Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine

8. Civil Society, the Catholic University, and Liberal Education

281 chapter 8 Civil Society, the Catholic University, and Liberal Education Catholics need Catholic universities in order to receive a thorough liberal education that includes the serious study of philosophy and theology in addition to the other usual subjects. Without this kind of education it is very hard to understand thoroughly the principles and implications of Catholic social doctrine (CSD). As mentioned in my introduction, CSD uses the disciplines of theology, political philosophy, literature, history, political science, economics, sociology, and natural science. Liberally educated Catholics with a knowledge and love of their faith, including CSD, can make a significant contribution to the promotion of justice in the workplace, the political order, and civil society. In order to show the importance of a Catholic liberal education, this chapter will first present Pope John Paul II’s vision of a Catholic university through an analytic summary of the pope’s influential 1990 apostolic constitution, Ex corde ecclesiae (Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities). In the second half of the chapter I will turn to a much-discussed address of the former Jesuit superior general, the Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., on educating students to justice. Fr. Kolvenbach delivered this adddress at Santa Clara University on October 6, 2000. I will conclude with my thoughts on educating students to love justice, properly understood. The analysis of Fr. Kolvenbach’s address will reveal some of the problems that Catholic universities will face in their attempt to teach the main themes of Catholic social thought, especially justice. Catholic universities are tempted to downplay the role of faith in their work for justice, to neglect the study of masterworks dealing with questions of justice and the common good, to avoid the theoretical inquiry into the meaning of justice, and simply to identify justice with the current agenda of secular progressives. There is so much talk in Catholic universities about justice and often so little light shed on its meaning. It makes one think of Toc- 282 Civil Society and the Common Good queville’s oft-quoted observation at the very beginning of the second volume of his masterpiece: “Less attention, I suppose, is paid to philosophy in the United States than in any other country of the civilized world.”1 Americans are just not that interested in theory. Ex corde ecclesiae Pope John Paul II’s Ex corde ecclesiae (hereafter EC) describes the kind of Catholic university America and individual Catholics need. It poses an enormous challenge to Catholic universities, but not in the way many people imagine. Presidents of Catholic universities, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), and the media have focused on the following EC requirements for Catholic colleges and universities: “the institutional fidelity of the university to...the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals,”2 the accountability of Catholic universities to the local bishop (actually already required by The Code of Canon Law, canons 808 and 810), a mandate for Catholic theologians, and the necessity of hiring enough faithful Catholics as faculty and administrators to keep an institution Catholic. Acceptance of these requirements would, it is argued, imperil institutional autonomy, academic freedom, state and federal grants, student loans, and standing in the eyes of the prestigious secular universities of the United States. At first glance, these EC exigencies seem formidable in the American context. Actually, they are not nearly as formidable as the challenge posed by John Paul II’s vision of the Catholic university. EC is a relatively short document: 37 pamphlet pages. It has a brief introduction, followed by part I, on “Identity and Mission,” part II, on “General Norms,” and a one-page conclusion. The six-page introduction begins with the assertion that the Catholic university is born from the heart of the Church. In other words, the Catholic university emerged from the life of the Church and helps the Church accomplish her mission . EC begins to describe the purpose of Catholic higher education in these words: It is the honor and responsibility of a Catholic university to consecrate itself without reserve to the cause of truth,...the whole truth about nature, man and 1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, tr. George Lawrence (New York: Harper Collins, 1969), 429. 2. Pope John Paul II, Ex corde ecclesiae (Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities), no. 27. The Catholic University 283 God....By means of a kind of universal humanism a Catholic university...