freedom for truth and Catholic education

A few words on Steve Shiffrin's recent post. I don't think it is correct to say that the Church has changed Her understanding of the nature of freedom. A major point of Veritatis Splendor was to stress the idea that freedom and truth (or the law) ought not to be regarded as in opposition. There is an essential linkage between freedom and truth. Although I realize that there is a controversy about this, I don't believe that Dignitatis Humanae changed this. The Catechism (2108) states: "The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i. e. , immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities." The limits spoken about include conformity to the objective moral order. This view of freedom is not the radical autonomy of Planned Parenthood v. Casey or Lawrence v. Texas.

I think that Catholic schools ought to contend with the best contrary arguments. I don't think, however, that Charles Curran, or Hans Kung, or Richard McBrien ought to be teaching theology at a Catholic university. Part of the reason for this is that these folks do more than engage in lofty theoretical disputes. They teach undergrads and, to perhaps oversimplify things, I think there is a truth-in-advertising issue when they present their views as legitimate options for Catholics. One of my younger sisters was in McBrien's class at Notre Dame and I think the way in which "Catholicism" was presented led to a lot of confusion. Another interesting point is that what gave folks like these their cachet (or continues to do so in the case of McBrien) was that they were teaching (or chairing the theology department) at a Catholic school. Would their views be commanding an audience if they taught somewhere else? Since their departure from Catholic universities, Kung and Curran have been almost unheard of. I suspect that the same thing would happen to McBrien.

Richard