“If in our theology departments we are not teaching the basics of who Jesus Christ is to future priests, to students that really want a Catholic education, then we are doing them a disservice,” Thomas observed. “I also think that it’s a good moment for other professors in the University to renew that commitment, and this could serve as a reminder and example of how Catholic professors, and especially Catholic professors who are also priests, are to teach the faith.”
Fr. Costadoat and his supporters have not responded favorably to his chastisement. “‘What’s Catholic’ creates problems in the university environment,” Fr. Costadoat wrote. “When the mission of a university is confused with the demands of the Christian religion, it is the very catholicity of universities which ends up being discredited. …When the catholicity of a university is made to depend on its students’ and, above all, its professors’ religious affiliation or devotion, the university sickens.”
(source: New Details on Jesuit Theologian Banned From Teaching Catholic Theology)
Hold on, what was that sentence again?
When the catholicity of a university is made to depend on its students’ and, above all, its professors’ religious affiliation or devotion, the university sickens.
(source: New Details on Jesuit Theologian Banned From Teaching Catholic Theology)
One feels compelled to suggest a little basic reading to the professor, though it is a shame and a grief to have to say this over and over:
13. Since the objective of a Catholic University is to assure in an institutional manner a Christian presence in the university world confronting the great problems of society and culture(16), every Catholic University, as Catholic, must have the following essential characteristics:
1. a Christian inspiration not only of individuals but of the university community as such;
2. a continuing reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute by its own research;
3. fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church;
4. an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family in their pilgrimage to the transcendent goal which gives meaning to life”(17).
(source: Ex Corde Ecclesiae (15 August 1990))
