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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Theologians and the Mandatum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
The title of my reflections is “Between a Rock and A Hard Place,” which I think aptly describes the situation of Catholic theologians in the United States since the bishops' meeting of November 1999. The imagery refers to the rock of Peter, the hard place to the problems the mandatum raises for ourselves and our Catholic colleges and universities. My question is: What can the social sciences tell us about our present dilemma? First, I will look at the history of the problem as we have experienced it in the U.S. Next, the bishops' document is now in the hands of the Roman Curia, so I will look at the role of that institution. And finally, I will review quickly events to date in the light of evidence from the social sciences and suggest a possible strategy to deal with the situation in our U.S. context.
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- Copyright © The College Theology Society 2000
References
1 For the history of the question, unless otherwise indicated, I am drawing upon the work of Curran, Charles E., Catholic Higher Education, Theology and Academic Freedom (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990), chapter 22Google Scholar, “Catholic Attitudes toward Academic Freedom before the Mid-1960s,” 26-65; and chapter 3, “Acceptance of Academic Freedom by the Mainstream of Catholic Higher Education in the 1960's,” 66-111, passim.
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4 Mary Brown of the University of Dayton clarified some of the events in the “Dayton heresy trial.”
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16 Ibid., 109.
17 Ibid., 143 and 158.
18 Ibid., 117-18.
19 Ibid., 119.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid., 158. See also McBrien, Richard, “Could the Pope Resign?” The Tablet (January 15, 2000): 44.Google Scholar
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26 Quinn, John R., The Reform of the Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity, Ut Unum Sint: Studies on Papal Primacy (New York: Crossroad, 1999), 169–70.Google Scholar
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30 This remark is attributed to Catherine Mowry LaCugna of Notre Dame in a speech given to an audience of women at the University of Washington in Seattle two weeks before her death from cancer.
31 Curran, 160-61 and 175; see also Moser, Mary Theresa, “Revising the Constitution? The Problem of Religious Freedom,” Journal of Religious Ethics 16/2 (Fall 1988): 325–44.Google Scholar
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