Vatican approves new rules governing U.S. Catholic colleges

Controversial new rules asserting tighter control over who may teach theology at America's 235 Roman Catholic colleges and universities have won Vatican approval, the U.S. bishops announced Wednesday

The rules, passed by the bishops last November over the objections of college administrators, received only minor amendments in Rome and will go into effect on May 3, 2001.

One rule will require that a university theologian obtain a ''mandate'' from the local bishop in order to teach. This could give bishops, and ultimately the pope, leverage to stem open dissent against church policy.

Other regulations say that a college's president should be a Catholic who professes fidelity to the faith, and that ''to the extent possible'' a majority of trustees and faculty members should be Catholics as well.

Critics of the policy have warned that the rules endanger academic freedom, the schools' prestige and government funding.

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Houston and Galveston, Texas, president of the U.S. hierarchy, said he will appoint a committee representing bishops and academic organizations to work out how to put the rules into effect.

''We want to make sure that that process is very workable and is agreeable to both groups,'' he said.

The rules say that a bishop has the right not only to grant or deny a ''mandate'' to a theological but to withdraw it later.

The document says that a theologian should have a ''commitment and responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary'' to it.

The United States has the world's largest Catholic higher education network, enrolling 701,000 students.

On the Net: Text of the new policy: www.nccbuscc.org/bishops/excorde.htm