Bishop rebukes Jesuit university for inviting pro-abortion speaker

[Redbaron998]

Excommunication?

 

[curlycool89]

I was going to try and say this from what I remembered, but Br. JR does a much better job at it.

I believe that there are two points going on here and they may not be related.

1. The administration or whoever did the inviting should have chosen more prudently.
2. The average layman assumes that when we say “Jesuit University” that it means that the Society of Jesus has authority over it. Most of the time, that’s not the case. The Jesuits own the property on which the university sits, because they purchased it and they built the university. But most of these universities had to surrender to lay boards of trustees to run, man years ago.

I remember Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ speaking about this once on TV. He said that even the Superior General of the Jesuits has no authority over the universities. Someone asked him something about teaching at a Jesuit college. He responded that for him to teach at a Jesuit college he would have to apply for a job and compete to be hired like any other professor. The Jesuit order no longer controls who gets hired and they cannot assign their own men to many of their schools.

There are few groups that still control their schools. I know that Franciscans still do so. Some Benedictines abbeys still control their universities as do some of the Dominicans. Those schools that are controlled by the religious are often turned down for grants and the students are often denied certain opportunities. These schools are not producing the high power executives, scientists, physicians, and engineers that other schools produce, because the don’t have the income. It’s a trade off that they make to keep control. As a result, some are also very expensive. The truth is that there is a prejudice out there toward Catholic schools. Many accrediting bodies look askance when they do their reviews, if a school is “too Catholic”, but they don’t use the same ruler when the visit a Protestant school or a Jewish school. I’m not saying that it’s the fault of the Protestants or the Jews. They don’t control the accrediting body. They are simply fortunate not to be at the receiving end of prejudice. The same happens with funding.

Originally, when many of these schools set up these boards and handed control over to a lay organization, the first generation of laymen who took over were very faithful to the religious charism of the school. They were very committed to Catholic education and to ideals of the religious community that founded the school. As time passes, these people are replaced by others who do not share the same vision. That’s very sad to see. I’m not sure how this is going to be legally corrected. You certainly don’t want to get into legal battles that will hurt the students.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[RACJ]

Point 1: Doesn’t a university have a duty to expose its students to various viewpoints - not with the aim of promoting those viewpoints, but with the aim of giving the student body a chance to see the arguments first hand.

For instance: It’s hard to fight for a position when you don’t know, or don’t understand the points the opposition is making.

We want our young people to be in the world, and not of it, but that doesn’t mean that we have to blindfold the and lead them by the hand. they have to develop a mature faith.

Point 2: disobeying the bishop is a different matter. The University obviously needs to improve it’s lines of communication and level of trust with the bishop. I.e., listen and be seen to be listening.

I'm from Scranton, and I attended the U of Scranton. Liberal bilge gets exposure every day there, so one more anti-Catholic screed will be nothing new. :shrug: Rob