Thursday, August 31, 2006
Catholic Universities and Outside Groups
I have followed with great interest the discussion among several MOJ contributors regarding the Georgetown University Ministry decision regarding the Protestant ministry office. I do not have answers to the questions posed by Rick and Susan about Georgetown. I did, however, find the justification offered for the decision not to rely on "outside groups" to be rather thin. My reason for stating this is based on an examination of several Jesuit tradition university campus ministry websites, including Georgetown's. With hyperlinks from these sites, one can discover varying degrees of connections with many outside groups when it comes to a variety of programs including "social justice" volunteer opportunities. These links would apply to students of all faiths at these universities. In this category, one will come across links to the ACLU and Amnesty International. Some of these two organizations' existing programs or new programs under consideration challenge Catholic teachings on important subjects. Yet, these outside organizations are institutions to whom Catholic students are referred directly and indirectly by the Catholic chaplaincy offices. I wonder if anyone at Georgetown or other Jesuit tradition schools has considered the effects that such organizations could have on their Catholic students? Or, Protestant students? As I said, earlier, I really don't have answers to Susan's and Rick's questions. Rather, I have some new issues that may intensify discussion on this topic. RJA sj
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2006/08/catholic_univer.html