Toward a Culture of Truth: Higher Education and the Thought of Pope John Paul II

Thomas F. Dailey, O. S. F. S. Toward a Culture of Truth: Higher Education and the Thought of Pope John Paul II One concrete dimension of the Catholic Church's contribution to higher education in American culture is to be found in the growth and development of Newman associations.1 These organizations of faith in the realm of learning began in response to the concerns of "a pre-law student who found himself struggling with intellectual attacks on his identity as a Catholic in a public university."2 That was in 1883. Now, more than a century later, it is probably safe to say that such sectarian attacks do not take place at our public universities. In fact, it is very safe to say. For it seems that an institutional concern for personal identity as it relates to spiritual formation may actually be a void in academia these days.3 What I suggest is that the role ofhigher education is somehow to fill that void—and to do so for all students, regardless ofreligious affiliation. For this broad proposal to be accepted, it must be advanced within limits. In the first place, our concern here is not about morality —at least not directly. Too many readers ofChurch teaching, and also too many preachers of it, begin with morality. This may, and often does, lead to the consideration that Church documents are LOGOS 3:2 SPRING 2 O O O 146 LOGOS simply a collection of ethical rules designed to regulate personal freedom. But this is backwards. Morality is not the starting point of Church teaching; it is its consequence. Rightly has the present pope often explained that any legitimate consideration ofmorality flows from the proper ordering offreedom in relation to truth.4 In the second place, I will not focus, narrowly, on Catholic higher education. There is, already, a sufficient frenzy surrounding this topic. Unfortunately, the essentials of this discussion are becoming so distorted that the pope and bishops have almost been vilified in their episcopal concern for the true identity ofCatholic colleges and universities.Witness the report concerning the proposed norms for implementing Ex Corde Ecclesiae, published in the Boston Globe (4 April 1999), which claims that "The dispute centers on a proposal that would transfer control ofthe 236 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States from their boards oftrustees to local bishops , rewriting the schools' charters to put them underVatican law." That is patently absurd. Besides being factually inaccurate, it represents an alarmist reaction that typically fails to take into account what Newman himselftaught long ago, when he wrote, in The Idea ofa University, that the Churchhas"an intimate conviction that truth is (its) real ally . . . and that knowledge and reason are sure ministers to faith."5 Given these two limiting factors, my goal here is to demonstrate how three themes are interrelated in Catholic thought, particularly as this has been expressed by Pope John Paul II. The first is the idea ofculture—a wide-ranging concept, to be sure, but one whose distinctive meaning runs like a thread through all of this pope's major writings and apostolic visits. The second is the idea oftruth—another broad concept, but one that serves as the fabric from which his universal teachings and particular allocutions take shape. And the third idea has to do with higher education—whose role, as will be suggested here, is to be the meeting place where culture and truth come together through the interaction of service and learning. HIGHER EDUCATION AND POPE JOHN PAUL II\^? These three themes enjoy a place ofprominence in the teaching of John Paul II. But their significance most likely derives from his own personal history. Much ofhis pre-pontifical life was spent in the world ofhigher education.6 He began his studies as a drama student; then, after earning doctoral degrees in both tfieology and philosophy, he concluded his university career with an appointment to a Chair in Ethics at the Cauiolic University of Lublin. As a professor of moral philosophy, he was preeminently concerned with the idea of truth, particularly as this is associated with the phenomenon of what he calls "trie acting person."7 In his...