Opinion ID: 2350429
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Relationship between Georgetown's Religious Tradition and its Secular Educational Role

Text: From the foregoing, and from Georgetown's published materials, it appears that the University perceives itself as fulfilling a secular educational role without abandoning its religious heritage. This view is expressed in its Undergraduate Bulletin. While Georgetown reflects its Catholic and Jesuit influences, [i]t neither wishes nor expects all its members to be Catholic, but it does assume that all of them share a basic, widely accepted view of humankind. It sees all men as essentially equal, as endowed with a human dignity always to be respected.... It seeks to open its arms, in the fullest sense of ecumenism, to those of all beliefs and all races. Id. at 1. A similar idea is expressed by the Law Center: The Law Center welcomes students of all religious beliefs and does not proselytize. On the other hand, Georgetown's religious heritage is a cherished part of its distinctive quality. Law Center Bulletin, supra, at 31. President Healy has described the interrelationship between Georgetown's secular educational role and its spiritual objectives: Theology no longer has the sway in the University that it once had, nor can we any longer talk about it as the organizing base of the other academic disciplines. What we can talk about is a religious tradition which after 200 years must condition what the University is and does. Any university is a creature of time and is by its nature secular. Our job is to discover what impact the habit of belief in God has on the secular reality of a university, on its teaching, its learning, its research and its service. Georgetown University, Annual Report 2 (1979). In a later report, President Healy voiced similar thoughts: ... Georgetown has the imperatives of its own secular being, but the Church reinforces, strengthens, and personalizes them. Georgetown University, Annual Report 4 (1981). Also, he notes, [e]ducation remains principally a secular business, and the university is a secular entity with a clear secular job to do. The Church, however, can deeply influence how that secular job is done. Id. at 4-5.