Editor’s Note: The Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., university president recently sent the documents needed to apply for a mandatum to faculty in religious studies and the institute for ministry. A mandatum confers the Catholic church’s authority to teach Catholicism.

The mandatum, or mandate for Catholic theology professors, is not something new. And it also applies to those Catholics who teach church history or ethics in any department or college.This obligation to have a mandatum is in fact nineteen years old and is contained in the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law, issued in 1983.In addition, those to whom it applies are also to make an Act of Fidelity to the bishop and a public Profession of Faith. That Profession of Faith contains more than the Creed. It also affirms, according to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, that it is infallible both that women cannot be ordained priests and that married couples should not practice artificial birth control. The same Code of Canon Law that calls for the mandatum also calls for that Act of Fidelity and Profession of Faith to be made by the president of the university; here that would be the Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J.Also, one should not mistake those who teach “Religious Studies,” a historical field, for theologians, those who teach doctrine or ethics from within the Catholic faith.Non-Catholics and Catholics can, should, and do teach accurately what the Catholic Church teaches, as well as what any tradition teaches, without being “theologians.”That is professionalism and is expected of all. A professor of world religions, even if a Catholic, would not need a mandatum.In that same Code, with the same force of law, and in its application, “Ex Corde,” is the requirement that all Catholic faculty are to have “integrity of life” and “purity of doctrine.” And, surprising to American ears and custom, if the professor ceases to have either, he or she is to be fired from the university, tenure not withstanding.For example, according to the Code of Canon Law, if a Catholic professor of business would teach contrary to the social teaching of the Church, e.g., would oppose the right to unionize or not teach the dangers in capitalism, he or she should be fired.Because of this obligation in Canon Law, one is left with the odd conclusion that in a Catholic university those who are not Catholic are really the only faculty who would have genuine tenure.Because of the oddity of all these provisions, contained both in Canon Law and in the documents, which Knoth recently sent to both non-Catholics and Catholics in Religious Studies and the Institute for Ministry, great care must be taken in evaluating them, and for those to whom they pertain, in signing them.The documents, in fact, really should have been sent to all faculty, since, as pointed out above, all Catholic faculty members should know that according to Canon Law they should be fired if they cease to have “integrity of life” and “purity of doctrine.” One wouldn’t really want to surprise them when they are fired, if they get divorced or if they teach against trade unions.In addition, the same Code and documents call for the majority of all faculty to be Catholic, and the same with the Board of Trustees.Loyola and other Catholic universities would be a very different type of higher education if all of these Canon Law provisions were put into effect. That may be why the American bishops voted a few years ago that none of these provisions should be obligatory in the United States. Catholic universities in the United States have become ecumenical, and not narrowly sectarian.When the bishops sent their decision to Rome, however, Rome politely wrote back that the bishops had gotten it wrong and that Rome wanted the provisions to be obligatory, whatever the consequences.That may be why the Catholic Theological Society of America sent out for guidance a reminder that, like in Civil Law, these new laws apply to the future and are not retroactive.According to both Civil and Canon Law, you can’t add a new provision to an office one already holds.This is also a provision of common sense and elemental justice. For example, a few of Loyola’s senior professors only have a master’s degree; it wouldn’t be fair to now require that they get a doctorate.So one is on firm legal footing to say that the documents Knoth sent out only begin to apply to those hired next year, and that, since he is already president, he needn’t make a Profession of Faith or an Act of Fidelity either, unless, that is, he wants to.It’s not being legalistic to apply legal principles to laws. That’s what legal principles are made for.One can be completely committed to teaching Catholic principles at Loyola, as most of the Loyola faculty are, without deciding to take a “loyalty oath.” For many of the faculty in the United States, these Canon Law principles have more than a whiff of McCarthyism, and whether intended or not, they can appear to be a slap in the face to those who have dedicated themselves to teaching Catholicism in a Catholic University.Gratitude to these faculty members, not additional obligations, would better be the order of the day.There is a new mandatum, a “novum mandatum” or new commandment, in the New Testament, namely, that we should “love one another.” It would seem then that, unlike in the Code, we should experience not new burdens, but, as Paul wrote, “the freedom with which Christ has set us free.”For information purposes, I am putting a copy of what Knoth sent to all Religious Studies faculty on reserve in the Main Library, under Mandatum, both because all should be able to know what is going on, and because the documents apply to many more than those in the Religious Studies Department and in the Loyola Institute for Ministry.