On The Collaboration Between Bishops And Theologians

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On the Collaboration between Bishopsand Theologians

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

© 2002 Cardinal Newman Society
Published by Newman House Press. All rights reserved.
ISBN 0-9704022-3-6
Published in: Newman’s Idea of a University: The American Response
EDITED BY REV. PETER M. J. STRAVINSKAS
AND PATRICK J. REILLY
Newman House Press
PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE OF THE CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
NOVEMBER II, 2001
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE CARDINAL’S BIRTH
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D.C.
FOR INFORMATION:CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
207 PARK AVENUE
SUITE B-2
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 22046
info@cardinalnewmansociety.org
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org

The title assigned to my talk is an easy and peaceable one, but the subtitle I was given is a killer. It is the following question: Does the essential collaboration between bishops and theologians compromise the integrity of the university?

I shall proceed in three stages. First, I shall ask whether we have a real question here. Second, if we do, I shall present the affirmative answer (yes, the university’s integrity is compromised). Then, I shall consider some negative answers which I think are inadequate. Finally, I shall sketch what I think is the right negative answer (saying why the university’s integrity is not compromised).
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Episcopal Conferences: A Question Of Purpose

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Episcopal Conferences: A Question of Purpose

W. H. Marshner

Episcopal conferences grew up with little or no theory behind them. Invented here and there for local reasons, they were marked off from synods and councils by expensive traits: the bishops had to meet on an annual schedule, with by-laws and elected officers, and with the interim support of a permanent staff. Everything seemed affordable in the golden years of Pius XII and John XXIII, and so the creation of more conferences was strongly recommended at Vatican II (especially in the decree Christus Dominus). Before long about a hundred of them had come into existence throughout the world.

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Bicentennial Alert

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Bicentennial Alert

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
February 20, 1975

If you, the reader, are in basic agreement with The Wanderer’s understanding of Catholic social doctrine, and if you live within striking distance of one of these five cities: San Antonio, St. Paul, Atlanta, Sacramento, or Newark, then Holy Church needs you badly.

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At the Bishops’ Meeting Meeting… Bishops Elect Bernardin, Carberry

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AT THE BISHOPS’ MEETING… Bishops Elect Bernardin, Carberry

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
November 28, 1974

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), in balloting that lasted the whole of Tuesday morning, Nov. 19th, has elected Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of Cincinnati as president and John Joseph Cardinal Carberry, Archbishop of St. Louis, as vice president. Both terms are for three years.

The new officers replace the outgoing president, John Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia and the recently deceased vice president, Archbishop Leo C. Byrne of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

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Chile Firsthand – A Report From Santiago (Part VI)

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CHILE FIRST HAND – A REPORT FROM SANTIAGO

By W.H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
(Section Two)
August 8, 1974

PART VI: THE REAL POSITION OF CHILEAN BISHOPS

It isn’t only Salvador Allende and General Pinochet whose views and policies are misrepresented in this Country. That is bad enough, but it is only politics. When the Chilean bishops, however, successors to the Apostles, are subjected to the same treatment, then a far more profound mischief is done, to the hurt of God’s people throughout the world.

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Abortion: The Chickens Come Home

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Abortion: The Chickens Come Home

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
July 11, 1974

From the very beginning of the anti-abortion movement, long before there was a Supreme Court decision, two camps vied for leadership. One stressed the need for national action (include here The Wanderer Gang); the other preferred to work primarily at the State level (include here Msgr. James T. McHugh).

Then came Black Monday, Jan. 22nd, 1973. The two camps changed focus to some extent, but essentially the same leadership struggle went on. The same quarrel — over effective national action — remained central. It is still central.

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Cardinals Reject Section Two Of Buckley Ammendment

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Cardinals Reject Section Two Of Buckley Amendment

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
March 21, 1974

WASHINGTON – Four U.S. Cardinals, testifying before Sen. Birch Bayh’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, rejected the language of section two of Sen. James Buckley’s proposed Human Life Amendment, in open hearings on March 7th.

The section in question reads as follows: “This article shall not apply in an emergency when a reasonable medical certainty exists that continuation of the pregnancy will cause the death of the mother.”

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Citizens And Cardinals

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CITIZENS AND CARDINALS

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
February 21, 1974

In the parliamentary floor-fights that used to make life interesting in the Yale Political Union, we had technical terms for several sorts of maneuvers. One of these technical terms was “mickey mouse.” A maneuver was “mickey mouse” if it was both petty and transparent: something like trying to delay all business by staging a debate over the motion to accept the minutes, see? Or something like trying to keep a low Catholic profile in the Senate hearings on the Human Life Amendments by a.) sending in four Roman Catholic Cardinals but claiming b.) that they are there only in their capacity as “concerned citizens.” Once again, Annette, the Bishops’ incomparable advisors have earned a pair of mouse ears.

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Some Priorities For the National Catechetical Directory (Part III)

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Some Priorities For
The National Catechetical Directory

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
February 21, 1974

Part (III)

The shopping list of things that ought to go into, or be kept out of, the National Catechetical Directory is too long to be contemplated in our short lifetime here below. In happier days, we had religion teachers who could figure out what to do and what not to do, once they had absorbed a few rules. Docility to the tradition of the Church kept them on a sensible path. Today, however, the religion teachers have been convinced that they should “rethink” everything and, while they’re at it, come up with radically new ways of “presenting” what they have “rethought.” The result is a complete chaos in which the teachers cannot be relied upon to respect any tradition, to un- derstand any dogma. or to avoid any idiocy. Hence, you have to tell them everything, like chimpanzees who cannot natively understand that, having put on one shoe, it is wise to put on the other as well.

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Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right”

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Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right”

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
February 14, 1974

We Americans live in a country where new and unheard-of things are being discovered all the time. This is nowhere more true than in the field of human rights. Thomas Jefferson discovered more rights than most people can remember. In our own century, F. D. Roosevelt discovered the right to be “free from fear.” Then came the Supreme Court, which only a year ago discovered that women have a right, a Constitutional right, to procure abortions. Continue reading “Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right””

Some Priorities For the National Catechetical Directory (Part II)

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Some Priorities For The National Catechetical Directory

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
February 7, 1974

(PART II)

Every Catholic priest, parent, and teacher has a special stake in seeing to it that there is a “next generation” of Catholics, by which I mean to suggest that, today, such a generation cannot be taken for granted. Already the decline in Mass attendance (which, admittedly, is only one yardstick, but an informative one) is “catastrophic” by all accounts. Nowhere is it more catastrophic than among young people. You don’t have to be a prophet of doom to see that instead of a “next generation,” we could easily end up with a “remnant.”

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Some Priorities For The National Catechetical Directory (Part I)

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Some Priorities For The
National Catechetical Directory

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
January 31, 1974

(PART I)

The catechetical battle, which has involved more Catholic laypeople in bruising controversy since Vatican II than any other single issue, save the liturgy, is coming to a head. During the next three months, ordinary Catholics across America will have an opportunity such as never existed before to influence the content of a crucial document which will determine the nature of Catholic religious education in this Country for years to come.

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Region V

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Region V

Meeting Chairman: Philip M. Hannan, Archbishop of New Orleans, La.

Reporter: William H. Marshner

THE WANDERER (Section Two)
W. H. MARSHNER
May 24, 1973

NEW ORLEANS — The Bishops of Region V met with representatives of priests, religious, lay people, youth, women, and Blacks. Altogether, there were 61 participants in the two-day meeting held April 27th and 28th at the somnolent Jung Hotel in downtown New Orleans.

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“Basic Teachings” Dismissed At Educationist Workshop

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“Basic Teachings” Dismissed At Educationist Workshop

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate
St. Paul, Minn.
March 8, 1973

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The document called “Basic Teachings for Catholic Religious Education,” which is the American Bishops’ attempt to stabilize catechetical content and to insure the teaching of the whole Faith, is a dead letter, according to religious-education experts in Nashville on February 28th.

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Cardinal Cody Declares Wanderer Report “Misleading”

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Cardinal Cody Declares Wanderer Report “Misleading”

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

The WANDERER
128 East Tenth Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
January 19, 1973

A report published in the January 18th, 1973 issue of THE WANDERER headlined “Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution” asserted that a plan for the reorganization of the Chicago Archdiocesan school system would result, if implemented, in the “wholesale secularization” and “de-Catholicization” of Chicago’s Catholic schools. In a letter to THE WANDERER dated January 19th, 1973, the Archbishop of Chicago, John Cardinal Cody, charged that that report was “utterly irresponsible” and “misleading.”

Following is the complete text of Cardinal Cody’s letter with a response by William H. Marshner of THE WANDERER’S staff who authored the original report published on January 18th. The text of Cardinal Cody’s letter to THE WANDERER having appeared on the front page of THE NEW WORLD, official paper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, it is to be expected that Mr. Marshner’s, response, as well as the controverted article, will also be published in that paper to enable its readers to grasp the vital issues involved in this matter.

Editors, THE WANDERER

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Msgr. Bordelon Quits: Pressure Rumored

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Msgr. Bordelon Quits:
Pressure Rumored

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
December 2, 1972
(Special to the Wanderer)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Msgr. Marvin Bordelon has resigned from the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). He was director of the Division of World Justice and Peace (which was part of the larger department of Social Development and World Peace), and his resignation becomes effective December 31st.

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Importing Allende’s Line

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Importing Allende’s Line

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
December 21, 1972

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the end of last month the Latin American Bureau of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) set up shop as America’s foremost importers of Chilean- Marxist propaganda. But the Chilean supplier was not the foundering Allende government; it was a committee of eighty American missionaries of various denominations working in Chile.

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Business As Usual… Fr. Rausch Succeeds Bishop Bernardin

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Business As Usual. . .

Fr. Rausch Succeeds Bishop Bernardin At USCC

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
DECEMBER 14, 1972
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate

WASHINGTON – In a move that strongly indicates continuity rather than change of direction, Fr. James S. Rausch has been elected unanimously to succeed Archbishop Joseph Bernardin as General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the United States Catholic Conference (USCC).

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The Bishops’ Agenda… Who Makes It And What Is It Like?

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The Bishops’ Agenda …
Who Makes It
And What Is It Like?

THE WANDERER
November 23, 1972
(Special to The Wanderer)

WASHINGTON — For the benefit of readers who have never attended the annual meeting of the American Bishops, it may be useful to say a word about the fat mass of documents, which, taken together, represent the Bishops’ “agenda documentation.” This contains the texts of reports to be approved (each committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) makes a report, as does each office in the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) — though, of course, every one of them does not necessarily report at every meeting) and of statements to be issued by the conference.

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Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting

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Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

November 23, 1972
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)

ARLINGTON. Va. – The general meeting of the American Bishops, the second one they have held this year, convened at 9:30 a.m., November 13th, in the Marriott “Twin Bridges” Motor Inn, located in Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. The choice of site was dictated by the desire to escape the affluent image conveyed by meeting in luxurious downtown hotels, according to Mr. Russell Shaw, the chief information officer for the Bishops. At last Spring’s meeting, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton created some notice by staying in the local YMCA for the same motive. This year, Bishop Gumbleton is once again staying elsewhere, perhaps because the Marriott, though surely less grand than the Statler Hilton, is a poshy enough place in its own way.

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Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry: A Case For The Negative

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Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry?:
A Case For The Negative

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
November 9, 1972

At their annual meeting next week, the American Bishops will be asked to vote on a proposal to form a permanent committee and secretariat on priestly life and ministry, to take the place of the present Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Archbishop Hannan of New Orleans. Their Excellencies should approach this decision with extreme care. On paper, an affirmative vote by the Bishops will do nothing more than approve the general idea of having such a committee and staff. Continue reading “Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry: A Case For The Negative”

The Wright Intervention

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THE WRIGHT INTERVENTION

W.H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER (Section Two)
November 2, 1972

In September of 1971, a “joint assembly” of priests and Bishops met in Madrid to adopt guidelines on pastoral action. When they were finished, a week later, they had approved a gigantic document, divided into seven parts (ponencias — an untranslatable word which means both “theses” and “chapters”). Each part consisted of a long body of texts followed by 50 or so “propositions” or conclusions, each of which had been voted on separately. The finished document was held to be a milestone in Spanish Church history, and its approval by the full hierarchy of the national conference was thought to be a rubber stamp affair. Continue reading “The Wright Intervention”

A Threat To Every American Priest

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A Threat To Every American Priest

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
The Hannan Committee Report
November 2, 1972

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Priestly Life and Ministry, organized to implement the results of the half-million-dollar study of the priesthood, and presided over by Archbishop Philip Hannan of New Means, has completed its initial report, or rather, the initial part of its initial report, which has been sent to each of the Bishops.

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