On Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:37:41 -0700, John Serafin wrote: >Mike, > >You wrote far more than I could reply to,
This should come as a surprise to no one. :-) >so I'll focus on the excerpt I copied below. You are correct that faculty >who teach theology in a Catholic college may need a Mandatum. That >comes from the local bishop. But even in a Catholic college, some faculty >who teach in the theology department may not have a Mandatum. It >depends on what they teach. For example, we have a rabbi who >teaches a couple of courses. He'll never get a Mandatum. I assumed that this was the case but did not know of any particular instances. I imagine that that if a religion/theology department wanted to provide comprehensive coverage of world religions, they would have to get specialists in those areas (i.e., Islamic studies, Jewish studies, Buddhist studies, etc.) who probably practice that faith. I presume that such a teacher would not get a Mandatum but would be supported as long as they did not proselytize for other religions. >Now, complications arise, I'll give you a couple of personal examples. >Last time I chaired the psych department, there was a priest teaching a >course called Psychology of Religion. The course was cross-listed in >theology & psychology. Shortly after the Ex Corde debate, he was no >longer allowed to cross-list the course in theology (no way that the bishop >was going to give him a Mandatum). But he still teaches that course in the >psychology department. To provide some context for the "Ex Corde debate" and the Hesburgh "Land of Lakes conference" comment below, here is a link to a "traditional Catholic website" which reprints an Wall Street Journal interview with Reverend John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame: http://catholicforum.fisheaters.com/index.php?topic=2638027.0 Quoting from the article: |In 1990, Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae, an encyclical |whose provisions included a requirement that theologians teaching at |Catholic schools receive a stamp of approval from the church (a "mandatum"), |and that the campus environment should be supportive of a Catholic way of life. | |Father Jenkins calls Ex Corde a "superb document" that he has read |"many times." But most Catholic college leaders, including Father Jenkins, |have not implemented it to the extent that they or others expected they |would have to. The mandatum provision, for instance, was met at the time |with outrage by college faculty and administrators, who found it to be an |infringement on academic freedom. But since then, Father Jenkins explains, |"positions softened a bit on that. Misunderstandings were eliminated." | |The way the mandatum controversy was resolved is this: Local bishops |give their approval to some theologians and not others. But no one besides |the bishop and the theologian knows who has it. So Father Jenkins can |claim total ignorance about which members of his own theology department |are approved by the church. I assume that the person who taught the "Psychology of Religion" course might not have pressed the issue of Catholicism as the one true religion, the Pope's infallibility, and other issues which might have been required for a theology course to receive a Mandatum. |As for outside of the theology department, clearly this is going to differ |across colleges. It is true that some Catholic colleges require a "statement of |faith" We don't, and I believe that most Catholic colleges don't require that. |Notre Dame, Georgetown, St. John's, et al would not be the predominant colleges |that they are otherwise. In fact, wasn't it Hesburgh at Notre Dame who pretty |much led the so-called Land of Lakes conference that discussed this issue? Again quoting from the WSJ interview with Father Jenkins: |American Catholicism has changed a lot in the last half-century, |and Notre Dame is a microcosm of that shift. Father Jenkins, |a trim, soft-spoken man who looks younger than his 54 years, |took over his position in 2004. He is part of a generation of priests |who received their education not only after the liturgical reforms |of Vatican II (1962-65) – he graduated from Notre Dame in |1976 – but after the so-called "Land O' Lakes" statement. Signed |in 1967 by a group of Catholic educators (including Father Hesburgh), |the document was read by many as a declaration of independence |from the Vatican. It read in part: "To perform its teaching and research |functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy |and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay |or clerical, external to the academic community itself." | |Catholic universities have since become less tethered to the church. |Their faculties and student bodies include many more non-Catholics. |They no longer need money from the Vatican to survive. But the tug |of war for control of Catholic institutions of higher education continued. The last sentence above is important. Religions are not monolistic entities, even if there is one person in charge who makes sure that it doesn't go off the rails. Catholicism can range from "Liberation Theology" with Marxist overtones to "strict constuctionists" who are both religiously and politically conservative (I believe this in the direction of Opus Dei; NOTE: Please don't confuse Opus Dei with what was presented in the movie/book "The Da Vince Code", I believe it is a conservative Catholic organization but I do not believe that it routinely murders people or have albino monks causing general chaos). I recommend reading the entire article and the comments to it. Some Catholics might think that Notre Dame is being progressive with activities that are gay-friendly and allows on-campus productions of such plays as the "Vagina Monologues". Those same activities are viewed by some Catholics as blasphemous and even anti-Catholic. You know, the range of opinions that one would find in any other religion. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --------Original Message---------------------------- From: Mike Palij <[email protected]> Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 10:31:43 -0400 To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Conversation: Re:[tips] How Do You Explain A 4.4 Million Skeleton in a 6,000 Year Old Universe? Subject: Re:[tips] How Do You Explain A 4.4 Million Skeleton in a 6,000 Year Old Universe? Catholic institutions do put certain demands on their faculty. Faculty in departments of religion and theology are bound by the Pope's "Mandatum" that their teaching is consistent with with Catholic dogma and re-affirms Catholic values and beliefs (perhaps this is to keep the faculty going Hans Kung route). Faculty in non-religion/theology departments are advised to generally teach their courses consistent with Catholic values and beliefs but I am unsure whether these faculty are also held to the Mandatum or have sign a "statement of faith" affirming Catholicism. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
