Catholic Law Schools: Response to Richard

Thank you, Richard.  A few thoughts to continue our conversation on Patricia Levefere’s National Catholic Reporter piece on Catholicism and Teaching Law.

I’m going to back Tom Shaffer – I think that both Ex Corde and the “religious lawyering” movements are expressions of something broader and deeper—a “sign of the times” that we need a deeper integration, a deeper unity, between the life of the soul, the human spirit, intellectual endeavors, and professional life. Because I see the project as much vaster, I think the jury’s still out on whether it will succeed.

Nonetheless, I agree that Ex Corde is a good text to work with for discussions about Catholic identity.  No.13 sets out these criteria: “Every Catholic University, as Catholic, must have the following essential characteristics”:

1. a Christian inspiration not only of individuals but of the university community as such;

2. a continuing reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human

knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute by its own research;

3. fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church;

4. an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family in their

pilgrimage to the transcendent goal which gives meaning to life"

What might this mean for Catholic law schools?  I think these criteria can point in a variety of directions.  For example, in accord with (3) – one might say that no Catholic law school should be without a vehicle for advocacy against the death penalty, in accord with recent clarifications in the catechism.  Or in accord with (4) no Catholic law school should be without a clinic or other concrete manifestations of service to the poor – that’s absolutely essential.

I agree with Richard that the example of professors is important – but I think the question of whether liturgy or practices such as Eucharist adoration should be a focal point depends greatly on the make-up of the student body.  For example, reading no. 39: “When the academic community includes members of other Churches, ecclesial communities or religions, their initiatives for reflection and prayer in accordance with their own beliefs are to be respected.”  On this basis, one could also say that at least in certain regions, it is essential for a Catholic university to have respectful space for prayer for Jews and/or Muslims.

I guess what I’m really getting at is that especially at schools that have been around for more than ten years, we are working with a variety of histories, cultural contexts, student populations, and social commitments.  For this reason, we will be drawing out a variety of applications.  I believe Ex Corde leaves plenty of room for the art of discerning how to be a Catholic law school in any given context. 

This is not an exact analogy, but I think the reflections on ecumenism in John Paul II’s Crossing the Threshhold of Hope are a helpful literary key.  In response to the question of why the Holy Spirit permitted so many divisions within the Church, John Paul II draws out the “more positive answer”: “Could it not be that these divisions have also been a path continually leading the Church to discover the untold wealth contained in Christ’s Gospel and in the redemption accomplished by Christ?  Perhaps all this wealth would not have come to light otherwise. . . . It is necessary for humanity to achieve unity through plurality, to learn to come together in the one Church, even while presenting a plurality of ways of thinking and acting, or cultures and civilizations.”  (p.153).

Could we not say, in something of an analogy, the law schools that are at this point working with the reality of incredibly diverse faculties and student bodies have the opportunity to develop distinct gifts and examples for Catholic legal education?  For example, I think one of the most important gifts we can give students in New York is the example – even “witness” – of how Catholics can be in respectful and open dialogue with people of other religions and cultures, and in that context to reflect on how the Catholic intellectual tradition might shed light on the various problems they will face in practice.  (See Ex Corde no. 37. “In its service to society, a Catholic University will relate especially to the academic, cultural and scientific world of the region in which it is located.”).

Or to back up for a second to a broader question: does anyone disagree that there should be a variety of models for Catholic legal education?  At times I feel like we get stuck in attempts to delineate the “best” model—or to highlight certain “baselines” that may work at a school being built up from scratch, but would be unrealistic in schools with more complex histories on their shoulders.  If we agree on this, then I’d like to push the point that variety is a good thing.  Working with John Paul II’s ecumenism analogy, it is a vehicle for putting into relief “wealth which would have not come to light otherwise….”  And in this spirit of respect for variety, we can actually learn from each other and recognize that different schools will contribute to the conversation in different ways.

Thoughts? 

Amy