Back in 1940 the American Association of University Professors published a statement endorsing “full academic freedom.” The statement, however, allowed religious institutions to place some limits on academic freedom, provided those limits were “clearly stated in writing at the time of [faculty] appointment.”
The AAUP later pulled its exception for religious institutions in 1970. In its Interpretive Comments of that year, the AAUP states: “[m]ost church-related institutions no longer need or desire the departure from the principle of academic freedom implied in the 1940 Statement, and we do not now endorse such a departure.” In other words, a religious institution cannot limit the freedom of professors in order to ensure its religious teaching.
Catholic schools cannot comply with the mandate for such unbridled academic freedom. Pope John Paul II says as much in Ex Corde Ecclesiae (which, by the way, was condemned as a backward document by Daniel Maguire in the AAUP online journal): “all Catholic teachers are to be faithful to, and all other teachers are to respect, Catholic doctrine and morals in their research and teaching. In particular, Catholic theologians, aware that they fulfill a mandate received from the Church, are to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.” The Pope's directive stands squarely in opposition to the AAUP's revised 1970 position on academic freedom.
Unfortunately, the AAUP cut faithful Catholic universities out of the picture forty-two years ago. Perhaps it's time for Catholic universities, which still largely endorse the association, to return it the favor.
Sadly, I don't sense a united front on the part of Catholic universities on this. If there is any unity, it is certainly not in defending the primacy of Church teaching, but rather in a collective flouting of documents like Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Could it stem from the ubiquitous rejection of the classical understanding of freedom in academia and society? The Church's position seems completely antediluvian to the majority of universities, even the Catholic ones.
ReplyDeleteJames, what do you take to be the "classical understanding of freedom in academia and society?" I have been trying to work this out, but am not sure yet what I think. I know that the classical position is not a freedom from all constraints. So what kind of freedom are we talking about? This is an enormously important issue for Catholic universities today.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say in a very rough sense that the pursuit of truth is a central component of the "classical understanding of freedom." How does man use freedom properly to pursue excellence, virtue, etc.? I'd toss in the recognition that the abuse of freedom is not genuine freedom and, interestingly, results in a type of slavery to vice.
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