Saturday's nationwide deadline for Catholic teachers of theology to pledge to their bishops that they will teach only “authentic Catholic doctrine” will have little impact at the Tristate's church-related colleges.

        Both of the theology professors at Thomas More College were granted mandata — acknowledgment that they are teaching in accordance with church doctrine. Across the river, the Cincinnati Archdiocese issued mandata for all theology professors in Catholic schools within its boundaries. Their acceptance or rejection of the fidelity oath is a private matter between them and the archbishop, the church said Tuesday.

WHAT TEACHERS MUST AGREE TO

The “mandatum” required of all teachers of theology at Catholic universities reads as follows:     “I hereby declare my role and responsibility as a teacher of a theological discipline within the full communion of the church. As a teacher of a theological discipline, therefore, I am committed to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the church's magisterium.”

        Last year, on instructions from the Vatican, U.S. bishops ordered theologians teaching in church-related colleges and universities to obtain a mandatum from their local bishops.

        Some groups within the church support the mandatum, but others — including many of the theologians — have decried it as an attempt to stifle academic freedom.

        “The general feeling among the faculty here is that we are not very happy about it,” said Paul Knitter, one of 14 full-time theology professors at Xavier University.

        Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, said that last year Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk sent letters to all of the theologians at Xavier, the College of Mount St. Joseph, the University of Dayton and Chatfield College granting each of them a mandatum.

        The archbishop, Mr. Andriacco said, asked the teachers to let him know whether they accepted the mandatum or rejected it.

        “It is his contention that this is a private matter, and he will not say on his own initiative whether a professor accepted or rejected it,” Mr. Andriacco said.

        Mr. Knitter said members of Xavier's theology department agreed not to discuss who had and who had not accepted a mandatum.

        “I think the archbishop decided that, in his diocese, all the theologians were worthy of a mandatum,” Mr. Knitter said.

        There is only one Catholic institution of higher education in the Archdiocese of Northern Kentucky — Thomas More College — and it has only two theology professors.

        Both applied for and were granted a mandatum last year, said Tim Fitzgerald, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Northern Kentucky.

        Church officials insist that the mandatum order is not meant to prevent Catholic theologians from expressing their own beliefs or discussing other religions and value systems in classrooms.

        “It is by no means saying that ... other ideas can't be taught,” he said.

        “It merely says that when Catholic doctrine is taught, that it be taught accurately,” said Mr. Andriacco, who accepted a mandatum for his work as a part-time instructor at Mount St. Joseph.

        Mr. Andriacco said the archbishop will leave it up to the colleges and universities how the mandatum issue will be handled in filling future vacancies in theology departments.

        William Madges, chairman of the theology department at Xavier, emphasized that Xavier has now and will likely always have non-Catholics on its faculty who are not subject to the mandatum order.

        “There are certain jobs that only Catholics are likely to apply for,” Mr. Madges said. “If you are going to teach Catholic systemic theology, you're probably better off being a Catholic.”

        But, at Xavier, the mandatum issue will be considered “an issue between the individual and the archdiocese, not an issue between a faculty member and his department.”

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