As part of his first trip to America, the Pope will speak with 200 Catholic university and college presidents today. Since he arrived on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI met with President Bush and various Washington dignitaries, celebrated his 81st birthday and held mass at Nationals Park this morning. Prior to tonight’s discussion, at the Catholic University of America, several Georgetown papal experts speculated about what issues the Pope will address during his stay.
Interim Dean of the College Chester Gillis said that the Pope will probably remind the presidents of the Catholic Church’s doctrines and the need to institute those doctrines in the educational setting. He said that the Pope’s address would show support for American Catholic institutions, however.
“Catholic education is a terrific ally for the Pope,” Gillis said. “And to ignore it or to denigrate it would not be a good idea and I don’t think he’ll do that—he hasn’t done that in any other venue in any other country he’s gone to.”
An Apostolic Constitution that suggests educational reforms for Catholic institutions may become a topic of discussion, according to Fr. John Lanagan. The document, the Ex Corde Ecclesiae, was drafted by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
“One of the lines of that document says that half of the professors in a Catholic university should be Catholic,” Langan said. “We’re not in a position to say how many professors here are Catholic. We don’t keep statistics like that and we don’t hire them on that basis. “
The Pope’s trip will also focus in part on Catholic students. According to Gillis, one significant issue facing the papacy is the growing need for American youth to enter the Church as priests. The priesthood is aging, and remaining priests are forced to do more work in order to keep up with demand for the Catholic sacraments, such as Eucharist.
“Pope Benedict is trying to encourage the younger generation to be very faithful to the Church and to consider a religious vocation. To what end, I’m not sure—is this going to be a successful campaign?” Gillis said, adding that that there may not be as many active Catholics at Georgetown as there are at Catholic University.
In a panel on the significance of the Pope’s visit hosted by the Office of Mission and Ministry on Tuesday, Dr. Marilyn McMorrow said that Georgetown shares the same goals as other Catholic universities.
“While it is probably true that [other Catholic universities] focus more on Catholic identity [than Georgetown does], I personally think that all of these universities are in the same, or similar, place,” she said.
