Church in the World

America?s theologians urged to be less critical of the Vatican

The provocative public statements issued by the liberal Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) have cost the society crucial support from the Church's conservative thinkers, partly because the statements have often been misrepresented, according to the group's president.

Over recent decades the Catholic Theological Society of America has sparred publicly with the Vatican over seemingly every issue of Catholic controversy, including the ban on the ordination of women, the Church's understanding of homosexuality, the censuring of theologians of insufficient orthodoxy, and academic freedom at Catholic universities. It has angered many - Cardinal Bernard Law once described it as an "association of advocacy for theological dissent" and "a wasteland"- and found support from many others.

"The problem is that these statements become the public face of the CTSA for nearly everyone who doesn't attend our conventions," said Daniel Finn, the CTSA's outgoing president, at the society's annual meeting last week in Los Angeles. "Taken together, they present us as individuals who come together as a group primarily to defend ourselves against hierarchical authority." In turn, he argued, this has fostered a feeling of alienation among conservative theologians. "They felt no longer welcome, out of a sense that they're on the margins of a group that pokes fun at Vatican shortcomings and puts the CTSA name on statements they do not endorse," he said.

The CTSA, founded in 1946, is the main "trade association" for professional theologians, with membership open only to those with doctoral theology degrees working in the field.

"Has the CTSA alienated people? Yes, undeniably," Jon Nilson, a Loyola University professor and former president of the CTSA, told The Tablet. "But the perception that we're all a bunch of hotheads eager to stir up trouble just couldn't be further from the truth. I think any examination of the services to the Church our members perform makes that clear. Dan is dead right that the society needs to pay a lot more attention to the way it's perceived."

Finn, a professor at St John's University in Minnesota, made clear that he did not necessarily disagree with the content of the society's statements. But in the interest of reconciling divisive ideological splits within the Church, he argued, the CTSA should welcome diverse theological perspectives - even if that means that it needs to tone down its public criticism of the Vatican.

"Our Church is racked by divisions caused in part by ideological simplicities - on all sides - that a professional society like ours can challenge and improve," he said. "Our Church and our world need a broader dialogue within the Church than is occurring today. I judge that part of the price of achieving that dialogue is making fewer statements that defend theologians against ecclesiastical power."

Finn's speech received a standing ovation at the convention. John L. Allen Jr, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, called it "brave and potentially transformative".

(See Clifford Longley, page 5.)