<div id="entryhead"> <h1>New CUA president: not a cleric, but a 'man of faith'</h1> </div> <!-- begin blogger thumbs --><!----><!-- end blogger thumbs --> <p>The selection of a lay college administrator as the <a href="http://president-elect.cua.edu/">15th president of Catholic University of America</a> is not "revolutionary," as the Most Rev. Allen H. Vigneron, archbishop of Detroit and search committee chairman, told me Monday: merely "significant."</p> <p>It is, nonetheless, the defining feature of the presidential search, which concluded Tuesday with the presentation of John H. Garvey, dean of the Boston College Law School, to faculty and staff at Catholic.</p> <p>Garvey, 61, replaces the Most. Rev. David M. O'Connell, who is leaving after 12 years at Catholic to become bishop-elect of the Diocese of Trenton.</p> <p><img class="mt-image-none" alt="IMG00087.jpg" width="450" height="340" src="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/IMG00087.jpg" /></p> <p>(L to R: search chair Vigneron, departing President O'Connell, new President Garvey)</p> <p>O'Connell is credited with making Catholic more Catholic -- steering the institution toward the traditional, comparatively conservative brand of Catholicism that emanates from the Vatican. Catholic University reports directly to the Vatican as the national university of the Roman Catholic Church. He raised the quotient of faculty and students who identified as Catholic. He brought the pope to campus.</p> <p>Vigneron said the university's Board of Trustees favored a member of clergy for the next president but had an even stronger preference for the best "available" leader. He stressed the word "available": there were several clerical leaders more than capable of leading Catholic, but none were available. Garvey was.</p> <p>"All things being equal, the board would prefer a priest," Vigneron said, summarizing the panel's sentiments. "Throughout the process, we have looked for a clergyman who could do the job. [Garvey] turned out to be the best possible candidate."</p> <p>And Vigneron said no one involved in the search process harbored any doubts about Garvey's faith. He is largely Catholic-educated and spent a semester at Harvard Divinity School before moving to the law school.</p> <p>"Let me put it this way," Vigneron said Tuesday at a press conference. "While Mr. Garvey is not a churchman, he is a man of the church."</p> <p>Catholic University has pursued a path laid out 20 years ago by Pope John Paul II, who envisioned a community of Catholic universities where faith "added to, rather than subtracted from, the education they provided," Vigneron said.</p> <p>Garvey chimed in on this theme, noting the "increasing secularization" over time of many top universities that have strayed from their religious roots.</p> <p>Garvey hinted, though, that he also has ambitions to lead Catholic to a higher level of scholarship. Catholic universities, he said, have "a distinct intellectual contribution to make," by dint of their spiritual identity. At another point in his comments, Garvey said, "We need to be the equal of or better than our . . . academic counterparts." He also suggested it was time to make Catholic University more diverse, in keeping with the growing diversity of catholicism worldwide.</p> <p>Vigneron starts, and O'Connell departs, in July.</p> <p><a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2010/06/new_cua_president_not_a_cleric.html">voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2010/06/new_cua_president_not_a_cleric.html</a></p> <p> </p>
<p><strong>"Throughout the process, we have looked for a clergyman who could do the job. [Garvey] turned out to be the best possible candidate."</strong></p> <p>I wonder how that comment went over at Palmer Place?</p>
<p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Although the past and no doubt this new President of Catholic U are no doubt smarter with more engaging personal traits than Mr. Towey, judging from the performance of the one stepping down, there is very little difference ideologically between JT and these guys. Yes, the previous president was a cleric. He challenged at every step the very idea of the University as a place of learning and discovery. At every form the policy of the Vatican was proselytized. People were informed what to think and consider. If any spokesperson with views deemed inconsistent with the Vatican were to be invited to a forum, it was required that a speaker be added to make clear what the position of the Vatican is, and that the speaker is out of line.</p> <p>This president justified this by comparing his 'university' to a family home, and asserted you should not have to accept views in your home you do not agree with. This is the worse form of didactic education, demonstrating where Catholic 'University' is going, but more cleary demonstrating the broad policy of the Vatican to remake all Catholic institutions and eliminate any real learning and education. </p>
<p>Yes, Jimmy, an many feel that there are those who wish to take Catholic Higher education in the same direction... that was the suspicion among many monks at SVC when Towey was hired (they called it the Nowicki/Donahue agenda with Towey as the tool). That was the thinking, at any rate, and events seemed to point to the correctness of that view.</p> <p>There is little question but that the outgoing CUA president lobbied for Towey to get the job at CUA--- that's really the only way Towey could have gotten to be on the final list of two. And there was at least one "heavy" Towey supporter on the small search committee. It is impossible to believe that he was in any way more qualified than many who did not make the cut.</p> <p>What happened here is the possibility that the CUA Board took whatever "vetting" was done on Towey a little more seriously than the SVC Board did.</p> <p>One of the differences seems to be the "freedom" that the CUA newspaper The Tower had as opposed to what the SVC had under Towey. The CUA paper's editorial section published a defense of Obama at Notre Dame, and it was posted on this forum (now in the archives)</p> <p><a href="http://svcalum.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=523">svcalum.com/comments.php</a></p> <p>If the above link doesn't work, the whole editorial is reproduced below. The last sentence of the editorial is especially poignant. Let;'s see what happens in the months following the upcoming historical event of July 1, 2010, the day Towey is to vacate his position as president of SVC.</p> <h3>Notre Dame Stands Up For Academic Freedom</h3> <p><em>March 27, 2009 by admin <br /> <br /> Notre Dame has taken a bold step in the face of stubborn opposition to support free speech in its purest form. Catholic theologians, graduates and their supporting families will have the privilege of absorbing a speech from their elected leader.<br /> <br /> President Barack Obama will take the stage in May and convert none of his audience to the pro abortion movement, but we know that this is not the point.<br /> <br /> Obama will take a stage at a Catholic institution as a politician who has supported a woman’s right to abort her unborn child. Some will see this as an endorsement of his views of the Catholic Church as a whole, and that unfortunate fact is the point.<br /> <br /> Over the years, this organization has attempted to point out inconsistencies in our presentations policy. For instance, where was the righteous indignation when a man addressed students in Caldwell Hall who supports preemptive war and takes a states rights stance on gay marriage? Vice President Richard Cheney was given a platform at The Catholic University with no venomous outcry from third-party activists. Where was the outcry when a woman was honored at the Columbus Law School who regularly affirmed abortion rights in the courts? Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the subject of a tribute symposium upon her retirement.<br /> <br /> We have held consistently for more than a decade in editorials that our presentations policy breeds inconsistencies at best and affronts to the First amendment at worst.<br /> <br /> We are led to believe through countless interviews and several non-scientific polls that the lions share of the student body believes this as well. Its student government passed a non-binding bill of rights which stated it will “Actively pursue the realization of the following articles” including freedom of academic speech.” This bill directly challenges University policy. The undergraduate representatives have made their intentions known, though we believe their efforts Hill be for naught.<br /> <br /> Last week The Tower performed a poll trying to get to the bottom of the University’s chronically low retention rates. We presented to Victor Nakas in Public Affairs our results, which clearly placed the poorly thought-out presentations policy as a major reason for discontent among the undergraduate population. His response was essentially that the poll was invalid and yet a vast change to curriculum is being undertaken without an official poll of student satisfaction as a backing.<br /> <br /> In the mission statement of the University of Notre Dame, it reads “As a Catholic university, one of its distinctive goals is to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.”<br /> <br /> They integrated both Catholic teachings and other areas of scholastic achievement by inviting President Obama. They are allowing students to revel in their Catholic education, as well as in their identity as American citizens.<br /> <br /> If Notre Dame has done their job right, students will already be sound in their Catholic beliefs. It should not be an issue where the President stands on his ideas of life. He is coming to speak to students about their role in the world, what they will face when they embark on the next chapter of their lives. More than anything, it is the students’ first test of maintaining a Catholic identity in light of someone who does not share some of their beliefs. There is a way to still maintain a Catholic identity, to reconcile faith, and still listen to the Commander-in-Chief of this great nation.<br /> <br /> </em><font color="#ff0000"><strong><em>We fear that thanks to a deaf administration which cannot see past its own narrow and constricting interpretation of a complex Catholic dogma, no similar day will dawn at this University. No hope lies on the horizon of a free exchange of ideas. And yet hope remains, just out of sight for every freethinking student here.<br /> </em></strong></font><br /> <a href="http://www.cuatower.com/2009/03/27/notre-dame-stands-up-for-academic-freedom/">www.cuatower.com/2009/03/27/notre-dame-stands-up-for-academic-freedom/</a></p>
Whoever wrote that editorial has to be commended for frankness and intellectual courage. This comment was especially accurate: "More than anything, it (Obama's speech) is the students’ first test of maintaining a Catholic identity in light of someone who does not share some of their beliefs." I've said it before and will do so ad nauseum if necessary. Ideas, including faith, are stronger and more durable if challenged and tested. If sheltered and protected, I question their long-term durability. Indoctrination must never trump true intellectual or spiritual development.
<p>True, bird dog. Here's the thing that gets lost in this argument about supposed "Catholic" identity all the time: Does George W. Bush, his father, Ronald Reagan, or any other neo-conservative politician embody true Catholic identity any more than Obama or Clinton or Kennedy?</p> <p>The answer quite frankly is a resounding NO! All too often (and this was pointed out during the Garvey/Towey debate on that other board), people with politically conservative opinions in this country use their religion to attempt to bolster their beliefs. A politician who signs death warrants or does not sign a stay of execution just to fulfill a campaign promise is no more in line with Catholic teaching than a president who appoints a pro-choice justice. It is absurd to try to justify either as far as the Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life. BUT, we must make choices in our secular lives and that means choosing candidates we feel comfortable with. Sadly, the peoples who say our Catholic universities have strayed from Catholic teaching, are really only interested in American political conservative thinking, not Church teaching, and that includes many of the clergy.</p> <p>The only way to come to well thought out decisions in the REAL WORLD is to be confronted with REAL moral questions. It would seem to me that the place where you'd want that to begin is in the Catholic colleges and universities. </p> <p>If our young people do not come to their faith through real questioning, then we are left with people who might as well be following the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Go to a Catholic university...just remember to put on these green glasses before you enter the gates.</p>
<p>well said, svcbearcat30. </p> <p>My family comes from a long Catholic humanism family, including members in the clergy and orders. The teachings of Jesus make sense in that light. Of God and Man in peace and love. Of joy in expressing and realizing our humanity and intellect and spiritual nature. The irish-catholic tradition i come from emphasizes all this through long history. Authoritarian, institution-centered periods of Vatican are seen as aberrant of characteristic human weakness when power and control become more important than spiritual faith and human, Christian values. </p> <p>The political thoroughness of this latest crowd, however, to purge everyone not in their anti-Vatican II camp, to dominate the politics of the Church and any country in which the Church has power -- a sort of return to the reactionary mindset of the 1800's but with political brutality added -- this really has me scared that it will be hard for the Christians to regain influence in the Church for many years to come.</p> <p>This could not be happening at a worse time in the world, a time when extreme fundamentalist politics and religious reactionaries of all kinds are proliferating. We need a humanistic church now, to help bring peace to the world, not be one more incendiary to propel toward the fire.</p> <p> </p>
<p>I couldn't agree more, Jimmy. The inward preoccupation with authoritarian rule, instead of an outreach to fellow human beings, is one of things that convinced me I had no place in the Church at all.</p> <p>I have quite a few relatives who grew up in my grandfather's (very) Catholic patriarchy who have also cut their ties. The fact is that the message of the Church just isn't relevant to our lives anymore. It has nothing to offer. More accurately, it says nothing we can't find somewhere else.</p> <p>As long-term strategies go, the "reactionary mindset" is a loser. Sure, those who remain will be more devout, but their numbers will dwindle. (And if they don't, the long-term forecast for the financial health of Rome is bleak, since the new converts will be from developing nations. They'll be generally less able to contribute to some already-strained coffers.)</p> <p>I applaud you for hanging on, and hope you get to see the day when the Church and its heirarchy return to a more active ministry. But I'd also understand if you didn't.</p> <p> </p>
DanC, I've mentioned the situation here in Cleveland a few times. Our bishop has downsized by closing numerous parishes, mostly urban ones and even parishes that were in the black with no debt. One pastor rebelled and is now on an extended leave. Yesterday, protestors at a Hungarian parish ended their occupation of their closed church with the Cleveland Police Department close to breaking down the doors and making arrests. All the diocese could do was offer was a statement that they would see that the law was enforced--absolutely no reaching out. Three Hungarian parishes were merged into one in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. A black parish was closed and merged with a church in our "Little Italy" area, a neat neighborhood for restaurants and culture but historically anything but welcoming to blacks.
So--we have a woeful lack of knowledge on the part of a bishop who came here from Boston having a bearing on decisions that affect all kinds of people. I've said this once and will keep on saying it: These folks think we can go back to the days when the padre was the only educated one in the parish. As for today, 'tain't so.
More than most, we should be aware that "Knowledge is the foundation of truth and justice." Giving up learning for the sake of devotion might make a neat package of religion, but when I see no questioning I get the feeling that comes over me seeing a line of school children on a trip, ranged according to height. Misplaced devotion to order taking the place of learning and enjoyment.
Historically, a Roman dedication to superficial order replaced much of the rich custom of the Church. The supression of the Celtic practices by the Synod of Whitby centralized the Church in the Brttish Isles to the point that we still struggle with a hierarchy which identifies itself as THE CHURCH. When failure appears , as in the Boston Archdiocese, the cover - up exceeds Watergate. Thus the Vatican shuffles Cardinal Law off to St, Mary Major, where as Arch-priest of that Papal fief, he falls under diplomatic immunity which would be envied by Roman Polanski.
I am inclined to believe that lack of knowledge of theology and philosophy by everyday parishoners and their superstitious pietism has been allowed , indeed is manipulated, by the rogues in black. Read Chaucer, read O'Conner, read Joyce and then see why we need to educate these "bessa banchi." Yet I have said before, the hope lies with the women. Does anyone believe that artificial birth control is not the option of the vast majority of Catholic women? Brick by brick the wall falls.