Bishops, Power, and Orders

[anon_aleteia]

I attend a college run by an order with little indirect power over it by the Bishop. This college calls itself Catholic yet the professors and some of the priests in that order teeter between not always correct and full out heretical… Some classmates, alumni and I wish to bring more proof (quotes, books we need to read for class that doesn’t prescribe to Church teaching yet claim to be… etc). But we are questioning how much this will help and how much power the Bishop truly even has over the order within his diocese and the College. Thought?

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

I don’t mean to be abrasive, but you don’t understand the role of a bishop in relationship to a religious order and yet you have the ‘expertise’ to point out the “heresy” of an entire group of priests and faculty at your college? Your accusation is extremely strong and not to be made lightly, and it seems to me you’re not in possession of enough facts to make that claim.

 

[commenter]

I suggest you check out the Cardinal Newman Society website regarding specific small areas of progress you, and others might make.

If a college identified as Catholic, and is identified as such by the diocese, the bishop has a little influence, not a lot. Most bishops tend to hold onto that connection (maybe too long?).

Perhaps this is ok, since they may block some worse things from happening, and they periodically are invited to speak there.

The religious order may have founded the college, and everyone calls it a Jesuit, Franciscan, or whatever college, but in most cases it us run by a lay board now, with a rep or two from the order. In our “,Jesuit” college only 3 teach there now, down from 40.

The bishop’s relationship to the order is separate from his relationship to the college. The only area really supervised by the bishop is sacramental ministry.