Catholic universities in the United States and ecclesiastical authority

Ever since Bishop John Carroll founded in 1789 what would one day become Georgetown University, Catholic universities and colleges, numbering today as many as 235 institutions, have had, through their training of generations of Catholic leaders and their contributions to secular and sacred sciences, a profound influence on the life of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Throughout their 200-year history, U.S. Catholic universities have related to ecclesiastical authority in varying degrees of proximity. The many that from early days were directed by religious institutes were subject to Church authority through religious superiors. Soon after Vatican Council II, however, the institutions developed increasingly greater autonomy from religious superiors, submitted themselves to the governance of predominantly lay boards of trustees, and assumed a posture of relative distance from bishops.

The thesis studies the Church's teaching on Catholic universities as reflected in classical canonical law and doctrine (Chapter I) and in various more recent statements including relevant documents of Vatican II (Chapter II), elements of the 1983 Code of Canon Law (Chapter V), and the teaching of Pope John Paul II (Conclusions). It also examines how, through events in the history of the U.S. institutions (Chapter III), in some key 1970s documents relating to Catholic universities (Chapter IV), and in the consultation on the revision of the Code of Canon Law (Chapter V), a distinctly U.S. view of a Catholic university and its relationship to ecclesiastical authority emerged. The General Conclusions measure this view by the yardstick of the Church's doctrine and suggest some options for the future.