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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1986)
bruising basketball team It 's really possible," says /lab Kroll, a major in the topflight school of foreign service, lor a senior to go four years here and never feel a significant Catholic influence. " No matter what academicians think about the Curran case, it has made public their questions about just how Catholic their schools should be "Into the ’60s,” says Notre Dame history Prof. J. Phillip Gleason, "Catholic identity was like the presence of autumn leaves in the fall and the coming ofsnow in the wintertime It was just there " Hut as the religious ranks thinned, governance of the schools was turned over to autonomous lay boards, and the universities became mirrors of American pluralism as much asofCatho lic faith. Now the church is reasserting itself "This pope feels he has a mandate to clarify the Catholic identity," says theologian Avery Dulles of CU. Theologians push at t he edges of what ive bidieve i n order to help us get a wider understanding of our faith. Very often they are wrong, but sometimes they are right And sometimes we don 7 realize they are right until 10years down the line. —Father Theodore Hesburgh, Notre Dame president Curran’s longtime employer differs in kind from other Catholic colleges. As the only pontifical university in the United States, CU maintains close ties to Rome, and theo logians must be "licensed" by the Vatican. Many Catholic teachers elsewhere draw comfort from those distinctions "The Curran case has been blown out of proportion," argues Boston College archivist Father Paul Fitzgerald, who feels no tremors rocking his flourishing campus. Oth ers, however, see a direct link between the Curran case and a Vatican proposal last year to extend similar control over every Catholic college That idea elicited strong protest from the U S. Catholic hierarchy. The violation of the mandate in the First Amendment of the Constitution for separation of church and state, they argued, would cost Catholic colleges state accreditation and precious federal grants and loans—effectively killing the schools off Celebrated hoopsters: Georgetown s basketball coach, John Thompson, with player Charles Smith during the 1985-86 season since me protest, nine has been heard of that "schema.” But to Catholic liberals, its symbolism is troubling enough. "Things like this discredit the lead JKKKY WAC IITKH XKTHl’N t.HAt ► NKWsWUk ership of the church in this country and embarrass American Catholics,” says priest-author Andrew Gree ley. "The basic problem is that Rome can’t under In limbo: When theologian Charles Curran deviated from doctrine, Home ordered him barred from teaching stand the mentality of a free society ' rather Gerald I Fogarty, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, agrees, but adds a corollary "The American church doesn't understand Rome,” he says "It's a hard concept for Americans to swallow, but Rome has the right to punish what it considers to be errors in moral teaching Thus the delicate balancing act continues how to be American land therefore attentive to the Constitu tion), Catholic land there fore obedient to Vactican doctrine) and a university (and therefore committer! to intellectual freedom) all at the same time According to Curran, the soul search ing itself is extremely worthwhile "Catholic the ology means faith seeking understanding and under standing seeking faith," he says. "I have to hold that there's no incompatibility there, and that it depends on free inquiry.” And so he waits for his hearing lie fore Archbishop James A Hickey, chancellor of CU, and for the publication this month of his 17th book Its title "Faithful Dissent " I)ani»:i I’wimN inl/i I’at Wi n(.t: k i onel Tonii IUkhktr m Washington, lit' Daviu B a k mi / a in His Ion. anil K ► ITII IIahhison hi South Haul The question is how to be American, Catholic and a university all at the same time
