a promise to teach "authentic doctrine"
Jul 15, 2001 11:19 AM
by Eldon B Tucker
I read the following in today's LOS ANGELES TIMES. We might draw
an analogy to theosophical groups. What if a theosophical group
were to require its public speakers to pledge in writing that they
teach "authentic theosophical doctrine"? Some would probably say
that it is a good idea, and that public speakers should not lead
new students astray. Others would say that it is a bad idea, since
it stifles academic freedom, freedom of spiritual self-discovery.
Could the requirement for a pledge arise as theosophical groups
seek control over an expanding group of lay theosophists who do
not take "vows of obedience" to theosophical group authority as
public speakers for the groups might be though to do?
The conflict appears to arise between two conflicting views on
the promotion of doctrine (Catholic and perhaps theosophical too).
One faction sees the job of theosophical public work to persuade
others to accept the theosophical doctrines. The other faction
sees the job as a chance to expose inquirers to a variety of views
and help them think critically about life.
Looking at situations like this loyalty oath problem in the
Catholic Church can help us better understand the theosophical
situation. Human nature is the same, regardless of the group someone
belongs to. Drawing analogies, we might be better able to understand
ourselves, and with understanding comes the opportunity for
improvement.
-- Eldon
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'Loyalty Oath' Divides Catholic Theologians
--------------------
TERESA WATANABE, TIMES RELIGION WRITER
July 15 2001
Glen Coughlin will sign. Gladly. Oh yes, says the dean of Thomas Aquinas
College in Santa Paula, he fully backs the Vatican requirement for Roman
Catholic theologians to pledge, in writing, that they will teach
"authentic Catholic doctrine."
Call this truth in advertising, Coughlin says: Those billed as Catholic
theologians should accurately present Catholic teachings.
John Connolly will not sign. Absolutely not. The lay professor at Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles has devoted three decades to teaching
theology. But he says the so-called loyalty oath, formally known as a
mandatum, is an affront to academic freedom and would restrict his ability
to serve Christ and his church. "It is unnecessary, unjust, un-Christian
and a bad law," he says.
The tale of two theologians underscores the divisions roiling the Catholic
Church and campuses over the loyalty issue. As the nation's Roman Catholic
bishops prepare to implement the mandatum after more than a decade of
debate and their recent approval of procedural guidelines, Catholic
theologians are wrestling with how to respond.
Under the guidelines, all Catholic theologians--priests and lay teachers
alike--at the nation's 235 Catholic colleges and universities must obtain
a certificate from their bishop that they are in "full communion" with the
church. They also must commit to teach authentic doctrine as defined by
the pope and bishops and to refrain from presenting as Catholic teaching
anything contrary to church authority.
Promulgated because of concern that Catholic universities are losing their
religious identity, the requirements took effect in May and must be
fulfilled within the next year.
For many theologians, the loyalty issue has raised profound dilemmas over
faith and academic freedom, sparked fears about jobs and reputations, and
created concerns of a chilling effect on robust classroom debate. It has
also heightened tensions between Vatican orthodoxy and increasingly
independent American Catholic theologians on a range of moral, gender and
ecumenical issues.
Some critics see a dark attempt by Rome to extend control over the
expanding group of lay theologians, who do not take vows of obedience to
church authority as priests do.
In the last three decades, amid the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican
Council, lay Catholics have flocked to the field of theology and today
outnumber priests on many Catholic university faculties, said Kenneth
Himes, a Franciscan priest and past president of the Catholic Theological
Society of America.
The Vatican installed the mandatum as part of canon law in 1983, but U.S.
bishops essentially ignored it until 1999, when Rome pushed the issue. In
finalizing procedural guidelines at their national conference in June, the
bishops did not adopt any penalties for failing to obtain a mandatum.
But some theologians are nervous at the prospect that Rome may eventually
insist on them. And some conservative Catholic groups said they intend to
push for consequences--including pressing bishops to publicize names of
those who lack mandatums and remove them from Catholic theology courses.
Other consequences could include barring non-compliant theologians from
speaking at Catholic events, from training religious teachers known as
catechists or from representing the church at ecumenical gatherings, said
Chris Erickson of Catholics United for the Faith. He said his group
planned to alert bishops to any "problem" theologians.
"These kinds of steps will start to pinch the theologians and separate the
wheat from the chaff," said Erickson, whose Ohio-based group claims 95,000
members. "There are more Catholic theologians teaching contrary to the
faith today than those who are authentic and loyal to the faith."
Already, a controversial Web site, http://www. mandata.org, has published
the names of theologians and their mandatum status. Connolly, for
instance, is a marked man, with a red circle and slash next to his name,
for his public pronouncements that he will not seek a mandatum. Mandatum
supporters are distinguished by check marks on the site, which has been
traced to a priest in Alabama.
Erickson views such information as consumer aids to help students decide
where to study and with whom. "You've got wayward theologians in there
leading our children astray," Erickson said.
Connolly does not see it that way. His job is not to persuade students to
accept church doctrine, he said, but to expose them to a variety of views
and help them think critically about them. Loyola Marymount's 4,500
students--60% of them Catholic--are required to take two theology courses,
such as World Religions, Buddhism, Roots of the Catholic Tradition or
Issues in the Contemporary Church.
Any classroom impact of the mandatum would involve the Catholic theology
courses. In his undergraduate course, What Is Faith in Jesus Christ?, for
instance, Connolly has introduced a variety of views on whether Christ is
the sole path to salvation. The church position, adopted by the Second
Vatican Council in 1964, affirms that even non-Christians who lead good
lives can find salvation but, whether they realize it or not, must attain
it through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Connolly also, however, presents a view rejected by the church: God can
bring salvation to people through their own faiths. Connolly guesses that
half of his students probably embrace that view but says he doesn't push
it, although he is sympathetic to it.
"Down the line, we could be told that you can't teach anything outside the
church position, which would totally destroy the notion of a Catholic
university," Connolly fretted.
Jon Nilson, president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society of
America, recently wrote that the mandatum would spell the end of
independent Catholic colleges by forcing them to eschew Rome and become
secular, or become wholly sectarian and possibly lose government funding.
A more overt sectarian focus might drive away the large number of
non-Catholics who attend such universities as Georgetown and Notre Dame,
critics worry.
The greatest fear is that universities and colleges will eventually change
their bylaws to incorporate the mandatum in hiring, firing, promotion and
tenure decisions.
Thomas Aquinas President Thomas Dillon said he would enact such steps if
Rome requested them. "We don't fear Rome; we look to the church as a
guide," he said.
The campus, which has 300 students, 90% of whom are Catholic, was founded
in 1971 specifically to shore up what founders saw as a diminishing
Catholic identity on college campuses. The school requires eight semesters
of theology.
However, Loyola Marymount's president, Father Robert B. Lawton, said he
would not take action against theologians without a mandatum or require
one for faculty hiring or promotion.
"My responsibility is to protect the academic freedom of the faculty,"
said Lawton, a Jesuit, adding that the bishops have not asked for such steps.
Father Thomas Rausch, chairman of Loyola Marymount's theological studies
department, said the mandatum should be seen as an expression of a "purely
personal relationship" between the bishop and theologian. Cardinal Roger
M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, has told area theologians not to be
"overly concerned and that he would make every effort to work with us,"
Rausch said.
"We said, 'We have great respect for you, but what if someone else becomes
the bishop?' " Rausch added.
An archdiocese spokesman said the cardinal was not planning to make a
theologian's mandatum status public, but was still developing plans on
precisely how to proceed.
Rausch, who said he has not yet decided whether to obtain a mandatum,
added that the issue has created "an enormous amount of anger, fear and
hurt" at Loyola Marymount.
In particular, younger scholars without tenure said the mandatum will make
them think twice about applying to teach at Catholic universities.
Some theologians see the mandatum as part of a broad Vatican attempt to
quash growing challenges to traditional church teachings on such issues as
women's ordination, religious pluralism, birth control, abortion, divorce
and homosexuality.
Charles E. Curran, a professor of human values at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, said he knows at least four dozen people who have
been contacted by the Vatican to explain their views during the
pontificate of Pope John Paul II.
In an internationally celebrated case, Curran--an ordained priest--was
investigated by the Vatican, declared unfit to teach Catholic theology and
removed from his teaching post at Catholic University in 1986 for liberal
views on human sexuality and other moral issues.
"Under Pope John Paul II, the church has become more centralized and
authoritarian than any time since before Vatican II," Curran said.
Members of the Catholic Theological Society of America have clashed
repeatedly with Rome. In 1997, the group issued a paper expressing
"serious doubts" about church teachings against women's ordination, and
passed a resolution calling for continued debate on the topic.
Two decades earlier, more than 600 American Catholic scholars signed a
letter dissenting from a papal encyclical affirming the church ban on
birth control.
Today, some Catholic theologians argue that abortion might be permissible
for the first 14 days on the grounds that the fetus has not yet become an
individual, personalized life.
Others have argued that condoms should be able to be used as protection
against AIDS, and that same-sex relationships marked by stability, freedom
and mutual respect could be sanctioned.
Such positions have appalled Catholic conservatives such as Erickson, who
praised the pope for addressing a "crisis of faith" in the church. He said
scholars who disagree are free to leave Catholic campuses and teach elsewhere.
That suggestion makes Loyola Marymount's Connolly bristle.
He regards himself as a faithful Catholic. The Alabama native served as an
altar boy, attended Catholic schools throughout his years of education,
even spent eight years studying for the priesthood.
He decided to become a lay theologian instead, responding to what he
described as Vatican II's spirit of openness and encouragement of a
"living role" for laity.
In his courses, Connolly has sought to teach that devout believers can
still raise questions about their faith. He has prepared a letter to
Mahony detailing legal and theological reasons why he will not seek or
accept a mandatum. And he said he will not let his opponents drive him away.
"I'm not going to leave the church to them," Connolly said.
Copyright 2001, Los Angeles Times
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