Word: rev
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Since the 1987 Vatican-inspired ouster of the Rev. Charles Curran from the theology faculty at Washington's Catholic University of America, educators have nervously waited for the first papal decree setting overall policy in higher education. Would John Paul II, who is determined to restrict dissident theologians, lay the ground for further purges? When the decree was finally issued last week, most academicians greeted it with relief. It seemed to be an endorsement of free intellectual investigation and the autonomy of academic institutions. But while the Pope had decided against a strategy of direct confrontation, there were passages...
Many educators who had lobbied strenuously with Rome to protect the status quo declared themselves satisfied with the result. Says the Rev. William Byron, president of Catholic University: "Nothing is being rammed down our throats." Because of antidiscrimination laws, the mandate for a majority of Catholic faculty will be "unenforceable," predicts Father Thomas Reese, a member of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Vatican officials too say they aim at "flexibility," not demands imposed from on high...
...some Catholic thinkers are less sanguine. The Rev. Richard McBrien, theology chairman at the University of Notre Dame, warns that the document's insistence on adherence to church teachings fails to recognize that "not all teachings are equally authoritative -- and some are wrong." And while major institutions like Notre Dame might be immune to the pressure of a conservative local bishop, McBrien says that "a right-wing bishop could move in on a smaller institution, and the board would cave in." The key question is whether the decree's ambiguous language will inspire any bishops to do just that...
...pedophiliac priests through "chemical castration." In addition, clergymen receive spiritual counseling to help them examine their commitment to their faith. Statistics are sketchy, but 98% of the priests who go through Paraclete's program return to active ministry. And of 200 priests treated at St. Luke, says the Rev. Curtis Bryant, a psychologist who directs inpatient services, "none has relapsed as far as we know." Priests who resume their religious duties are usually placed in new parishes (which are aware of their history), are closely supervised and participate in ongoing support groups...
Meanwhile, former presidential candidate and frequent Harvard visitor the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson was in Cambridge last month, making a token effort at relieving tensions in the Persian Gulf crisis. He met with Prince Turki Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, at the Prince's posh suite at the Charles Hotel. Details of the meeting were sketchy but it does not appear that the conference has helped solve the international crisis...