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Good-Bye To All That

Bay Area "Catholic" Colleges

By Joe Marti

Much has been made in the last several years of the 1990 encyclical Ex Corde Ecclesiæ. For more than a decade, Catholic colleges and universities throughout the world have alternately embraced or retreated from the requirement that Catholic theologians seek a mandate from the local bishop in order to ensure that students at their schools would be taught from approved sources and in ways that reflected the teaching of the magisterium. But in the greater San Francisco area, at least five of the seven Catholic colleges have no theology departments, thus excusing themselves from the requirements of the mandatum -- or application norms of the encyclical as laid down by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. The bishops explained the mandatum as "fundamentally an acknowledgment by Church authority that a Catholic professor of a theological discipline is a teacher within the full communion of the Catholic Church."

Dominican University of California, located in San Rafael, is one Catholic college not concerned with the mandatum. The school was founded by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael and has existed since 1890. According to its website, it "seeks to embody Dominican educational ideals: love of truth, beauty and life of the mind, and a deep respect for the dignity and worth of the individual." Dr. Philip Novak, professor of humanities, explained that although Dominican is a Catholic university, it has no theology department. Instead, the school has elected to have a religious studies department. When asked the school's position on Ex Corde Ecclasiæ, Novak explained that the document doesn't apply to his school or department. "[The encyclical] was addressed to Catholics teaching in theology departments only. Since we have a religious studies program instead, [it] doesn't apply here." Novak made a distinction between the two programs by pointing out that "religious studies is a much wider subject. It studies all religions of all cultures, whereas theology is more focused on the study of western religion. Undergrads in a global, multicultural world should be exposed to this." Novak made it clear that the position of his university was to skirt the issue of fidelity to the magisterium. "We have no position. I can't speak for the school. The religion department has no position on Ex Corde. We have no official statement." When pressed to explain the mission of the religious department at Dominican, Novak said that it aims to "expose students to world religions and allow them to investigate and expand their concepts of God, and also to reflect on the meaning of life and on their moral values."

Unlike Dominican University, the University of San Francisco boasts a theology department as well as a religious studies department. Founded in 1855, the university explains the theology department goals on its website: "Welcoming ... religious diversity as a challenge, the theology and religious studies department aims first to help each individual explore and articulate critically the unique religious factor within one's own life, that center of meaning without which the rest of life would be otherwise incoherent. The second aim involves an immediate corollary -- to understand and appreciate more deeply how the world looks to people whose values and sense of the sacred differ from one's own." By the time one winds through this, a third goal is discovered, and it is presented like an 'official Catholic' disclaimer. This third goal ... "is characteristically Jesuit and Catholic. It hopes to enhance meaningful dialogue between the gospel, the Church, and the present world. Representing the Church to our present society ... theologians will be asked to scrutinize, perhaps dispute, the modern world's conventional premises about warfare or property."

Students attending the University of San Francisco can expect to take a "minimum of two courses in theology or philosophy and third in either," explained theology department chair Father Daniel Kendall. "We want students to learn something about the religious experience and literature." Similar to Dominican, however, "the department as a whole isn't required to seek a mandatum. Individual members are to ask for a mandatum independently. Bishops will lay down the norms in April, so it's not clear what we are required to do yet." He added that even then, only Catholics who teach theology would be required to seek the mandatum. Only three of the ten full-time faculty who teach theology are Jesuits. Of the ten, it is not known how many are Catholic. When asked what the department has discussed in regards to the norms, Father Kendall replied, "We have no position. It's never come up in a meeting."

Professor Tom Poundstone of Saint Mary's of Moraga had no such reservations. When asked about the Catholic nature of the Lasallian school, founded in 1863, he said that being labeled a Catholic school is something "we want to embrace." Asked about the mandatum, Dr. Poundstone explained again that it is not yet required to seek one from the local bishop. However, as he pointed out, "We don't expect any problems with the faculty." Students are required to take two courses in religious studies, and he adds that most people choose a course on the Bible in a department that has two Lasallian brothers among the faculty.

Santa Clara University, founded in 1851, is California's oldest institution of higher learning. The Jesuit university was established on the site of the Mission Santa Clara de Asis, the eighth of the original 21 California missions founded in 1777 by Blessed Junipero Serra. It also has no theology department. Undergraduates have the most rigorous theological requirement of any Bay Area university: a whopping three.

Santa Clara's literature defines the religious studies program as a program where the student "understands the study of religion to be disciplined, intellectual inquiry into the religious dimensions of human existence. It works to make this inquiry central to the intellectual life of our students ... [the] department courses seek to develop a critical understanding of religious ways of thinking, an appreciation of different religious traditions, an ability to reflect ethically and exercise leadership in action, and a curiosity about the more significant questions of human life beyond the classroom." Dr. Frederick Parrella, a professor in the department, declined to answer any question regarding the school, Ex Corde Ecclasiæ, or the program, instead directing attention to the religious studies department. He wrote, "It is not my policy to discuss the academic or theological aspects of the university with the press."

The Santa Clara website offers insight into the school's commitment to examine diverse religious traditions. The school offers a rich diversity of classes from liberation and feminist theology to African-American movements to modern Jewish thought. Ten of the twenty-four faculty listed were religious, and mostly Jesuit. No mention is made on the school's site of a commitment to the magisterium.

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