What Is HeinOnline?
HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
Log In
![handle is hein.journals/tlr66 and id is 1475 raw text is: Academic Freedom and Catholic Universities*
Charles E. Curran**
I. Introduction
Americans have long insisted that universities be free and autono-
mous centers of higher education.' One component of this tradition is
the belief that no external authority, lay or clerical, should make deci-
sions about hiring, promoting, tenuring, or dismissing faculty members.2
Before 1960, however, Catholic colleges and universities did not accept
this American view of academic freedom.3 Catholics believed that eccle-
siastical authority, from which there is no appeal, should settle contro-
versial questions at Catholic universities.4 In the 1960s, Catholic
universities started to accept and promote academic freedom.
This Essay analyzes academic freedom for Catholic institutions of
higher learning and for Catholic theology. Part II discusses the recent
acceptance of academic freedom at Catholic universities. Part III then
analyzes recently adopted Vatican legislation that threatens academic
freedom. Finally, Part IV discusses why academic freedom for Catholic
universities and for Catholic theology benefits the Roman Catholic
Church.
II. The Acceptance of Academic Freedom
During the 1960s, Catholic academics began to promote academic
freedom in Catholic universities and Catholic theology. In 1965 Gerald
F. Kreyche published a paper in the National Catholic Education Associ-
* This Essay has been published in similar form at 50 J. AM. ACAD. RELIGION 107 (1987).
** Professor of Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America; Visiting Brooks Profes-
sor, School of Religion, University of Southern California. B.A. 1955, St. Bernard's College; S.T.L.
1959, S.T.D. 1961, Pontifical Gregorian University; S.T.D. 1961, Academia Alfonsiana.
1. Fellman, Academic Freedom and the American Political Ethos, in ACADEMIC FREEDOM
AND THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 60, 60 (E. Manier & J. Houck eds. 1967) [hereinafter ACADEMIC
FREEDOM].
2. See Fuchs, Academic Freedom: Its Basic Philosophy, Function, and History, in ACADEMIC
FREEDOM AND TENURE 242, 242-44 (L. Joughin ed. 1969).
3. Donahue, Freedom and Education III Catholicism and Academic Freedom, 29 THOUGHT
555, 573 (1955); Gleason, Academic Freedom: Survey, Retrospect and Prospects, 64 NAT'L CATH.
EDUC. A. BULL. 67, 68 (1967). Non-Catholics also did not expect Catholic universities to accept
academic freedom. Robert M. MacIver, director of the American Academic Freedom Project
housed at Columbia University, used statements by Catholics to illustrate religious hostility to aca-
demic freedom. See R. MACIVER, ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN OUR TIME 134-36 (1955).
4. See Gleason, supra note 3, at 71-73 (describing the view that ecclesiastical authority should
govern Catholic universities).
1441](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tlr66&div=60&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)