Catholic University Cancels Curran’s 3 Courses

WASHINGTON —  The three courses that suspended theology professor Father Charles Curran normally teaches were canceled Wednesday for the spring semester at Catholic University of America.

Supporters said Curran would show up today at the time scheduled for the first of the courses--but for a news conference to talk about his situation rather than to teach “Social and Political Ethics.”

The school and Curran said Monday that he had been suspended by the university’s chancellor, Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, in the latest action growing out of the Vatican’s objections to Curran’s views on several sexual-ethics issues.

Curran, a Roman Catholic priest, said at the time that Hickey lacked authority to totally suspend him and declared he would teach his courses when the school’s spring term began today.

Executive Order

In a brief statement Wednesday, however, the chairman of the university’s Theology Department, Father David Power, said the three courses had been canceled “by executive order of the academic authorities.”

“This order has been given without prejudice to further discussions regarding Father Curran’s status” or to the outcome of hearings on the situation by a faculty investigative committee, the statement said.

Power had said earlier that if Curran weren’t allowed to teach, the courses would have to be canceled because there was no one else qualified and available to teach them.

Vatican authorities, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, told Curran last August that he was unfit to teach as a Catholic theologian, and Hickey set in motion the formal procedures for revoking Curran’s “canonical mission”--in effect, his Catholic theologian’s license.

The matter didn’t affect any classes immediately because Curran was on sabbatical until Jan. 1.