Religion & Law

Early this morning, I returned from a student-produced constitutional law conference in Santiago, Chile.  (What a breathtakingly beautiful city it is--Santiago--surrounded by the snow-capped Andes.  If only I had had time to hike.)  On Saturday morning, I leave for San Diego, where I will be privileged to spend the fall semester teaching international human rights at the University of San Diego (the law school and the Kroc School of Peace Studies).  From a (predominantly) Catholic country to a Catholic university.  And yet, I remain deeply puzzled:  What does it mean, in these early years of the 21st Century, to identify oneself as Catholic?  Plainly, it does *not* mean that one affirms (though one may happen to affirm) what the magisterium of the Church teaches about, say, human sexuality, the fittingness of women to be priests, etc.

But then, what *does* it mean?