Here’s something which will be in and out of the news during the next several months:

First, a little background information--

In 1990 Pope John Paul II promulgated an apostolic constitution called Ex Corde Ecclesiae (which means "From the Heart of the Church"). The Holy Father did this in response to what I would call "the contemporary crisis in Catholic higher education"—a crisis which has directly affected some within our own community of Westerly.

Let me present to you now an all-too-common scenario which illustrates the problem: Jim and Ann are good Catholic parents. They spend about $100,000 over the course of 4 years to send their daughter Julie to a Catholic university. Julie has faith when she enters as a freshman, but she also has lots of questions about Church teaching and Church policy—questions which are both typical and normal for people her age. She graduates four years later with high honors, and then proceeds to tell her parents that she’s become an atheist, thanks to the "enlightened teaching" she’s received at this "Catholic" school. Jim and Ann are stupefied—and angry! They say, "What have we done?"

The Holy Father—himself a former university professor—issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae to try to prevent scenarios like this from happening! And so, one of the requirements put forth in this document is that every Catholic theology professor must receive a "mandatum" from his or her local bishop, which will certify that the person in question is, in fact, a teacher of Catholic theology. This means that parents—and potential students—will know if the "Catholic" theologians at a given school are what they claim to be! Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? If Jim and Ann, for example, had known that the theology professors at Julie’s chosen college were not the believing Catholics they said they were, they might have been able to persuade their daughter to choose another college where her faith would have been enhanced and not destroyed.

When converts are received into the Church, they freely and willingly make this statement: "I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God." In effect, that’s the personal pledge these Catholic theologians will be required to make. Which means it really isn’t anything extraordinary! The fact is, every Catholic should be able to say "Amen" to that statement of belief! And if someone can’t, then he or she is obviously a Catholic "in body" but not "in heart," as the New Catechism would say.

Some theologians have already stated that they will refuse to seek the mandatum, and their disobedience is sure to make the evening news during the next several months, since the secular press loves that type of defiance!

But many—if not most Catholic theology professors—will seek this official Church certification. Of course, you won’t hear about these men and women quite as much; their obedience isn’t as newsworthy to the people at CNN and the New York Times.

So here are a couple of the positive quotes you’re not likely to hear on the evening news:

A theologian from Loyola college in Baltimore said, "I cannot imagine a theologian not wanting to teach in communion with the Church, as represented by the local [bishop]. I hope that my teaching is profoundly embedded in both the tradition and ongoing life of the Church. The mandatum simply formalizes that relationship."

Another professor at the University of Scranton stated, "Asking for a mandatum is a public statement about the proper way to do theology—i.e. in full communion with the Catholic Church."

Is there a Biblical precedent for this idea of seeking a commission or mandate to teach in the Church’s name?

The answer is: Yes! And we find it in today’s first reading from Acts 15, which recounts some of the events surrounding the Council of Jerusalem. At issue during that council was the question of whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity had to be circumcised and observe the ritual laws of the Old Testament.

The verdict of the apostles: No!

And this verdict was accepted throughout the Church, because the early Christians recognized that the apostles had a special charism from the Holy Spirit to decide such matters in the name of Jesus Christ.

The "apostolic letter" which made their decision known read as follows: "The apostles and elders, your brothers, to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia of Gentile origin: greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate from us have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind . . . "

Notice, the people who were teaching that Gentile converts had to be circumcised were doing so "without any mandate from [the apostles]." That was their problem. They didn’t have a "mandatum" to teach officially in the name of the Church, and so they were causing all sorts of confusion among God’s people.

Sound familiar? It should!

Teachers needed a mandate from the apostles in the early Church, and theologians today will need a mandate from the successors of those apostles if they want to be officially recognized as teachers of Catholic theology.

And really all the Church is asking here is that these professors be honest! The Church is saying, "Please, please, please—BE what you say you are! Don’t deceive the faithful! You are not forced to be a Catholic theologian, but you do claim to be one! So be what you claim to be! Don’t deceive the Julies of our Catholic universities! Do not lead them astray! Our young people deserve better than that!"