# Academic Freedom and the Catholic University

Academic Freedom and the Catholic University is a book edited by Edward Manier and John W. Houck which was published in 1967 by Fides Publishers, a press affiliated with the University of Notre Dame. It was based on the proceedings a conference at Notre Dame in April 1966.
The book included chapters by John Walsh, David Fellman, John McKenzie, Frederick Crosson, Philip Gleason, Robert Hassenger, John Houck, and Edward Manier.

## Background

During the 1960s, among other major changes in society, Catholic universities in the United States were evolving in the direction of greater academic freedom. In response to these changes, more conservative voices called for preserving traditions, yet changes continued. For example, in December 1965, St. John's University in Jamaica, New York, abruptly terminated thirty-one professors (most of them teachers of theology or philosophy), without allowing them to finish teaching their fall semester classes, citing their divergence from Church teaching (especially Thomist theology/philosophy). Similarly, in October 1966, four professors of theology and philosophy at the University of Dayton were accused of teaching that was contrary to the magisterium of the Church.

## Conference

Given this background of controversy about the role of academic freedom in Catholic universities, a conference was organized to take place at the University of Notre Dame on April 22 and 23, 1966. Organizing the conference at Notre Dame were Edward Manier, professor of philosophy and John Houck, professor of law and American Association of University Professors chapter president. Prior to the conference, Prof. Houck noted that, "Recent events at various Catholic universities have raised serious questions. Administrative practices in running departments, due process in dismissal, faculty participation in university government, and freedom to teach are themes of the current uproar. One theme, academic freedom, is the most sensitive for the professional teacher. He wants to know the limits, if any, at the committed, Catholic university. Our symposium will explore this theme."
Presenting at the symposium were: David Fellman, University of Wisconsin, Madison, national AAUP president; John McKenzie, University of Chicago Divinity School; Daniel Callahan, associate editor of Commonweal magazine; and Daniel Greenberg, education writer for Science magazine. Also presenting were Notre Dame faculty and administrators: Frederick Crosson, head of the undergraduate program; Philip Gleason, professor of history; and Robert Hassenger, professor of sociology. Panelists from Notre Dame included: John Walsh, vice-president for academic affairs; George Shuster, assistant to the president; John Dunne, professor of theology; Edward Manier, professor of philosophy; and John Houck, professor of law. The chairperson of the first session of the symposium was Charles Allen, Notre Dame professor of metallurgical engineering.
At the conference, John Walsh was quoted as saying, "Genuine learning, valid scholarship, can only take place in an atmosphere of free and open inquiry. It is my opinion that all the demands of learning can be and must be adhered to in a Catholic university." Philip Gleason agreed, noting that academic freedom in Catholic universities "will be insisted upon with growing vehemence by the working faculties – to say nothing of the student bodies." John McKenzie proposed that academic freedom should be without qualification because "the principle of censorship is basically irrational and immoral. ... Censorship settles scholarly differences of opinion by a moral bludgeon. And censorship is totally unnecessary, because scholarship is equipped to do better what censorship pretends to do...."

## Reviews

According to one reviewer, "the book as a whole seems to suggest that the real difficulty ... is whether academic freedom can obtain, in principle, in a church-related school. ... (This is evidenced in) ... Philip Gleason's paper on academic freedom and the crisis in Catholic universities, which manifests a welcome historical consciousness: in Frederick Crosson's paper on personal commitment as the basis of free inquiry, which is illuminated by the distinction – as old as Aristotle but often lamentably overlooked – between the question an sit, and the question, quid sit; (and) in John Walsh's paper on the university and the Church, with its distinction between the Church learning and the Church teaching and a consequent distinction between the function of intellectual inquiry proper to a university and the function of doctrinal affirmation proper to the magistery of the Church. Out of the eight papers, these three, with Manier's Introduction, make the most important contribution ...."

## Aftermath

In the wake of growing pressure for academic freedom in Catholic universities, Pope Paul VI informally warned Jesuits: "in teaching and publications in all form of academic life a provision must be made for complete orthodoxy of teaching, for obedience to the magisterium of the church, for fidelity to the hierarchy and the Holy See." The Land O'Lakes Statement, which came to similar conclusions as the Notre Dame conference, was released after a conference of Catholic clergy in a Notre Dame conference center in Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin. This statement was repudiated by Pope John Paul II in 1990 in Ex corde Ecclesiae, which emphasized the apostolic constitution of Catholic universities. Nevertheless, the Vatican and the bishops were powerless to reverse the change in legal status that (beginning in the 1960s) made hundreds of Catholic universities independent of the Church. Vigorous debate in recent decades has focused on how to balance Catholic and academic roles in Catholic universities, with conservatives arguing that bishops should exert more control to guarantee orthodoxy. For example, scholars at the Cardinal Newman Society have argued that "'How did we get here?' is a question essential to determining how most American Catholic colleges and universities overcome their bland conformity to secular norms for curriculum, campus life, governance, and academic freedom."