"Mandatum" questions

[Domer1997]

I’m hoping someone can lead me in the right direction. I’ve recently been reading about the requirements for the Mandatum at Catholic Universities. Correct me if I am wrong, individual theology professors apply for the Mandatum, not the Theology Department or university as a whole…correct?

Also, since the study of non-Catholic religions is required for every university’s theology program, would professors from other faiths be required to take the mandatum? For example, if a Jewish Rabbi teaches Old Testament and the culture and history of Judaism at a Catholic university, would he be forced to accept the mandatum? How would that work? I’m just curious because I know that many Catholic universities do have Rabbi(s) on staff, and I believe they can be major assets to the overall theology curriculum.

I found the following from another site regarding the mandatum…

*• They restate the Application’s understanding of the mandatum: the professor of theological disciplines is acknowledged by church authority as one who teaches within the full communion of the Catholic Church with the commitment and responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the church’s magisterium.

• Since canon law applies only to Catholics, only they are required to have a mandatum.*

Any help on answering these questions is geatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

God Bless.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

I’m hoping someone can lead me in the right direction. I’ve recently been reading about the requirements for the Mandatum at Catholic Universities. Correct me if I am wrong, individual theology professors apply for the Mandatum, not the Theology Department or university as a whole…correct?

In theory, yes.

Practice varies because each bishop is different. IF THE BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE wants individual porfessors to file, he makes that clear. IF he wants departments to qualify their people and send in the list every year, he states that. Also, there is debate on what constitutes a professor of a “theological discipline”. Some bishops also consider Philosophy and Religious Studies “theological discipline”. Some dioceses don’t want to even bother about it, so the bishop has issued a statement that there should be no “theology” taught, and all the classes in these disciplines get labeled something else, as non-religious as possible.

Also, since the study of non-Catholic religions is required for every university’s theology program, would professors from other faiths be required to take the mandatum?

The study of a non-Catholic religion is not necessarily considered “theology”. It depends, again, on the bishop and how he feels like packaging the whole thing. Generally, it’s true that non-Catholics are not bound by Church law.

My take, and my husband’s take (he’s a philosopher, and this is our opinion): The Church was rightly sick and tired of having Catholic colleges and universities in-name-only be some of the worst promulgators of bad catechesis, oddball theories, and things that just ain’t so being passed off as Catholic doctrine. The idea that maybe it would be a good idea for professors who claim to be Catholic to teach authentically is a good one. Hence, the mandatum.

nccbuscc.org/bishops/mandatumguidelines.shtml

Instead, too many professors took the whole thing wrong. Everybody was up in arms about their “rights” being violated, about their “autonomy” and “freedom of inquiry” being restricted, yada, yada, yada. You’d think Catholic professors of such disciplines would have been lining up outside their local bishop’s office, asking for the opportunity to declare themselves willing to teach authentically.

Instead, colleges and universities got frightened because the professors- many of them NOT Catholic and NOT connected to theological disciplines- started carrying on; bishops got frightened because the colleges and universities got frightened; and instead of doing what they were supposed to do, each came up with his own little plan.

 

[corvidae]

There are some colleges
Often called “mandatum colleges” that require their entire theology faculty to sign the mandatum.

So it is not only an individual professor.

However, I have also heard of colleges asking the bishop for the mandatum, and the bishops refusing, so it is not always as easy as it would look at first.

A lone Raven