ND, SMC faculty, administrators respond to Conference vote
By TIM LOGAN
News Editor
Administrators and theologians at Notre Dame and Saint Mary's generally disapproved of the bishops' overwhelming vote for the proposed implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae Wednesday, but maintained that it is too early to predict the vote's ramifications.
Many Catholic academics said the vote should be delayed to allow more time for dialogue on the implementation and, perhaps, to cut out some of its legalistic language. Ultimately, however, their efforts were for naught.
"I'm disappointed," said Karen Ristau, vice president and dean of faculty at Saint Mary's. She said the legalistic document was not the best way to bring the Catholic schools closer to the Church. "I don't think you ever build a relationship based on legislative acts."
University president Father Edward Malloy had repeatedly criticized the proposal for being too legalistic and was at the bishops' conference this week working to defeat it. After the vote, however, he pledged to focus on implementing the aims of Ex Corde.
"At its core, this process is about furthering the vital and distinctive mission of Catholic higher education, an aim which all involved can share," he said in a prepared statement. "The University of Notre Dame will maintain its close, cordial and constructive relationship with our local ordinary, Bishop John D'Arcy."
Reaction on campus was not entirely negative, however. Law professor Gerard Bradley, a member of the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic group which has lobbied for a strict application of the document, supported the bishops' vote.
"I'm pleased with the result," he said, but he was unsure what its ramifications would be.
"It's hard to say what it means to Notre Dame," Bradley said. "But I'm sure the result is not gratifying to everyone at Notre Dame, and it's surely not gratifying to Father Malloy."
Bradley was not the only one who was unsure what the vote would mean for Notre Dame and Saint Mary's.
"We have no idea what the implementation will be," Ristau said. "Everything is going to depend on the local bishops, and bishops are different."
In the case of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's, D'Arcy has spoken out repeatedly on the need for a healthy dialogue between bishops and educators, and many feel such an atmosphere exists here already.
Still, the possibilities created by the implementation proposal worry theologians on both campuses.
"I'm concerned for the future of Catholic higher education and how it may affect the future of Catholic womens' colleges like Saint Mary's," said Joe Incandela, chair of the Saint Mary's religious studies department.
He said the vote may make it more difficult for the College to attract quality students and faculty. Others agreed that the main impact this vote could have on Catholic schools would not be in the way they operates, but on their academic reputation.
"The vote is likely to have more of an impact external to the University than internal," said thelogy professor Father Richard McBrien. "It's not going to be enforcable internally. I think Father Malloy would agree with that."
McBrien expressed concern that the mandate would lend the impression that Notre Dame is answerable to outside, non-academic forces. If that happened, he said, professors and graduate students in theology might stay away.
All News Stories for Thursday, November 18, 1999
