The Capstone
The US Bishops are convening a group of bishops and Catholic college presidents to review Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution of John Paul II on Catholic universities (1990). From the Cardinal Newman Society:Barbara McCrabb, assistant director for higher education in the USCCB’s education office, said that the working group of presidents and bishops will discuss topics that emerged from the 2011 ten-year review of The Application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae for the United States. A previous working group had existed from 2012 to 2013, but it ended its term a year early due to the untimely death of Bishop Joseph McFadden, who was chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education.
Why is this gathering significant? Because the implementation of Ex Corde in US has been fraught with difficulties. In my own discipline of theology, for example, many in the professional societies did not welcome the call for a mandatum to be granted by the local bishop, in accordance with Canon 812. The concern was (and in many ways still is) that if Catholic universities should be perceived as taking orders from the Holy See, they would not be taken seriously in the American academy.
Some neuralgic questions: if degree programs in the United States and elsewhere are beholden to various associations for licensure, certification, accreditation, and so on, would a form of recognition from the Holy See (or the local bishop) be significantly different? Would accreditation from the Holy See compromise the university’s mission in ways significantly different from accreditation from the state or from other accrediting agencies? Whose stamp of approval must Catholic institutions ultimately seek in order to fulfill their mission?
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