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Dr. Jeff Mirus, himself a former professor, writes over at Catholic Culture a column about Dan Maguire and the Bishops’ reprimand. The arguments over Maguire are getting old, but Dr. Mirus takes Marquette to task as an institution:

In this context, Maguire’s challenge to the bishops is understandable. First, it was frequently possible in the late twentieth century to intimidate bishops simply by claiming to represent a more “moderate and sensible” position. Thankfully, this is less true now and, in any case, the USCCB Doctrine Committee has done its job. Second, Maguire well knows that the chance of his suffering in any professional or personal way from his challenge is essentially nil. The cases of direct action against wayward theologians at any hierarchical level are few and far between, and Maguire knows he is fairly well-protected at Marquette.

Not long ago a reader criticized me for mentioning how low the Society of Jesus has fallen but Marquette is just one more unfortunate example of a self-proclaimed “Catholic, Jesuit University” (see Marquette’s web site). If you take the time to read the statement of Marquette’s President, Rev. Robert Wild, SJ, on what it means to be “Catholic and Jesuit” you will learn, quite literally, that it means essentially nothing. Wild’s chief claim to Catholicity is that Marquette is not afraid to allow religion into the discussion as many secular universities are. His only citation from John Paul II’s great charter for Catholic universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, is used to show the importance of academic freedom, without indicating at all how this is to be understood. Finally, his chief means of clarifying what Marquette means by academic freedom is to recount the fact that Thomas Aquinas was once in bad odor with certain bishops. When your school thinks, no matter what you say, that you may be another Thomas Aquinas, hubris is inevitable.

I love that last sentence (Of course, it again bears noting Brian’s research on the misappropriation of the Aquinas example).

• Remember when he was lampooned? - September 4th, 2008
• The Media has it both ways - September 3rd, 2008
• New MULS Law faculty blog - September 2nd, 2008
• Concluding Convention Thoughts - September 1st, 2008
• Another Nixon Observation - August 30th, 2008