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A Crisis in Catholic Education

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Heartless, Not Stupid

Heartless, Not Stupid

The dominance of liberal leanings in higher education is not a very shocking development; in fact, it is hardly newsworthy. What is surprising, however, is that the liberal and secular values that modern day academia espouses have begun to seep into a most unlikely academic institution: the Catholic university. Two of America’s oldest Catholic universities now find themselves dangerously close to having their affiliations revoked by the Church.

The most recent Catholic school to supplant official Church teaching with chic liberalism is Massachusetts’ College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit university located in Worcester. Holy Cross, founded in 1843, is New England’s oldest Catholic college, but under the leadership of President Rev. Michael McFarland now finds itself in violation of Church teaching and in the crosshairs of the Bishop of Worcester, the Most Reverend Robert J. McManus.

The showdown in Worcester began this fall, when concerned parents, students and alumni notified Bishop McManus that Holy Cross’ campus would host an Oct. 24 conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. In order to host the conference, Father McFarland allowed the university to rent space out to two major abortionist organizations: Planned Parenthood and the Massachusetts chapter of National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Both of these organizations unapologetically spurn the Catholic Church’s teaching about reproductive morality and abortion.

In response to Father McFarland’s overt defiance of Catholic teaching, Bishop McManus last week released a statement warning the university to fall into line with Church doctrine or else. Bishop McManus reminded McFarland’s administration:

“As Bishop of Worcester, it is my pastoral and canonical responsibility to determine what institutions can properly call themselves ‘Catholic’ … to be a Catholic institution means that such an institution conducts its mission and ministry in accord with Catholic Church teaching, especially in cases of faith and morals.”

Father McFarland seems to be more concerned with maintaining liberalism on campus than he is with preserving Holy Cross’ Catholic identity. When explaining the college’s mission on its website, Father McFarland seems to pride himself on the Holy Cross’ departure from traditional Catholic teaching. “Holy Cross,” McFarland writes, “is not Catholic in just the same way it was … Much has changed over the last 50 years.”

Although McFarland’s assertion that “much has changed over the last 50 years” is a thought provoking, even shocking observation, one thing has remained constant over that period of time: the Catholic Church’s teaching on the immoral practice of abortion.

Holy Cross is not the only Catholic university in America to lock horns with the Church concerning its recognition of abortion advocacy groups. Georgetown University, another Jesuit institution of higher learning, was scandalized last month in the same way. On Sept. 7, America’s first Catholic university announced that the administration was changing its law school policy regarding abortion. Georgetown capitulated to abortionist groups in the law school and reversed university policy, which prevented the law school from giving grants to students that intern at abortionist organizations.

Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff made the announcement: “In partnership with the Equal Justice Foundation, the Law Center will provide grants to all students who work on law-related issues at a public interest organization or government agency.” Dean Aleinikoff’s statement reflects Georgetown University’s belief that groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL are public interest groups, rather than abortion advocates, as the Church believes. This new policy has caused uproar from local Catholics, who are pressuring the university and the archdiocese to take action.

In the past the Vatican has dealt with questions of affiliation in academia. The most prominent example of late was the 1987 dismissal and censure of Rev. Charles E. Curran, a liberal theology professor at Catholic University whose teachings on divorce, birth control and homosexuality were ideologically opposed to Church Doctrine. There is, however, no historical precedent for the type of action that Bishop McManus is hinting at; no Catholic university in America, especially one as prominent as Holy Cross, has ever been threatened with losing its affiliation with the Catholic Church.

Bishop McManus’ warning to Father McFarland is a necessary step to reconciling Catholic universities with their religious roots, rather than the administration’s secular, liberal ideals of education. For far too long Catholic universities have compromised the ideals of the Church, in return for a pat on the back from their liberal colleagues. The recent actions of college administrators at Georgetown and Holy Cross could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Perhaps the time has come for Bishop McManus to invoke Code of Canon Law 808 — which states that “no university, even if it is Catholic, may bear the title ‘Catholic University,’ except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority [the bishop]” — and rescind the Church’s recognition of Holy Cross.

Perhaps such an action will inspire Georgetown and other “Catholic” universities to fall in line with Church teaching.

Perhaps such an action would finally put the Catholic back into Catholic university.

Bill McMorris is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bmcmorris@cornellsun.com. Heartless, Not Stupid appears alternate Wednesdays.

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