capitulation" by the U.S.
Bishops, and just the "huff and puff" of "old JPII"
and the magisterium with "their anachronistic hearts."


While there are certain to be others who share Prof.
Hartigan's views, the use of such emotion laden and
derogatory terms is offensive to those Catholics, who
like myself, remain faithful to the magisterium of the
Church.

Moreover, and far more importantly, Prof. Hartigan's
posts seem to stray very far afield from the purpose
of this list -- religion AND the law.  Despite Kim
Daniels attempt to direct the subject back into that
arena, Prof. Hartigan instead responded once again
with her personal opinion on the wisdom of various
Church actions.  Perhaps such opinions are best left
to a list debating Catholic doctrine and theology.

Will

--- Emily Hartigan <HARTIGANE at LAW.STMARYTX.EDU> wrote:
> 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


=====
"Too many people have enough religion to hate, but not enough to love."

Will Esser
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Trail/3096

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