Sweetness And Not a Lot of Light

By Richard N. Ostling

Since the 1987 Vatican-inspired ouster of the Rev. Charles Curran from the theology faculty at Washington's Catholic University of America, educators have nervously waited for the first papal decree setting overall policy in higher education. Would John Paul II, who is determined to restrict dissident theologians, lay the ground for further purges? When the decree was finally issued last week, most academicians greeted it with relief. It seemed to be an endorsement of free intellectual investigation and the autonomy of academic institutions. But while the Pope had decided against a strategy of direct confrontation, there were passages in the decree that, as one U.S. theologian put it, resembled an "undetonated grenade" in their potential to cause future conflict.

Curran is hardly the only U.S. Catholic religious teacher who disagrees with official church policy on birth control, abortion and homosexuality, the issues that brought on his demission. Diversity and non-orthodoxy are frequently the rule rather than the exception at the 230 U.S. Catholic colleges and universities, especially on sexual issues and on the Pope's adamant opposition to women priests. Indeed, many of the country's diverse Catholic postsecondary schools resemble secular institutions more than purely religious ones.

The decree, which came after consultations with educators in 40 countries, cloaks any differences with that pluralistic tradition in bland language. But it states that faculties are expected to follow "the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals." Schools will normally run their own affairs, but they will also have "a special bond with the Holy See." In a surprise inclusion, the Pontiff states that the majority of teachers at Catholic institutions must be Catholics themselves.

Even more restrictively, the Pope directs local bishops to take "the initiatives necessary" to strengthen a school's Catholic character. The decree's most contentious elements are printed in the smallest type: footnotes | cite clauses in the 1983 Code of Canon Law that mandate a local bishop's prior approval for appointments of religion teachers and that empower bishops to remove dissident faculty, although it is unclear how that would be accomplished.

Bishops around the world are called upon to write regulations tailoring the Pope's "general norms" to their own situations. According to Archbishop Pio Laghi, new head of the Vatican education office (and former Vatican pro- nuncio, or ambassador, to the U.S.), each nation's bishops will bear the responsibility of enforcing the regulations -- though perhaps by acting collectively, not as individuals.

Many educators who had lobbied strenuously with Rome to protect the status quo declared themselves satisfied with the result. Says the Rev. William Byron, president of Catholic University: "Nothing is being rammed down our throats." Because of antidiscrimination laws, the mandate for a majority of Catholic faculty will be "unenforceable," predicts Father Thomas Reese, a member of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Vatican officials too say they aim at "flexibility," not demands imposed from on high.

But some Catholic thinkers are less sanguine. The Rev. Richard McBrien, theology chairman at the University of Notre Dame, warns that the document's insistence on adherence to church teachings fails to recognize that "not all teachings are equally authoritative -- and some are wrong." And while major institutions like Notre Dame might be immune to the pressure of a conservative local bishop, McBrien says that "a right-wing bishop could move in on a smaller institution, and the board would cave in." The key question is whether the decree's ambiguous language will inspire any bishops to do just that.

With reporting by Robert T. Zintl/Rome, with other bureaus