Bishops want feminist professor fired; theologian signed letter to pope calling for women's ordination

National Catholic Reporter, March 31, 1995 by William Bole

Church authorities are seeking the removal of a feminist theology professor who signed an open letter to Pope John Paul II calling for women's ordination to the priesthood, according to sources at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, where the theologian teaches.

Seminary officials would neither confirm nor deny that a committee of U.S. bishops has demanded the firing of Carmel McEnroy, a nun who has tenure.

But officials there and at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington confirmed that a team of bishops and seminary rectors spent three days at St. Meinrad and made an oral report on March 9 at the end of the visit.

"Everyone knows that Carmel is going to be fired. Ifs only a question of when," said a faculty member who asked not to be named.

Reached by telephone at her home, McEnroy said she was not yet ready to go public with her case.

"We just got a report from the inquisition team that was here," she said, referring to the oral report by Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss of Omaha, Neb., who led a delegation of two bishops and two seminary rectors. "At the moment I need to deal with my legal situation and consult with my lawyer."

Her students say that McEnroy, considered one of the more demanding professors at St. Meinrad, has canceled exams and other assignments for the semester. Glenn Johnson, a third-year seminarian, said the administration has informed students that it will have to terminate the contract of a professor who publicly dissented from church teaching.

The 138-year-old seminary was also instructed by the visiting panel to stop using liturgical texts not approved by the U.S. bishops, and to dismiss any seminarian who publicly acknowledges a homosexual orientation, according to interviews with a dozen students, faculty members and others connected to the school.

At issue, with regard to liturgical texts, is the use of gender-neutral language in prayers and worship, sources said.

Fr. Paul D. Theroux, director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Priestly Formation, said St. Meinrad is one of the first seminaries to be visited as part of a new program launched by the bishops. Teams of bishops and seminary rectors will evaluate seminary programs in light of a revised set of norms published by the bishops' conference in November 1993, he said.

Theroux said he has yet to receive a report from the team that visited St. Meinrad. "I really don't know what came of it," he said.

But he added that the so-called "visitation teams" can only issue recommendations. "They don't have the authority to go and say, `You have to do this or you can't do that.' That is a decision made by the rector of the seminary and the local bishop."

Seminary sources, however, say the visitors left them with no choice. If St. Meinrad does not go along with the recommendations, U.S. bishops will pull their seminarians out of the school and take other unspecified action, according to the sources. St. Meinrad, located in a town that bears its name, draws its students from 50 U.S. dioceses.

The local prelate, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis, past chairman and now adviser to the U.S. Committee on Priestly Formation, the panel that dispatched the team to St. Meinrad. Although not part of the team, Buechlein was on campus during the visit and is seen as influential in the move against St. Meinrad, according to students and faculty.

Ironically, Buechlein, as rector of St. Meinrad before being named bishop, hired McEnroy. He is also a member of the Benedictine community that runs the seminary. Buechlein and Curtiss did not return telephone calls asking for comment.

In the open letter addressed to Pope John Paul II and the bishops, McEnroy and hundreds of other signers criticized a papal statement last year calling for an end to public debate over the ordination of women.

"The denial of gender equality in our church is a serious, ongoing scandal for faithful, believing Catholics such as ourselves," said the signers, rallied by the Women's Ordination Conference. "But this attempt to stifle discussion alarms us even more because it violates our human rights and baptismal rights." The letter was published as an advertisement last fall in NCR.

Students and professors said Curtiss brought a copy of the ad with him and complained about McEnroy, before declaring in his oral report that one of St. Meinrad's professors no longer has a right to teach at the school. "He didn't mention her name (in the oral report), but it's obvious who he's talking about," said one faculty member.

Another faculty source said St. Meinrad's rector and president, Benedictine Fr. Eugene Hensell, has told gatherings of students and teachers that he will "act on the directives of the visitation committee. He feels he has no choice. If he refuses, he, too, will be fired, and things will get much worse around here. Eugene is an excellent rector."

Hensell, through his secretary, declined an interview request. Barbara Crawford, director of communications at the seminary, said the administration is awaiting a written report due from the bishops' committee in a few weeks. "We're not going to discuss anything until we see the formal report," she said.