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WASHINGTON (August 14, 2000) -- Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk, Chairman of the U.S. Bishops' committee to develop procedures for granting the mandatum to teach theology in Catholic colleges and universities as called for by Ex corde Ecclesiae (ECE), has named four committee consultants.
They are Jesuit Father James Conn, Professor of Canon Law, St. Mary' Seminary, Baltimore; Dominican Sister Maureen Fay, President, University of Detroit Mercy; Daniel Finn, Ph.D., Professor of Theology, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota; and Terrence Tilley, Ph.D., Chairman, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton.
The four were selected from nominees suggested by the Catholic Theological Society of America, College Theology Society, the Canon Law Society of America and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
The committee will work on procedures to assist Bishops in responding to requests from theologians for the mandatum in accord with Canon 812 and the Application in the United States of Ex corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church). The committee is charged with drawing up procedures for granting, refusing or withdrawing the mandatum as well as for appeals from theologians in accord with Canon Law in the event of refusal or withdrawal.
Archbishop Pilarczyk said he hopes to have the work ready for a vote by the U.S. Bishops by the November 2000 meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In addition to Archbishop Pilarczyk, Bishops on the committee include Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois, and Bishop Edward Braxton, Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis. Staff to the committee include Msgr. John Strynkowski a theologian and the Assistant Secretary for Catholic Higher Education and Campus Ministry of the U.S. Catholic Conference Department of Education, and Mercy Sister Sharon Euart, a canon lawyer and an Associate General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB).
Ex corde Ecclesiae is an apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education issued by Pope John Paul II on August 15, 1990. It deals with how the structure and life of Catholic colleges and universities should reflect their Catholic identity. An apostolic constitution is a document by which a pope enacts and promulgates law.
Last June, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the NCCB, announced that the Vatican had approved Ex corde Ecclesiae: The Application to the United States, a document of the U.S. bishops which takes the general principles and norms of ECE and applies them to the specific situation of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. ECE calls for Bishops' conferences to do this.