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A few weeks ago our friend and colleague, Richard Myers, posted on the subject of recent developments in the St. Joseph Hospital (Phoenix) abortion case. [here] As we know from Richard and other sources, Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix has, under his proper canonical and ecclesiastical authority, decertified St. Joseph’s Hospital as a Catholic institution. At the time of his original posting, Richard also raised an important and pressing question about the connection of the canonical issues between the Phoenix hospital case and the use of the term “Catholic” in describing a college or university. I followed up with a brief posting citing what I believe is a relevant Church document source from the Second Vatican Council, i.e., the Decree on the Laity, that has a bearing on the ability of some institutions to hold themselves out as Catholic foundations. [here]

During the Christmastide break, I have given further thought to these interrelated issues of what happened at St. Joseph’s Hospital and what could happen or has happened at Catholic colleges and universities. A catalyst for this additional consideration was my recalling how, within recent times, several institutions of higher education (e.g., Marist College, Marymount Manhattan College, Saint John Fisher College, Webster University, Nazareth College, and Manhattanville College) are no longer Catholic institutions of higher learning. The path taken by each of these institutions toward their current status is not the same; however, the result in the context of their institutional soul is. And it is this last point that intensifies the significance of the point raised by Richard. Why?

First of all, Bishop Olsmstead has acknowledged the connection between actions pursued by St. Joseph’s Hospital and at least one member of the theology faculty at Marquette University. Other commentators have noted that some Catholic institutions, when engaged in morally problematic or questionable activities that conflict with Church teachings, are shopping for those academics who will provide the institution with ethical justifications for the actions that may be taken or are taken but which, nonetheless, conflict with Catholic teachings.

This in itself is testing for at least two reasons. The first reason centers on the conscious search undertaken by a “Catholic” institution for a “Catholic authority” that departs from Catholic teachings. The second materializes when someone asserts that the justification offered and relied upon departs from authoritative Catholic teaching. In this latter context, the position is sometimes expressed that the authoritative teachings of the Church are simply one view on a complex issue, e.g., abortion. This very position was purportedly advanced by one of the senior administrators at St. Joseph’s hospital who was attributed with making the statement that “many knowledgeable moral theologians have reviewed this case and reached a range of conclusions.” When pressed by Bishop Olmstead, the same administrator contended that “this is a complex matter on which the best minds disagree.”

The ensuing conflict between the bishop who holds and exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the region in which the problematic activity has occurred at a Catholic institution and those responsible for the activity has led Anne Hendershott to address the circumstances where bishops have “little effect on the culture and curriculum” of Catholic colleges and universities in her recent article published in The Wall Street Journal. [here] Ms. Henderson further notes that the same tension existed when the U.S. bishops and many academics took different stands on the final legislation that became controversial health-care law passed by the Congress last year. Ms. Hendershott has labeled this disagreement as the product of “an alternative magisterium.” Elsewhere I have used a similar moniker: the shadow magisterium.

I may be proven wrong, but it seems that it is this alternative or shadow magisterium will be the source of future problems and conflicts between bishops and the academy that currently uses the modifier “Catholic.” In addition, I wonder if the list of formerly Catholic colleges and universities will continue to grow. Pope John Paul II seems to have agreed with some of the concerns expressed in my claim when he said in Veritatis Splendor,  N. 113,

Moral theologians, who have accepted the charge of teaching the Church’s doctrine, thus have a grave duty to train the faithful to make this moral discernment, to be committed to the true good and to have confident recourse to God’s grace. While exchanges and conflicts of opinion may constitute normal expressions of public life in a representative democracy, moral teaching certainly cannot depend simply upon respect for a process: indeed, it is in no way established by following the rules and deliberative procedures typical of a democracy. Dissent, in the form of carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media, is opposed to ecclesial communion and to a correct understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the People of God. Opposition to the teaching of the Church’s Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit’s gifts. When this happens, the Church’s Pastors have the duty to act in conformity with their apostolic mission, insisting that the right of the faithful to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity must always be respected. “Never forgetting that he too is a member of the People of God, the theologian must be respectful of them, and be committed to offering them a teaching which in no way does harm to the doctrine of the faith”. (Quoting from the CDF’s “Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian Donum Veritatis, May 24, 1990)

Time will tell whether the tension between some Catholic academics and ecclesiastical authorities will grow and whether the list of formerly Catholic colleges and universities will expand or not. While some may argue that it is too late to maintain the size of this list to its current number, I have hope that people of good will who labor in this part of the Lord’s vineyard will come to recognize the great treasure that will be lost forever if the list does indeed expand.

 

RJA sj