Most Popular
Job Board
GU's Catholic Identity Means More Than Blind Submission
It looks like Georgetown is not on the Holy Father’s nice list.
During a visit to Washington, D.C. next month, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to deliver a speech at Catholic University about the state of Catholic higher education in the United States. According to the Washington Post, the pontiff is expected to use the event to lambaste the scores of Catholic colleges and universities that are not living up to church’s standards by failing to force their students to abide by Catholic teachings.
The Church takes issue with the growing tendency of American Catholic schools to tolerate or even promote activities and groups whose messages run contrary to traditional Catholic teachings.
Schools like Notre Dame and Georgetown have offended the Holy See by allowing student groups to organize productions of the Vagina Monologues on their campuses. Georgetown has apparently ruffled a few more holy feathers by refusing to ban the pro-abortion rights group H*yas for Choice from campus. And it didn’t win any indulgences for its plan to open a resource center for the LGBTQ community next year.
Of course, that’s nothing new. For many years, conservative Catholic groups have criticized Georgetown for permitting its students to live in ways that are considered unorthodox. One such group is the Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization that, according to its Web site, is frustrated with what it sees as a trend by Catholic colleges to retreat from rigid enforcement of Catholic dogma “for the sake of a mistaken notion of academic freedom.”
But if there is a mistake to be made in Catholic higher education it would not be the willingness to change the conversations within our schools from a chorus of tired catechism into one of many, different views. It would be the type of blanket rejection of opposing voices that the Pope and the Newman Society seem to advocate.
During a 1987 visit to Xavier University in New Orleans, the late Pope John Paul II explained that “society and groups within society must respect those who have a different outlook from their own.” By creating fora for presenting the Church’s messages, American Catholic universities do play an important role in preserving Catholic identity, but the universities and their leaders can privately and publicly maintain their faith in Catholicism without banning other beliefs from the campus community.
When Catholic schools allow the presence of opposing ideas, it shows confidence in the viability (and, sometimes harder to demonstrate, applicability and relevance) of Catholic teachings.
One way Georgetown reveals the merits of Catholic though this is through the university’s strong commitment to teaching social justice — an idea which most clearly connects the mysteries of Catholic thought to the challenges of the world today.
Georgetown contributes to the value of Catholic teachings by inviting its students to examine and challenge Catholic ideas, to ask questions and choose for themselves. In this way, Catholic universities have a chance to present why so many of us believe that Catholic teachings are closest to a real, universal truth.
If the Newman Society and Benedict had their way, there would be no “why,” only a “because.” As students, we would act the way we are told because we have blind faith or are afraid of our school’s retribution. In that way, Catholic teachings become stale and unappealing.
Georgetown’s social pluralism introduces to its academic community the experiences of people who see life from outside the Catholic worldview. It provides a real connection between Catholic thought and those who follow its tenets. And when its students choose for themselves to adopt Catholic lifestyles, it means much more than if our school simply produced Catholic drones.
If Pope Benedict’s speech at Catholic University does, indeed, denounce schools like ours, his message will hopefully fall on deaf ears. Georgetown will be on the other side of town applying the teachings of the Catholic Church that actually make the world better. We will continue to learn about other cultures and beliefs in order to better ourselves, stand up for the overlooked and powerless regardless of their religion, and use the arts and sciences to advance within the political sphere a message of social justice.
And I won’t be surprised if the Vicar of Christ is not eager to come help out.
D. Pierce Nixon is a senior in the College and contributing editor for THE HOYA. He has been enrolled in Catholic schools for more than twenty years. He can be reached at Nixon@thehoya.com. DAYS ON THE HILLTOP appears every other Tuesday.
I hope Benedict revokes Georgetown's charter for its blatant disregard of Catholic teaching. Georgetown sold out Catholicism for thirty pieces of modern academic silver. The Jesuits who allowed this, most notably Leo O'Donovan, should be kicked out of the Church.
If you are a Catholic educator then it is your duty to teach in a way that is aligned and promotes catholocizim along with the Holy See.
If you don't and wont then you're not Catholic and you should be a secular educator.
Seems pretty simple.
Mr. Nixon,
I enjoyed your article for the most part, I do however take exception to a few things that you stated. 1.)In the first paragraph you stated, in the last sentence,... the pontiff is expected to use the event ... not living up to church's standards by failing to force their students to abide by Catholic teachings."
We can't FORCE anyone to believe anything. God gave us a free choice soley to show our love for him by "rightly forming our consciences". Your institution, if it choose to consider itself a Catholic institution of higher learning, needs to ensure that it's teaching staff is well versed in Catholic doctrine and can explain and defend it against different beliefs with out belittling the person or persons with the differing belief. Yet at the same time not condone their beliefs by sponsoring groups such as "hoya's for choice." That would be condoning their belief which is also wrong! 2.) How can you state in your seventh paragraph that "the university has a strong commitment to teaching social justice yet promotes, apparently, the existence of "hoya's for choice"? I'm not familiar with the acronym "LGBTQ" to argue for or against it. I wish you well on your spiritual journey do not dispair and do not quit questioning things, that is how we grow as people!May God bless and guide you.
Deacon Jim
Mr. Nixon totally misses the point. He makes the outlandish claim that those Faithful Catholics that oppose allowing for on-campus groups which by their nature, directly contradict Catholic moral teaching, is akin to trying to "force their students to abide by Catholic teachings". This is a shallow emotional attempt to pander to people's sense of personal justice. Of course the University shouldn't "Force" individual students to abide by Catholic Teaching. This would be an offense against free will. I hope Mr. Nixon understands the difference between forcing individual's, and giving a platform to groups that promote undermining morality. Would he be opposed to a Georgetown student group that promoted torture for criminals? How about a student group promoted bestiality? Or even a student group that promoted medical testing on inmates? All of these would be counter to Catholic Moral teaching, and should not be given any platform to promote their viewpoint on a Catholic Campus. Now if individual students wish to join these groups off campus, that is a function of their personal free will. Mr. Nixon, do you understand the difference? Maybe you should take the advice my dear Mom always gave me; "Think before you speak". It might help.
The function of a Catholic University is to teach students knowledge from a Catholic Perspective. It should explore ideas that are counter to Catholic Moral and Theological teaching so as to better understand why the Church teaches what she does, and to equip students to combat errant idea's such as abortion, or the normalcy of same gender sexual relations, or the validity in using torture etc... An individual should be able to go to a Catholic University, and know they will be BETTER equiped explain, defend and promote Catholic teaching than they were before they went in. At Georgetown, I suspect that for a large number of students, that is not the case. Including, apparently, Mr. Nixon.
Come on, Mr. Nixon, think before you write. What do you mean by "the Church?" The Pope? The Holy See (do you even know what that term means)? Random bishops or priests? The 1 billion Catholics in the pews? Right wing Catholic organizations? Your language is way too sloppy for someone as smart as you likely are. Your argument's occasional good points limp because they're held up mostly by self righteousness. Don't you think it might make more sense to let the Pope speak to the reality of American higher education before you blast him for making comments that at this point exist only in the imaginings of people who cannot possibly know what he will say? You may be right. He might highlight what he sees as the negatives or even lambaste certain tendencies in American Catholic colleges. Or he might not. He may well take another tack. Up to this point, many Catholics on the right have been disappointed with Benedict XVI precisely because he has not been the fire-breathing, excommunication-wielding, condemnation-hurling avenger they had hoped for when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope. By the way, you shouldn't do the Cardinal Newman Society the favor of paying them so much attention. Think of them as the not so bright Cub Scouts of the Catholic Taliban.
Georgetown's charter was granted by the U.S. Government, not the Vatican. Fr. O'Donnovan hasn't lived at Georgetown for almost 8 years. And what the hell is academic silver?
Go read a book and calm down.
What about the Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and Hindo faculty members at Georgetown? Should they be banned from GU because of their faith?
Faithful Alum,
Someone arguing so strongly for the Church--the group that wants to limit things like potentially groundbreaking scientific research because they think it's an affront to THEIR God--has the nerve to use the word "righteous"??
Georgetown is the exact kind of Catholic that I am and that many Catholics want to be: the kind that believes, holds certain personal values about right and wrong, but that is also ultimately more concerned with justice, service, and making a positive impact WITHIN a secular context than with dragging everyone else along kicking and screaming to our God.
Until the Church stops looking like a sex-focused one-issue voter, I see no reason for a University to conform to its mandates.
Okay. I can understand why Georgetown, as a Catholic institution, doesn't want to give its own money to directly support groups that have a message counter to their own, like Hoyas for Choice or gay advocacy groups. Fair enough.
But a university should also be about rigorous academic discourse. By denying recognition to groups simply because they do not conform to Catholic teaching is just about on the same moral ground as banning books from the library with which you disagree ("But they can always pick it up at the /secular/ library down the road!" they would surely scream). Recognition does not imply funding and it certainly does not imply agreement with their principles. Recognition could be realized in a non-partisan, non-judgmental way -- any group that is comprised of and lead by Georgetown students (a certain number could be specified) can receive recognition as an official student group.
'Doorman' above asks whether we should give platform to a group of Georgetown students advocating torture for criminals, beastiality, or medical testing on inmates. Well, why not? If a group of idiots wants to form a campus Nazi party to go alongside the College Dems and College Republicans, let them. In the market of free ideas, I have a feeling these will get beaten out rather quickly. Better to address the issues in the light of day than hide them under the rug -- if a group of students really does believe this idiotic nonsense, banning them from forming a group isn't going to solve the problem. And it's certainly not the academic way to go.
As to funding. I said above, the university is well within its rights not to fund such groups. However, as students, we pay a student activities fee. That's our money -- from the students. I believe the students should have absolute discretion in how to spend it. If the majority were to vote to allow H*yas for Choice receive funds from the funding pool they - not the university - contributed to, why should they be stopped?
Georgetown is a secular university that cares more about being modern and PC than anything Catholic. It is concerned about pleasing the secular humanists who dominate its faculty and administration--not about anything Pope Benedict or John Paul the Great before him had to say. Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago were all once religious schools--they left it behind. So has Georgetown...much to its eternal damnation. Ask any orthodox Catholic alum if they ever give to Georgetown--hell no is the answer. Georgetown should be sued for false advertising--there is nothing purely Catholic about it.
"If Pope Benedict’s speech at Catholic University does, indeed, denounce schools like ours, his message will hopefully fall on deaf ears. Georgetown will be on the other side of town applying the teachings of the Catholic Church that actually make the world better."
Well, that sounds rather Pharisee like--we do things so much better than that tired old church...D.P., the PC world of social justice is no subsitute for the power of faith.
Mr Nixon's view on faith and religion remind me of a friend of mine who once said "I have strong moral and religious principles, I just don't let them rule my life"
Post new comment