Musings on Maguire
Marquette, Mar 27, 2007 (CNA) - Marquette University should stop "hiding behind false ideas of tenure and academic freedom" and dismiss Dan Maguire, whose ideas are inconsistent with the Church's teachings on contraception, abortion and marriage, said Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International.
Maguire, a theology professor and ex-priest, recently distributed pamphlets, stating that the Catholic Church's teachings on these three issues are optional and that there is no clear Catholic position on them.
The U.S. bishops' doctrine committee issued a statement last week, rebuking Maguire for propagating his views, which run counter to Church teaching. Fr. Euteneuer applauded the bishops for issuing a formal and public statement on the matter.
"I am very heartened that the bishops of the committee finally addressed an erroneous model of moral theology that dissenting theologians have used for decades to mislead the faithful," Fr. Euteneuer said, referencing the model which claims certain central moral teachings of the Church are “optional” when they are not.
This idea wrongly states that the opinions of theologians are somehow equal with the Magisterium, the priest explained.
Last fall, Human Life International awarded Maguire, who is divorced and remarried, its “Millstone Award” for his advocacy of abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. The award’s title refers to the fate of those who mislead the innocent, as spoken by Jesus in Mt 18:6.
Funny though how in Catholic universities tenure has become the eight sacrament. You are a professor forever according to the order of academia. That the sacraments of Holy Orders and Marriage can be ditched if inconvenient but tenure is held sacrosanct as a permanent seal and that a ontological change has occurred in the person where the sacrament of tenure has been conferred.
It would be rather ironic if he was actually fired and ex-priest and divorced and remarried Maquire were to complain that they broke their promise towards him.
Though the chances of this happening are rather small. If I had a million dollars for every Jesuit institution in the States who implemented Ex Corde Ecclesiae I would still be broke.
Though the Maquire case does open up some interesting questions. I have read some grumbling that the USCCB should do more than just issue the statement they made about his writings. The problem of course is that the USCCB has no authority, as far as I know, when it comes to ecclesiastical discipline. That would belong primarily to Archbishop Dolan. The bishops authority over a nominal Catholic institution seems to be more theoretical then something that has much effect. If they aren't going to listen to the magisterium, they are not exactly going to listen to a bishop that is in union with the pope and the magisterium. The bishop could of course excommunicate him if he saw that that was the right course.
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Anyone who believes in the doctrine of "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic" is truly a heretic.
To his credit, the Apb. is most likely the "pusher" behind the USCC condemnation.
But he still doesn't know exactly what else to do...
If the bishop want to stop this nonsense, he hasn't got a lot of options. He can't order anyone at Marquette to fire this clown. He can't dictate teacher staffing at the University. One option he does have is to withdraw permission to hold masses at the University. What would that do to their recruitment efforts? A more drastic one is to require that the vowed religious and priests affiliated with Marquette leave his diocese forthwith, and come back when they have repented.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Dolan, your daughter can't meet with the president of the university, he's been banished from the diocese."
"Well, for giving moral and practical support to the dissemination of heresy."
Yeah, that'd sell.
Something struck me as I read these comments...go to below link to read what I always thought...the Jesuits are not under local Bishops but are under the Pope by a vow of obedience. Rome should be more active in these incidents....further abortion was infallibly settled in 1995 in section 62 / marriage was settled at Trent (24th session...CANON V.-If any one saith, that on account of heresy, or irksome cohabitation, or the affected absence of one of the parties, the bond of matrimony may be dissolved; let him be anathema.) / birth control is in the OM and not clearly in the UOM (see canon 749-3) and falls under Lumen Gentium 25 and is not optional but can be sincerely dissented from by prayer, study, counsel and committment to silence about one's choice:
http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/jesuit.htm
That should read that abortion was settled in sect.62 of Evangelium Vitae and settled infallibly in the OM by the Pope having polled the world's Bishops and then using an abbreviated form of the IC's infallibility language therein.