Pope Benedict XVI: You're Free to Agree With Me

Freedom isn't really freedom in the Catholic Church. When they say that adherents are "free," I hope that Catholics pay a lot of attention to the fine print because it's the fine print that will kill you if you aren't careful. According to Pope Benedict XVI, academic freedom in Catholic institutions of higher learning only extends so far as Catholic doctrine does — once you pass that, freedom begins to disappear.

Given that it was once policy of the Catholic Church to say that there is no freedom for error, this is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, it's an important matter that needs to be repeated in order to emphasize just how distant even the modern Catholic Church is from the basic principles of free inquiry and freedom of conscience that have been in development since the Enlightenment. The Catholic Church is better than it once was — no one is being burned at the stake — but it has a long way to go, too.

While the meeting with victims was historic, and a surprise, it is the address the pope gave to Catholic educators that is most likely to receive scrutiny within the church. Benedict praised Catholic schools that have “helped generations of immigrants to rise from poverty to take their place in mainstream society.” And he encouraged Catholics to continue to contribute generously to Catholic schools “to ensure that they are accessible to people of all social and economic strata.”

Catholic universities and colleges have come under fire for inviting speakers who favor abortion rights, like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Stanley Tucci, the actor, who was dropped from an event at Catholic University. The University of Notre Dame was criticized for allowing a campus staging of “The Vagina Monologues,” an edgy feminist theater piece. The pope insisted on adherence to church doctrine, saying, “Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity, and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.”

For faculty members, he said: “I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission.”

Source: The New York Times [emphasis added]

So, you have academic freedom only insofar as you agree with what the pope and Vatican tell you — outside the boundaries of church doctrine, you are also outside the boundaries of academic freedom. Strictly speaking, what the pope says makes sense. You have to focus on the last words: using your freedom to come to conclusions that differ from doctrine means that you also end up contradicting the mission and identity of a Catholic educational institution.

This should tell people in no uncertain terms that the mission of Catholic educational institutions is not about academic freedom and that the identity of Catholic educational institutions is not served by academic freedom. The mission and identity of Catholic educational institutions is defined by Catholic theological doctrines, as determined by the pope and the Vatican. Anything gained with academic freedom is simply an incidental benefit, isn't it?

If you want the freedom to pursue science or intellectual inquiry wherever they might lead, even if they might contradict traditional assumptions, beliefs, and practices, Catholic institutions are apparently not the place to work. In the long run, doesn't this mean that Catholic institutions will only end up recycling discussions from the past rather than forging ahead with new discoveries and ideas? Breakthroughs are best achieved by people willing to take risks, not by people who are concerned about crossing an imaginary theological line.