quick response to Eduardo

Thanks to Eduardo and others for the stimulating questions and comments. One initial thought I had about this is that a lot of thinking about the obligations of Catholic scholars and Catholic universities has addressed an "internal" perspective. I think this is a useful starting point. Should a theology department at a Catholic university include lots of folks (Dan Maguire at Marquette for example) who dissent from Church teaching on a whole host of issues. If a theology department does, does it have a claim to be thought of as Catholic. I think that this was the main focus of the debate about Ex Corde. One, admittedly simplistic, way to think about this is as a truth in advertising issue. The particularly troubling thing for people who favored a strong implementation of Ex Corde was that noted dissenters were teaching in the name of the Church and at schools with a claim to being Catholic. So, if and when these folks left Catholic schools (Father Curran leaving CUA) there was no campaign (not that I can recall at any rate) for a heresy trial or for other disciplinary actions.

This doesn't really address Eduardo's question because Catholic scholars whether they are teaching at a Catholic school or not would still owe, according to Vatican II, a submission of intellect and will to authoritative Church teaching. (This is not, it should be noted, an obligation unique to scholars.) His question, I take it, is whether Catholic scholars who follow Vatican II on this point risk not being taken seriously in the broader acadmic community.

I think this would depend on the quality of their arguments and the manner in which the arguments are made. I suppose if people thought that a Catholic scholar didn't really believe in his own articulated positions (he was just publishing them to appear faithful) that this would be an additional obstacle to having his published opinions taken seriously. But, let's assume that this is not the case and that the Catholic scholar really believes what he publishes. Will people still "suspect" his writings because they coincide with what the Church has taught on some issue of morals. My view is I think this would depend on the quality of the arguments and the way in which they are expressed.   

Richard