Abstract
At many Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States, there are few outward signs of the institution's Roman Catholic identity on campus. For example, Fordham University does not require its students to attend mass, and there are no crucifixes in the classrooms. Boston College and Georgetown University emphasize student diversity, academic excellence, and athletic success in their brochures to potential applicants. Like other private, non-Roman Catholic institutions of higher learning, these and other Roman Catholic institutions (constituting over 600,000 students) 1 receive little or no money from the Church and are chartered by local government bodies. In short, Roman Catholic institutions, particularly since the early 1960s, have been allowed to express their identity in a variety of ways, making it possible for these institutions to expand their student bodies, diversify their faculties, and qualify for federal and state government aid. However, over the last few years, the heads of many Roman Catholic universities and colleges have been at loggerheads over a request by a committee of American bishops to make Roman Catholic institutions more answerable to Church authority. The request stems from a broad initiative by the Pope to reassert the Church's primacy in Roman Catholic higher education around the globe. In a document entitled Ex Corde Ecclesiae ("From the Heart of the Church"), published in 1990, the Pope called upon Roman Catholic institutions of higher learning to "make known their Catholic identity" by integrating Catholic teaching and discipline in all university activities. 2 The ...