Religion & Law

In 1997, Chicago's then newly appointed Arcbishop Francis George, O.M.I. gave an address at Georgetown University entitled "The Catholic Mission Today in Higher Education" (available here) in which he argued that "the office of the bishop is not a problem in understanding the Catholic mission in higher education; rather the office of the bishop is part of the solution."  Indeed, he argued that "[a] university that worships the Catholic God [as opposed to the understanding of God put forth by some other denomination or religion] cannot separate itself from the community of faith" such that the bishop who is head of the community is "necessarily within the Catholic university."   However, the bishop is present in the university neither "as a watchdog nor an academic lawgiver; not primarily as a healer or caregiver nor even as a point of reference for the chaplain's office; not as a teacher of theology unless he happens also to have an academic appointment, and not just as one more member of the Board."  Instead, "[t]he bishop is within the Catholic university as teacher of the faith."

While noting that the "proper legal formulation to support the relationship between the faith community and its universities" needs to be worked out, George argued that, for the bishop, there are "ways of being present as teacher which do not depend directly upon legal formulas."  He concludes that

In the innermost heart of the Catholic university should lie the desire, not always explicitly expressed nor completely shared  by everyone in the university itself, to help create an academic mileu, a civil society and Chruch where personal faith in Christ makes good sense.

If in fact Archbishop Jerome Listecki did speak with Marquette's president about the planned hire of Jodi O'Brien as has been suggested (see here) might this not be an instance where the bishop acted as teacher of the faith in a non-juridical role?  Might this not be an example of  the head of the local faith community, of which the university is a part, working to build an academic mileu in which "personal faith in Christ makes good sense"?