BOSTON COLLEGE Exploring Catholic issues

At B.C., a two-year initiative seeks to engage Catholics in sorting through the sex-abuse scandal.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Amid a clergy sexual-abuse scandal, educators at Boston are taking the lead in seeking healing for the American church.
Boston College -- the region's premier Catholic educational institution -- has launched a two-year initiative to engage the entire Catholic community in the complex issues that will shape the church's future.
Catholic colleges and universities across the country have responded in various ways to the scandal, but none has taken as seriously the responsibility to help the broader community sort through the challenges. By drawing on religious and intellectual resources in an open setting, the program aims to transform a sense of betrayal into hope and an opportunity for renewal.
"The current situation calls for healing, and healing requires not only work of the heart but also work of the mind," says the Rev. William P. Leahy, Boston College's president.
Three main issues
The program of lectures, panels, and workshops -- called "Church in the 21st Century" -- will explore three main issues: the roles and relationships of lay men and women, priests, and bishops; issues of sexuality among Catholics in American culture; and challenges of living the faith into the next generation.
At the recent opening event, Father Leahy acknowledged the initiative may generate controversy and disagreement.
"Faithful Catholics hold different opinions about many important matters," he told the crowd of about 4,000. "When that happens, we need to remind ourselves that ... a university is committed to open discussion and the objective consideration of the wide variety of opinions ..."
Leahy decided on the initiative when it became clear that Catholics of all ages -- including traditional donors for the archdiocese -- had lost faith in the hierarchy, says college spokesman Jack Dunn.
Blunt assessment
Indeed, at the opening event -- carried by satellite across the United States -- prominent businessman and philanthropist Jack Connors Jr., a former close adviser to Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law, offered the bluntest assessment:
"Those church leaders who have made a series of bad judgments may continue to hold onto their titles, but they will be leaders in title only," he said. He recommended that Catholics redirect their financial support.
Leahy has emphasized that the aim of the initiative is not dissent but to bring the still-anguished Catholic community together in the search for solutions and to rebuild trust.
Leading Catholic theologians and authors are being invited to speak, scholarly papers will be published, and small-group discussion fostered across the city. No decision has yet been made on whether the college will issue specific recommendations during the two years.
Admiration for plan
BC's initiative is being applauded on campuses across the U.S.
"It's a very good idea. Hopefully, they are in a position to speak boldly or offer a vision that involves thinking outside the box," says Chester Gillis, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University in Washington. "That's what universities should do, and bishops should welcome the initiative."
Georgetown is also a Jesuit-run school, but only 57 percent of students are Catholic, and the crisis is being addressed largely by professors in class.
"This kind of study is admirable -- frankly, I was jealous when they announced it!" says Terrence Tilley, theology chairman at the University of Dayton, in Ohio. "The center of creative theology in the Roman Catholic Church is now in the universities more than in the seminaries."
He sees plenty of room for discussing controversial issues without going beyond limits of church tradition.
"Of course, doctrine is not established by vote, but there's no reason governance can't be democratic," adds Tilley.
Other colleges have taken a low-key approach:
U Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles recently had an educational forum on the crisis, and it will likely be addressed in a series of events re-envisioning the school's Catholic mission and identity, says spokesman Ken Swisher.
U At the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., a consortium of nine seminaries (three of them Catholic), have held ecumenical discussions on sexual-abuse issues.
"The scandal is a wake-up call, making all of the schools focus more seriously on ensuring that 'formation' classes deal with critical issues of sexuality and boundaries" in relationships, says James Donahue, GTU president.
American Catholicism's most prominent university, Notre Dame, is taking a quiet approach. Last spring, a Mass and a campus talk were devoted to the crisis. A campus committee formed to consider the university's response sent U.S. bishops a private document of recommendations prior to their Dallas meeting in June. An upcoming one-day symposium will be held on "Restoring Trust."
But all see value in the BC program, despite some risks. "The biggest risk is that they do their job well and then are ignored or derided," Tilley says.
Yet he sees greater risks if the issues aren't faced squarely and publicly.
"If bishops continue to lose credibility, there is a very serious danger of long-term erosion," he said.
At the center of the crisis in Boston, taking the initiative seems imperative.
"Until the underlying issues that caused this are addressed, they will never go away, & quot; says Dunn. "People want the truth, and there seems to be no willingness on the part of Catholics to let go of this until there is some resolution."