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