WASHINGTON -- In a decisive vote whose results will reverberate for years, U.S. Catholic bishops sided with the Vatican against prime leaders of the nation's 235 church-related colleges and universities.
At issue was a proposal to closely bind theologians on Catholic campuses to church teachings. The hierarchy gave it 88 percent approval Wednesday even though many educators had warned that the new policy would imperil academic freedom, risk a wave of lawsuits and threaten the survival of some schools.Under directions from the Vatican, American Roman Catholic bishops three years ago granted similarly lopsided approval to a loose college policy along lines that campus leaders wanted. The Vatican rejected that version and ordered toughened rules that U.S. bishops have now delivered.
The U.S. college policy, which is being hailed by conservative Catholic organizations, takes effect a year after Vatican approval, which seems a near-certainty this time around.
But the chief clampdown clause won't kick in at that point. This provision requires all theology teachers, both those now on faculties and future hires, to obtain approval to teach from the bishop where the campus is located. The U.S. hierarchy now must work out the operating procedures for granting such permission, called "mandates," and, more delicately, for withdrawing such from a troublesome professor.
With those matters pending "the process is hardly over," says the Rev. James Heft, chancellor of the University of Dayton. Theologians are worried by "what would seem to be a reduction of necessary elbow room in theological work," he observed. "We're only beginning to hammer out what academic freedom means in a Catholic university."
Bishop John Leibrecht of Springfield, Mo., chairman of the committee, said that the college, not the bishop, will continue to do the hiring and firing.