The Coup at Catholic University: The 1968 Revolution in by Peter M. Mitchell

1968 witnessed possibly the best revolution within the heritage of the Catholic Church within the usa. It was once led by way of Fr. Charles Curran, professor of Theology on the Catholic collage of the USA in Washington, with greater than 500 theologians who signed a "Statement of Dissent" that declared Catholics weren't sure in sense of right and wrong to stick with the Church's educating within the encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, that acknowledged man made birth control is morally improper since it is harmful of the nice of Christian marriage.

The conflict at Catholic college headquartered at the significant query in Catholic better schooling in the course of the turbulent years after the second one Vatican Council, "What is the that means of educational freedom at a Catholic university?" Curran and the dissenting theologians maintained they had to be loose to coach with out constraint via any outdoor authority, together with the bishops. The bishops maintained that the yankee culture of spiritual freedom assured the correct of religiously-affiliated faculties to require their professors to coach in accord with the authority in their church.

This publication makes use of never-before released fabric from the private papers of the main avid gamers at CUA to inform the interior tale of the dramatic occasions that spread out there. starting with the 1967 faculty-led strike in help of Curran, this booklet finds the content material of the interior discussions among the foremost bishops at the CUA Board of Trustees.

This paintings makes an attempt to disprove either the normal "liberal" and "conservative" interpretation of the occasions of 1968, suggesting that the tradition of dissent used to be an instantaneous fruit of the over the top legalism and authoritarianism which marked the Church within the years previous Vatican II. as the polarization in 1968 has persevered to outline the event of many American Catholics and has had an ongoing impact on Catholic schooling, this paintings will be super attention-grabbing to people who are looking to comprehend the earlier in order to circulate ahead with a better knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of Catholic schooling within the United States.