From the Desk of the President
President Thomas E. Dillon
The Identity and Mission of the Catholic College
(Winter 2005 Newsletter)
[Index
of Past Articles by President Dillon]
 In
early February, President Dillon was invited to make a presentation
and participate in a panel discussion about the Holy Father's
Ex Corde Ecclesiae at the 2005 International Legatus
Summit in Naples, Florida. What follows is the text of his
presentation on the special identity and mission of the Catholic
college.
"No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate
the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
These are Christ's words in the gospel of Luke (16:13).
And, in the Gospel of John, He says this: "The reason
I was born, the reason I came into the world, is to testify
to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice."
(18:37)
In my opinion, these two powerfully simple quotes of Our
Lord frame the central issues of Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
For the Catholic university - if it is to be serious about
its commitment to the truth - must heed the voice of Christ
and must take care to serve Christ Himself rather than any
worldly interest. To the extent that it fails in either regard,
to that extent it fails in its essential mission.
This note of caution, I confess, comes from my reading of
the whole of Ex Corde Ecclesiae and asking why the
Holy Father has taken the time to write and promulgate it.
As the Vicar of Christ on earth, he has responsibility for
the well-being of the world-wide Church, and there are a multiplicity
of things that can command his attention. Why this?
Let me suggest that the Pope has issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae
because he sees that something is seriously amiss in Catholic
higher education that must be attended to for the good of
the Church; after all, the salvation of souls could very well
be at stake.
It seems to me, then, that Ex Corde Ecclesiae, in
its high-mindedness, in its elevated tone and in its positive
reflections on the noble mission of the Catholic university,
is primarily a pastoral document-the Holy Father sees
that many Catholic universities are wandering off and going
their own way-much to their peril-and he is calling them back
to the verdant pastures of faithfulnesss from which they are
straying.
His document is a call for renewal; for a re-commitment
to the transcendent goals of Catholic higher education. In
fact, so important is this to the welfare of the Catholic
faithful that he includes at the end of Ex Corde Ecclesiae
juridical elements to be acted upon. The Holy Father wants
to assure a better future; he is seeking nothing less than
a re-embracing of and a re-dedication to the highest Catholic
educational ideals and aspirations-and this for the good of
the universal Church.
Ex Corde Ecclesiae is too deep and rich a document
to adequately treat in the short time we have available. For
now, then, I shall simply address what I think is at the very
heart of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and that is its concern
with what the Pope calls the identity of Catholic universities:
what it is that makes them specifically Catholic, and what
is their essential mission as Catholic.
With regard to mission, the Holy Father points out that
the purpose of any university, rightly understood, is to search
for, discover, and teach the truth in every field of knowledge.
What distinguishes the Catholic university, however, is "its
free search for the whole truth about nature, man, and God."
As he explains, the Catholic university is completely dedicated
to "all aspects of truths in their essential connection
to the supreme truth, who is God." In other words, God,
who is the source of all that exists, is brought into the
picture.
This would mean, for example, that the study of science
at a Catholic university-unlike at its secular counterpart-assumes
the existence of God, of His providence, of His intelligence,
and so forth; and that creation is examined accordingly. Such
a pursuit does not render science less scientific; rather,
it places it within its wider philosophical and theological
context.
To be sure, the Holy Father understands the Catholic university
to have an exalted place, saying that it is crucial to the
growth and development of Christian culture and human progress.
But he is clear that while the Catholic university is to be
"courageously creative," it is also to be "rigorously
faithful," and this notion of faithfulness is,
I think, the dominant theme of his understanding of Catholic
mission and identity.
With regard to identity, the Holy Father understands the
academic community of the Catholic university to be "animated
by the spirit of Christ" and to be unified not only by
a common dedication to the truth but also by the very person
and message of Christ. It is this, he says, that gives the
institution its distinctive character.
I think it is worth examining here the substance of two
paragraphs of Ex Corde Ecclesiae in particular, since
in these the Holy Father makes most explicit his teaching
about the Catholic university's identity. In paragraph 13,
he lays out the following four essential characteristics
of every Catholic university, as Catholic:
- First, it must have a Christian inspiration, both institutionally
and among the faculty and administration.
- Second, it should be engaged in a continuing reflection
on human knowledge in light of the Catholic faith.
- Third, it must be faithful to the Christian message as
it comes to us through the Church.
- And fourth, it must have an institutional commitment to
serving humanity in our pilgrimage toward our transcendent
goal.
Later, in elaborating on the importance of the third characteristic-fidelity
to the teaching Church-the Pope speaks of the "special
bond" that the Catholic university has with the Holy
See explaining that, "the institutional fidelity
of the university to the Christian message includes a recognition
of and adherence to the teaching authority of the Church in
matters of faith and morals."
Basically, what he is reaffirming here is that the Church
does indeed have the primary teaching authority in faith and
morals, and Catholic universities must recognize and heed
that authority-for to listen to the teaching Church is to
listen to the voice of Christ.
Now, in paragraph 14 of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the Holy
Father approaches Catholic identity in another way, stating
that the Catholic university must be "an academic institution
in which Catholicsm is vitally present and operative."
What this means, fundamentally, is that the Catholic faith
is not to be merely an appendage to the life and work of the
Catholic university, or some nebulous presence within it;
rather, the Catholic faith ought to completely animate and
form it.
Let me here use an analogy. It would not be proper for a
hospital to be called "Catholic" if it were on the
one hand staffed by Catholics and had Mass and the sacraments
available within its walls, while, at the same time, it were
performing abortions and sterilizations. As a hospital, its
essential work concerns healing and bodily health, and in
that work, Catholic principles must prevail if the hospital,
as a hospital, is to rightly claim the title "Catholic."
Likewise, if a college were to be staffed by Catholics and
had Mass and the sacraments available on campus, but the very
education proceeded in opposition to Catholic principles,
such an institution would not properly be called "Catholic."
Now to the extent that one might argue that there is a crisis
in Catholic higher education, it is primarily a crisis of
faith, and troubles come when Catholic institutions
forget their very reason for being and see the Faith not as
governing their activities, but as just one particular good
which is perhaps negotiable for the sake of other goods.
This is why the Holy Father says in Ex Corde Ecclesiae
that "Catholic members of the university community are
also called to a personal fidelity to the Church with all
this implies." If, instead, procuring funds, achieving
secular prestige, and gaining human respect become more important
to those who carry out the work of the institution than upholding
its very reason for being in the first place, then it's only
a matter of time before the Catholic faith is no more than
a curious vestige which has no real effect on the intellectual
life of the institution.
Of prime importance, therefore, is that the faculty and
administration of a Catholic college or university have a
living commitment of mind and will to the principle that their
role is to educate under the light of the Faith. Further,
they must have a firm resolve to make institutional decisions
and to conduct institutional activities in accord with this
fundamental principle.
A Catholic university, if it is to be true to the name,
must not only acknowledge the compatibility of faith and reason-it
must be committed, as an institution, to the principle that
the teaching Church should be a guide not only in the moral
life, but also in the intellectual life. This, in turn,
should have a bearing on what is studied, how it is studied,
how the curriculum is ordered, and so forth.
After all, the Catholic faith proposes to us from revelation
and tradition certain propositions to be held as true. These
truths can guide us through the various snares and pits of
intellectual inquiry, and lead us away from error and toward
other truths. Accordingly, as Our Lord Himself tells us, we
are thereby made free, since it is really ignorance and sin,
not authority, which enslave.
The great temptation for contemporary Catholic colleges
and universities is simply to drift downstream with the currents
of American culture like their secular counterparts, particularly
if, in the search for academic prestige, they are willing
to follow those secular institutions and distance themselves
from the teaching Church. The real task-and one that takes
courage in our contemporary world-is to steer back to the
One who is the font of truth; to go against the stream and
to be a sign of contradiction in a larger academic community
that has, in many ways, lost its moorings.
It is my experience that if a Catholic college or university
maintains its Catholic identity, as the Holy Father describes
it in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, such an institution, despite
human frailty, will in great measure fulfill its essential
mission. The fruits of such an effort will be graduates who
strive to live lives of moral and intellectual virtue, who
know and can defend the truths of our faith, and who are dedicated
to being ambassadors of the Catholic faith and serving others
with integrity.
As difficult as this may be to achieve, we can be more than
hopeful that restoring the Catholic faith to a formative place
at the very educational core of our Catholic colleges and
universities is the right course, for Our Lord says, "If
you make my words your home, you will indeed be my disciples;
you will learn the truth, and the truth will make you free."
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2005
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