THE PAPAL VISIT : Church Educators Warned by Pontiff : Can’t Depart From Official Vatican Teachings, He Says in New Orleans

Pope John Paul II, in a strongly worded speech Saturday night, told leaders of Catholic higher education that bishops should have a greater part in the academic affairs of Catholic colleges and universities and warned that Catholic theologians are not free to depart from official Vatican teachings.

“There is an intimate relationship between the Catholic university and the teaching office of the church,” the Pope told 3,500 Catholic educators and guests during a meeting at Xavier University, the only black Roman Catholic college in the nation.

“The bishops . . . should be seen not as external agents but as participants in . . . the encounter between faith and science and between revealed truth and culture.”

On a steamy and sometimes stormy day in this riverfront home to jazz and Mardi Gras, John Paul also:

--Deplored the “disproportionate share of economic deprivation” suffered by American blacks in a meeting with black Catholic leaders and declared that the “church can never remain silent in the face of injustice”;

--Warned young people at a Superdome rally against drug use and premarital sex;

--Reinforced at a large outdoor Mass the church’s prohibition against divorce;

--Used messages to teachers, priests and nuns to hammer home calls for responsible freedom, truth and traditional family values.

As a light rain fell on the Xavier University grounds, the pontiff, shielded by a white umbrella, asserted that there is room in reli gious faith for intellectual inquiry and that Catholics believe “there can be no contradiction between faith and reason.”

But his remarks about the church hierarchy--not theologians--being the ultimate guardians of what may be taught at the nation’s 235 Catholic universities and colleges raised the specter of the controversy surrounding Catholic University theologian Charles Curran. The priest’s license to teach Catholic theology was revoked by the Vatican earlier this year because he deviated from official church doctrine on sexual ethics.

‘Message of Christ’

“The bishops, united with the Pope, have the mission of authentically teaching the message of Christ,” the pontiff said. “As pastors, they are called to sustain the unity in faith and Christian living of the entire people of God.”

Many U.S. Catholic theologians and educators have feared that proposed worldwide guidelines for Catholic universities--pending at the Vatican--could stifle inquiry and jeopardize academic freedom at Catholic schools.

The issue centers largely on whether academic freedom applies in the same way at a Catholic university as it does at a secular university. The proposed decree--which John Paul did not mention in his speech here--would give the bishops added power to monitor the orthodoxy of theologians at all Catholic colleges and universities.

Although American bishops have general authority over academic institutions within their dioceses, most Catholic colleges exercise independence over their curriculum.

An association of U.S. colleges and universities as well as the presidents of all the U.S. Catholic universities have expressed strong dissent to the draft proposal, saying it would threaten the loss of federal funds to Catholic universities as well as inhibit academic inquiry by imposing outside control.

Prepared by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, the document says the Catholic university “exists within the church and is part of it” and cites several sections of church law that say, “No university, even if it is in fact Catholic, may bear the title ‘Catholic University’ except by the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority.”

Presumably, that authority, according to the proposed guidelines, would be the bishops, who would be able to certify a college as Catholic and hire and fire theology professors.

‘Tested and Validated’

The Pope, declaring that ultimate truth is something that is revealed to the official teachers of the church--the bishops and himself as pontiff--said the work of Catholic theologians must “ultimately be tested and validated” by the hierarchy.

In his speech, John Paul also criticized pluralism in the academic setting that fosters the view that “ultimate questions about human life and destiny have no final answers or that all beliefs are of equal value.”

Truth “is not served in this way,” the pontiff said, adding: “Pluralism does not exist for its own sake; it is directed to the fullness of truth.”

The Pope’s 30-minute speech was met with infrequent and restrained applause.

“I think it was in the manner of academics to be restrained,” said Father Michael Scanlon, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. “They wanted to make sure they had time to think about it before they responded too quickly.”

Scanlon said he did not think the Pope meant that theologians could not do research, but “ultimately it’s a matter of whether you submit your teaching to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church if you call yourself a Catholic.”

Sister Anna Margaret Gilbride, vice president for student affairs at Ursuline College in Cleveland, said: “Academic freedom is what people get hung up on. They always fear if somebody says you have to refer to your bishop, it infringes on their academic freedom.

“But the bishop is responsible for the teaching of Christ where he (the bishop) is.”

Rain Pelts Mass-Goers

Earlier in the afternoon, thunder crackled, lightning flashed and rain pelted the crowd that gathered at an outside lake front site next to the University of New Orleans for the papal Mass.

As the heavens opened with a heavy downpour during an opening processional, some Mass-goers took refuge for a time in the portable toilets stationed on the stadium perimeter. The rain let up but continued intermittently during the service.

Church officials estimated the size of the crowd at 200,000, but police put the number at closer to 130,000.

Speaking in his homily at the Mass about the need for “merciful love and forgiveness” between married couples, the pontiff underlined a theme he repeats during his frequent trips throughout the world: Divorce is not an option for Catholics.

At a rally of about 50,000 high school and college youths in the cavernous New Orleans Superdome, the Pope warned about “deceptions” that could lure young people away from the “truth of God.”

“The world will try to deceive you about many things that matter,” he cautioned, “about your faith, about pleasure and material things, about the dangers of drugs.”

Papal youth rallies are often spirited occasions that inspire John Paul II to tap his feet and swing and sway to lively music as Catholic youngsters respectfully but brashly act their age. But when compared to their adolescent brothers and sisters in other countries the Pope has visited, the youngsters who greeted him at the Superdome were almost as sedate as a cathedral crowd.

The disappointing numbers may have had something to do with it. Organizers predicted a capacity crowd of 88,000 in the huge indoor stadium but only a little more than half that many showed up.

sh Running Behind Schedule

The pontiff’s mood also seemed a bit more somber than the supercharged joviality he often shows among young people, sometimes swapping jokingly off-the-cuff remarks with them for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. He may have reflected that seeming lack of his usual spirited enthusiasm when, apparently realizing he was running more than half an hour behind schedule, he discarded the four concluding pages of his prepared speech and ad-libbed a few remarks of “my sincere gratitude” before rather quickly departing the huge meeting hall.

But for all that they appeared to lack in zest, the young people compensated with sincerity and close attention to the pontiff’s address, which they interrupted 21 times with applause and cheers, including more than a few somewhat restrained rebel yells.

Among gifts from the young people, the pontiff received a sequined Mardi Gras mask crowned with feathers in traditional purple, green and gold colors.

There were two festive highlights during the 90-minute rally, both of which seemed to absorb the pontiff. The larger and more spectacular of the two was a “Mini Mardi Gras” parade of three flower-bedecked, tractor-drawn theme floats and three high school marching bands in imitation of New Orleans’ world-famous pre-Lenten festival.

While John Paul appeared interested in the bands and even slightly amused by costumed clowns accompanying the first of the floats, he seemed far more deeply touched by the second display, a graceful dance by a group of aodai -clad young Vietnamese-American girls from New Orleans’ Mary Queen of Vietnam parish where many Southeast Asian refugees have settled.

Beginning his Saturday appearances shortly after 8 a.m. with a brief devotional message to about 3,000 priests, nuns and religious brothers in historic St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square, the Pope then rode in a bulletproof glass-topped Popemobile with New Orleans Archbishop Philip M. Hannan along famed Canal Street to the Superdome.

Smaller Crowds Than Expected

The crowds lining the thoroughfare were “lighter than expected”--smaller than a Mardi Gras parade here--according to a police official.

In an unplanned stop in the motorcade outside the Notre Dame Seminary, the Pope addressed a crowd of about 30 Poles, some of whom held aloft a 10-foot-long banner emblazoned with the name of Solidarity, the banned Polish trade union that was crushed under martial law in 1981.

“Under the sign of Solidarity, you represent everything that the Polish people are and what they desire to be,” John Paul said from inside his Popemobile, according to an unofficial translation.

Times staff writers Louis Sahagun and Don A. Schanche also contributed to this story.