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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Many oppose the mandatum as a threat to the academic freedom of Catholic scholars and the autonomy and credibility of Catholic universities. But the imposition of this juridical bond on working theologians is also in tension with Catholic Social Teaching on the rights and dignity of labor. Work is the labor necessary to earn our daily bread. But it is also the vocation by which we realize ourselves as persons and the profession through which we contribute to the common good. Thus, along with the right to a just wage and safe working conditions, Catholic Social Teaching defends workers' rights to a full partnership in the enterprise, and calls upon the church to be a model of participation and cooperation. The imposition of the mandatum fails to live up to this standard and threatens the jobs and vocations of theologians while undermining this profession's contribution to the church.
1 This notion of work as job, vocation and profession is found in The Second Vatican Council's Gaudium et Spes, in O'Brien, David J. and Shannon, Thomas A., eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997), 210.Google Scholar
2 National Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Application of Ex corde Ecclesiae for the United States (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000)Google Scholar; National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Guidelines Concerning the Academic Mandatum in Catholic Universities (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2001).Google Scholar
3 Catholic Theological Society of America, Theologians, Catholic Higher Education, and the Mandatum: A Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Mandatum (Catholic Theological Society of America, September 2000), 5–12.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., 20–21; Noonan, John T. Jr., “Development in Moral Doctrine,” Theological Studies 54 (1993): 662–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Paul, Pope John II, Laborem Exercens, in Catholic Social Thought, 355.Google Scholar
6 World Synod of Catholic Bishops, Justice in the World, in Catholic Social Thought, 295.Google Scholar
7 U.S. Catholic bishops, Economic Justice for All, in Catholic Social Thought, 659.Google Scholar
8 Leo, Pope XIII, Rerum Novarum, in Catholic Social Thought, 31.Google Scholar
9 Ibid., 29–32.
10 Pius, Pope XI, Quadragesimo Anno, in Catholic Social Thought, 54.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 57.
12 Ibid., 60.
13 The Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, in Catholic Social Thought, 212.Google Scholar
14 Ibid.
15 U.S. Catholic bishops, Economic Justice for All, in Catholic Social Thought, 602.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., 646–647.
17 Ibid., 660, 662.
18 Paul, Pope John II, Laborem Exercens, in Catholic Social Thought, 358.Google Scholar
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., 364.
21 Ibid., 373.
22 CTSA, Theologians, Catholic Higher Education, and the Mandatum, 29–30.Google Scholar
23 Application, 4–6.
24 Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph, “Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian,” Origins 20/8 (July 5, 1990): 123.Google Scholar
25 Editorial, “Due Process in the Church,” America (9 April 2001), p. 3.