Friday, April 29, 2005

Accuracy in Academia: Should the Pope intervene in Klocek case?

Malcom A. Kline writes about American CINO, that is "Catholic in Name Only" universities in Accuracy in Academia's Campusreportonline.net web site.

An interesting excerpt:

"The elevation of Pope Benedict XVI to the Papal Suite at the Vatican might give some of America’s Catholic colleges and universities the chance to be more than Catholic in Name Only (CINO).

“Catholic theology is not individual reflection but thinking with the faith of the Church,” then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in a 1999 U. S. visit. “If you will do other things and have other ideas of what God could be or could not be, there is the freedom of the person to do it, clearly.”

“But one should not say this is Catholic theology.”

Only three Catholic (or is is CINO?) universities are named in this article. One of them is DePaul. Of course, the Klocek case is mentioned.

From that same article:


“It is the great responsibility we have to give, on the one hand, the authentic witness of the faith, because Catholic people have the right to know what is Catholic and what is not Catholic, to defend Catholic identity, but also it is the great responsibility to not impose obligations and limitations of thinking where Catholic identity does not depend on these limitations.”

Ironically, it is in this latter realm that some Catholic colleges actually are trying to set limits. Too many Catholic colleges and universities are adopting an approach to academic freedom that mirrors the policies and practices of their secular counterparts.

Early last semester, at an activities fair at [Catholic] De Paul University, adjunct professor Thomas Klocek visited a table manned by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). He made the mistake of engaging SJP members in conversation.

“One of the SJP members said that the Israeli treatment of ‘Palestinians’ is as bad as the way Hitler treated the Jews,” Klocek remembers. “I took vast umbrage with this scurrilous statement and pointed out that there is a qualitative difference between [Hitler and] Israeli military forces seeking out known terrorists and people strapping on bombs and blowing themselves and others up in buses, cafes and Seder dinners.”

Klocek, a Catholic, was suspended. Could his predicament cry out for papal intervention? (I added the bold.)

A final note, to the talking heads who treated the election of the new pontiff as they would an American presidential contest and predicted that he will “grow in office”: The smoke that signaled the election of Pope Benedict XVI came from the Vatican, not the Washington Post recycling plant."

I linked it above, but click to the right for the entire article, CINO No More?

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