This “Catholic Character”

“Christ is the light of humanity.” (Vatican II Lumen Gentium §1) He is that light precisely because he is the Incarnate Word through whom God created the world (John 1: 1-3; 14). The Word through which all things came into being, Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). Furthermore, this light “shines out visibly from the Church,” (ibid.), which is the vehicle by which Christ communicates his saving truth to fallen humans. Through the Church, the Truth through which all other truths came to be shines out to the world. Thus the Church stands in a relationship to truth unique among the institutions of this world, and this creates a peculiar relationship between the university and the Church.

It is in this context—and only in this context—that we can make sense of the Catholic character which is to be balanced against academic freedom. This differs from the script that underlies much of our current discussion at Notre Dame. This script places the academy as an equal party vis-à-vis a Church whose officials represent interests that may conflict with the scholar’s. On one side we have Catholicism and on the other free scholarship. We speak of values, symbols, and loyalties to a Church institution whose leaders we are pledged to respect. And so, conscientiously fulfilling his ecclesiastical role, the bishop or Curial official issues statements or directives contrary to the university’s legitimate exercise of its rightful role. According to this script, Church authority cannot but be a threat to the academy. It is an outside agency, whose purposes can stand at odds with those of scholarship. In short, the effect of the Catholic character, so understood, is negative. The Catholicism of the institution can only restrict scholarship and learning. But in fact the script is false. The Church cannot be just another outside entity (albeit a much beloved and important one), whose concerns the academy has to take into account. Rather, the Catholic university’s mission to serve the mission of the Church. This is essential to the university’s Catholic character.

Now this presents a problem. There is a rightful autonomy that the academy should enjoy. Academic freedom is a vital value for scholarship. And we are naïve if we think that imprudent churchmen don’t sometimes interfere improperly in academic affairs. But this is not the heart of the contemporary problem, of the issue that we face. Our problem today is that we tend to devalue the Church and too readily embrace secular conceptions of truth and freedom.

The Second Vatican Council declared, “there are ‘two orders of knowledge’ which are distinct, namely faith and reason; and that the Church does not forbid that ‘the human arts and disciplines use their own principles and their proper method, each in its own domain’,” and went on to affirm “the legitimate autonomy of human culture and especially of the sciences.” (Gaudium et Spes §59) The Council did not mean, however, that this autonomy completely separates the realms of culture, science, and scholarship from that of faith. Far from it! At the core of relationship between our faith and the study of earthly realities is the mystery of the Incarnation. The Absolute—the Infinite, Uncaused, Ineffable Author of all things, the Arbiter of all truth and the final Judge of good and evil—has entered into the world of finite beings. Every human effort, project, and achievement stands in relation to the Absolute. This same Council wrote further “that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of the human being take on light.” (GS §22) The knowledge of Christ is the final touchstone of what we can know of our own human nature. Our earthly sciences and the truths they explore stand in relation to the One who is absolute and foundational Truth.

The overriding concern of the Council’s Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes is that the Church—and especially the lay faithful in the Church—renew this world according to the mind of Christ. The Council Fathers, as well as Pope John XXIII, who called the Council, recognized the gravity of humanity’s situation. Despite our impressive advances in sciences, technology, and the creation of wealth, the world was ever more sharply divided between rich and poor. And the most powerful nations had dangerously divided the world into armed camps. Very bad ideas about human nature and what is good for us had torn us apart in two world wars and were threatening us still. Therefore the Council challenged us: “For the human person deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be renewed.” (GS §3) What this really means is that the work of the Christian is one of love. We are to make a harsh world more human, which is to say a world characterized by justice and brotherhood. In particular, the work of the Catholic university is to foster the work of love for our fellow human beings.

It is precisely here that the question of the Catholic character becomes acute—where human nature is at stake. The revealed doctrines of the Catholic faith do not answer all the questions that touch our nature … the effects of psychotropic drugs on the mentally ill, the balance between political structures and free markets, the extent to which Shakespeare shapes our modern mentality, which primates lie genetically closest to the human, and so on. Just as one cannot substitute creationism for biology, neither can we simply look up all the answers about our nature in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Revelation cannot do our scholarly work for us. On the other hand, it is a vital guide, because from it we know our true origin and our ultimate destiny. So, regardless of the valid conclusions of evolutionary biology, we draw our being from the will of a loving God. And beyond psychology’s experimental findings about human motivation, we are ultimately destined to eternal communion with that God (GS §19). Therefore the Catholic character of the university has some concrete implications. For instance:

Even while considering the arguments of scientific materialism, the Catholic university must stand for the transcendent spiritual dignity of the human person as the image of God.

In her artistic productions and presentations the Catholic university must witness to the dignity and goodness of the human body in its sexuality.

As she considers the realms of business and political life, she must clearly and corporately testify to the priority of truth and love over the exercise of force and the manipulation of power.

By no means are the issues we face always easy to solve. We must, however, adopt the proper stance, the true perspective. The Catholic character is not about balancing constituencies, or “keeping the bishop happy and off our backs.” It is about more than crucifixes in classrooms and a variety of liturgies. The academically free work of the Catholic university (and therefore of the Catholic scholar) must ultimately be a work of the Church in service to the human race. As we struggle with apparently intractable problems arising from inadequate or seemingly contradictory data—scholarship can be hard—we do so as a work of love for those less gifted and less privileged than we. We can and must decide to use our rightful freedom to serve our fellow humans by working to bring forward the truth about what is good. And we find this truth first in Christ, the Light of Humanity.

Adrian J. Reimers