Critical Letter by Catholics Cites Boehner on Policies

[the_poochies]

cbelt3 wrote:
OK, Basic FAQ:

Catholic schools and Universities employe lay persons who are not required to be of the Catholic faith, and are not subject to religious doctrine. They may be subject to a higher religious based moral standard, but that's on a contractual basis within the limits of the law. (My father was a professor at a Catholic University. One of his best friends and colleagues at the school was Jewish. And divorced twice. )

Well said, cbelt3.

I thought that Catholic U. was the only US Catholic nniversity that was actually established by the Vatican and therefore holds its faculty to stricter adherence to the teachings of the magisterium than other Catholic universities established by religious orders.

[August West]

Infallibility didn't exist until the late 19th century, and it only applies to matters of teaching on dogma.

This is the sort of thing I find ludicrous about Religious doctrines. I laugh when Catholic institutions decide to parse infallibility.

[August West]

cbelt3 wrote:
Catholic schools and Universities employe lay persons who are not required to be of the Catholic faith, and are not subject to religious doctrine. They may be subject to a higher religious based moral standard, but that's on a contractual basis within the limits of the law. (My father was a professor at a Catholic University. One of his best friends and colleagues at the school was Jewish. And divorced twice. )

This may be the theoretical ideal, but it is not always the practice. I know people who have had the opposite treatment of your father's friend.

[Grace62]

the_poochies wrote:
[quote=cbelt3]
OK, Basic FAQ:

Catholic schools and Universities employe lay persons who are not required to be of the Catholic faith, and are not subject to religious doctrine. They may be subject to a higher religious based moral standard, but that's on a contractual basis within the limits of the law. (My father was a professor at a Catholic University. One of his best friends and colleagues at the school was Jewish. And divorced twice. )

Well said, cbelt3.

I thought that Catholic U. was the only US Catholic nniversity that was actually established by the Vatican and therefore holds its faculty to stricter adherence to the teachings of the magisterium than other Catholic universities established by religious orders.
Catholic U has 59% Catholic faculty, according to wiki. They are the only US Catholic university founded by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the only to have an ecclesiastical faculty (seminary.)

[beagledave]

August West wrote:
[quote=cbelt3]
Catholic schools and Universities employe lay persons who are not required to be of the Catholic faith, and are not subject to religious doctrine. They may be subject to a higher religious based moral standard, but that's on a contractual basis within the limits of the law. (My father was a professor at a Catholic University. One of his best friends and colleagues at the school was Jewish. And divorced twice. )

This may be the theoretical ideal, but it is not always the practice. I know people who have had the opposite treatment of your father's friend.
It really depends on the university. Some Catholic universities (especially Jesuit ones) have a long tradition of supporting academic freedom and diversity within the constraints of the Magisterium.

Others, like say Franciscan University in Steubenville...not so much.

[Grace62]

Back in 1967, Catholic universities in the US issued what they refer to as their "declaration of indepence" on the matter of academic freedom. It's an approach that helped them become some of the more outstanding institutions of higher learning in the world.
Here's part of it, but can read the whole thing here:
http://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm


STATEMENT ON THE NATURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

1. The Catholic University: A True University with Distinctive Characteristics

The Catholic University today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. 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. To say this is simply to assert that institutional autonomy and academic freedom are essential conditions of life and growth and indeed of survival for Catholic universities as for all universities.

The Catholic university participates in the total university life of our time, has the same functions as all other true universities and, in general, offers the same services to society. The Catholic university adds to the basic idea of a modern university distinctive characteristics which round out and fulfill that idea. Distinctively, then, the Catholic university must be an institution, a community of learners or a community of scholars, in which Catholicism is perceptibly present and effectively operative.

[(vikm)]

Seems like maybe there should be a law regarding all of this in the best interest of everyone. Only Agnostics and Atheists are permitted to be in Government

[cbelt3]

(vikm) wrote:
Seems like maybe there should be a law regarding all of this in the best interest of everyone. Only Agnostics and Atheists are permitted to be in Government

Well, it does seem that politicians are out to 'get what they can' and 'dont' care what happens after they die'. So perhaps this is a defacto truth.

[rjmacs]

Grace62 wrote:
Back in 1967, Catholic universities in the US issued what they refer to as their "declaration of indepence" on the matter of academic freedom. It's an approach that helped them become some of the more outstanding institutions of higher learning in the world.

Thanks for posting this, Grace62 - it's a good read.

This statement was developed in no small part because of the saga of Charlie Curran, a priest and theologian at Catholic U. As a tenured faculty member, he was suspended from teaching in April '67; after five days of unrelenting protest by students and other faculty, the university relented and reinstated him. The university's rector (equivalent to president at a Catholic school) resigned shortly thereafter.

Curran, who had been sanctioned for questioning the church's moral teaching on birth control (this is the era preceding the Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical that cemented the church's views on the pill), continued his dissent on matters of personal and sexual morality. He was eventually removed from his position by order of the Vatican's Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), who declared him unfit to teach in 1986. For many Catholics who believed that a lively, respectful, contentious debate on theological matters was good for the Church, this was a depressing moment. In the decades since, the Church hierarchy has been unrelentingly conservative and restrictive on matters of doctrine, quashing and silencing dissent where it arises.

[Grace62]

I'm referring to what goes on in college classrooms and not inside churches - there are some significant differences.

For example, if a drama class at UND wants to study the Vagina Monologues, they certainly can. But the school is not likely to sponsor the touring show.
At Loyola Medical School in Chicago, intern OB/GYN's can learn to do abortions while they are working at non-Catholic hospital, which they do routinely, they just can't perform them in Loyola clinics.