On Georgetown and the Essential Unity of All Knowledge | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Catholic World Report
Freedoms are being restricted with the aid of Catholics who have denied, in practice, any real connection between reason and revelation.
“Faith’s recognition of the essential unity of all knowledge provides a bulwark against the alienation and fragmentation which occurs when the use of reason is detached from the pursuit of truth and virtue; and in this sense, Catholic institutions have a specific role to play in helping to overcome the crisis of universities today.”
-- Pope Benedict XVI, “Ad Limina Address to U. S. Bishops, May 5, 2012.
I.
In its editorial occasioned by Georgetown University’s invitation to Kathleen Sebelius—a Catholic, who is engineering the requirement that Catholic institutions must provide services to any employee, even if they include things contrary to conscience, faith, and reason—the Catholic Standard (May 10) called the invitation disappointing “but not surprising.” Though this statement is rather blunt, it is probably too mild in light of the damage the invitation causes. It is more than “disappointing,” though it is indeed no “surprise.”
The distance that many Catholic universities are perceived to have moved from Catholicism is, for many, illustrated by the publicity of this invitation. Honoring the person who intends to shut one’s institution down unless it conforms to laws that deny religious liberty and human intelligence seems, at best, dubious.
The best background “theory” about why Sebelius was interested in this invitation is that the Obama administration does not think it can win the election if people are reminded of the economy. Thus, effort is made to shift attention to what are called “moral” issues, a euphemism for the use of “rights” to redefine the whole field of public life. Obama’s advocacy of gay-marriage also falls into this category. The administration understands the value of splitting the religious vote between those who stand for Christian teachings and practices and those who reject them but insist on changing the Church to conform to the secular pattern. However many can be enticed by this tactic may be enough at the polls to win reelection. The only bad prince, as Machiavelli put it, is one who loses power.
The Church would expect, at a time when its liberty of mission and action is threatened by specific governmental decree, that universities, not just Catholic ones, would be the first to come to its aid. But they seem to be the last. They appear mostly indifferent to what has been probably the most unique of American legal innovations about the relation of religion and government. The Sebelius invitation, from the outside, seems an indifference to the Church by those who would be most expected to support her on the grounds of intelligence itself.
The issue is whether universities called “Catholic” have not become rather secular with vague religious symbols still about but no substantial connection with what it is to be Catholic in reason and intelligence. The bishops, for all their courage in facing this question, have not addressed the factual question about what is the actual orientation of universities that are called “Catholic” for whatever reason.
II.
Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI has been speaking to various groups of the American hierarchy on their periodic visits to Rome to report on the status of the local Church.
Lets not give up on the students of these universities just yet.On my fathers side,there was a long line of priests from a house that said the Rosary daily.On my mothers side,the parish priest never left our house,he was nearly part of the furniture.I went through the whole Catholic schooling system.
My point being.On leaving school,even coming from a background like mine,i drifted away from Mass and the Church for a long time.Starting to work at sixteen,i found myself lost in the world,going to Mass seemed a hardship and mortality seemed so far of i felt invincible,something i am sure a lot of these students are experiencing now.How backward the Church must seem to them,when comparing her to the modern and Secularist world.
It may take some time for them to see the destruction of abortion,same sex marriage and contraception the modern and Secularist world is pushing them into,this will hopefully come with age and maturity.Youth may be wasted on the young but the Church is old and wise.Someday these students,just like me,will come to love Christ and his Church and everything she stands for.
Posted by: Peter L | Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 07:12 PM