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American Catholic Universities and the Passion for the Impossible
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
Recent debate regarding the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae has led many Catholic colleges and universities to reexamine their identity in relation to the church. Often departments of theology and religious studies are charged with maintaining the “Catholic” character of a campus, with negative effects. Much of the reaction to Ex Corde has been framed in terms of free speech, American systems of tenure, and religious diversity. This paper, however, suggests that holiness, understood as an ever-deepening awareness of Mystery (Rahner) or as “a passion for the impossible” (Caputo) might be a more fruitful context for dialogue between Catholic institutions of higher education and the Vatican.
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References
1 Bracken, Joseph A., The Triune Symbol: Persons, Process and Community. Ex Corde Ecclesiae (ECE), Introduction, par. 92.Google Scholar
2 See, e.g., “New Norms for Catholic Higher Education: Unworkable and Dangerous,” an editorial that appeared in America, November 14, 1998, 3–4.Google Scholar See also ”Statement of the AAUP Chapters of the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University on Ex Corde Ecclesiae: An Application in the United States” circulated by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
3 The Future of Catholic Institutional Ministries: A Continuing Conversation (New York: Third Age Center, Fordham University, 1992), 52–53.Google Scholar Cited in “Discussion [of ‘A Canonical Commentary on Ex Corde Ecclesiae' by James H. Provost]” in Catholic Universities in Church and Society: A Dialogue on Ex Corde Ecclesiae in Langan, John P., ed., (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1993), 152, n.2.Google Scholar
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5 “Task Force,” 2.
6 ECE, Part 1A, sec. 1, par. 19.
7 National Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae: An Application to the United States,” Part 2, art. 4, 4.c-e.
8 Ibid., Part 2, art. 4, 4.e.
9 ECE, Introduction, par. 1.
10 Power, Edward J., Catholic Higher Education in America: A History (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972), 47–48.Google Scholar
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12 “The New University,” The New York Times, December 13, 1884, 4.Google Scholar
13 On the subject of faculty appointments and graduate training, see “Catholic Hiring Lags at Non-Catholic Theology Schools, Study Reports,” The Pilot (Bostondiocesan newspaper), April 25, 1997, p.1.Google Scholar
14 http://www.christendom.edu/geninfo2.html. This website is no longer functional. The material referred to here was on the Christendom website as late as April, 1999.
15 Ibid.
16 http://christendom.edu/mission.html. This website was in use up to April, 1999. Currently, the site describing the college's mission is http://christendom.edu/about/mission/html. According to this page, the college's mission is to help students “transform the social order in Christ”.
18 See Buckley, Michael, “The Catholic University and the Promise Inherent in Its Identity,” in Langen, , ed., Catholic Universities in Church and Society, 76–77.Google Scholar
19 For discussions of Catholic identity, see Hesburgh, Theodore, ed., The Challenge and Promise of a Catholic University (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), esp. 71–83 and 153–74.Google Scholar
20 Newman, John Henry Cardinal, The Idea of a University (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959), 145.Google Scholar
21 Ibid., 144.
22 Ibid., 224.
23 Ibid., 223.
24 Ibid., 96.
25 ECE, Part 1A, sec. 3, par. 29.
26 Newman, 96-97.
27 Rahner, Karl, “On Angels” in Theological Investigations, 19, trans. Quinn, Edward (New York: Crossroad, 1983), 243.Google Scholar
28 Rahner, Karl, Foundations of Christian Faith, trans. Dych, William V. (New York: Crossroad, 1978, 1989), 127.Google Scholar
29 ECE, Part 1B, sec. 2, par. 38.
30 Ibid., Part 1B, sec. 3, par. 43.
31 Ibid., Part 1B, sec. 3, par. 45.
32 Ibid., Part 1A, sec. 1, par. 19.
33 Rahner, , Foundations of Christian Faith, 151.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., 60.
35 Caputo, John, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997), 332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36 Ibid.: “What is this passion for the impossible if not the passion for God … even if one were rightly to pass for an atheist?”.
37 ECE, Part 2, art, 4, par 4.
38 The difficulty of this issue is shown by the fact that the 1996 draft of the NCCB's proposed norms for implementing Ex Corde required that “the institution … makes [a[ serious effort to appoint individuals who are committed to the Catholic faith tradition or, if not Catholic, who are aware of and respectful of that faith tradition” (I.B.3). In response, Cardinal Pio Laghi, head of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education at the time, directed that the text read, “the institution … shall ensure the appointment of individuals who are committed.… .” See “Vatican Observations on U.S. Bishops' Ex Corde Ecclesiae Application Document,” Origins 27 (June 12, 1997): 55.Google Scholar
39 It might seem obvious that programs in Catholic Studies would be one way of encouraging this type of conversation and scholarship. As the work of Mary Ann Hinsdale has shown, however, there is little consistency among such programs with regard to their content, scope, or motivation. For Hinsdale's work on “Catholic Studies: Models and Motives,” see http://www2.bc.edu/~hinsdale/Catholicstudies.html or http://sterling.holycross.edu/departments/religiousstudies/mhinsdal/Research99.html.