CNS STORY: Freedom only makes sense when it's tied to truth, says archbishop

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CNS Story:

COMMENCE-MILLER May-24-2005 (740 words) xxxn

Freedom only makes sense when it's tied to truth, says archbishop

By Cori Fugere Urban
Catholic News Service

COLCHESTER, Vt. (CNS) -- The secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education brought a message of truth and freedom to Vermont as the commencement speaker at St. Michael's College in Colchester.

In an interview before the May 19 graduation ceremonies, Archbishop J. Michael Miller told The Vermont Catholic Tribune, newspaper of the Diocese of Burlington, that truth matters, even in a world where it is often minimized.

He repeated the words of Jesus, "the truth will set you free," and said that "freedom only makes sense when it is tied to the truth, what is objectively hard-wired into human experience and into the world."

Freedom that is not linked to the truth is just power or license, he added.

Catholic institutions, Archbishop Miller said, must help students recognize the fundamental value that the Catholic intellect brings to the world: the discourse about truth.

A native of Canada, the 58-year-old archbishop was ordained a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil in 1975.

He told the Catholic Tribune that it is important to recognize evil in today's world and to acknowledge as objectively evil such things as endorsing the taking of innocent human life, starving to death those who are sick, condoning terrorism or accepting "gross inequities that exist in the world as if they were inevitable."

The Congregation for Catholic Education, for which Archbishop Miller has been the secretary since January 2004, has authority in the areas of seminaries and educational institutions.

An institution may only call itself Catholic if the local bishop accepts it as a Catholic institution. Although "a very, very small number" of institutions throughout the world have decided they no longer want to be considered Catholic, "the inflow is much greater than the outflow," Archbishop Miller said, meaning more institutions are seeking a Catholic designation.

And just as individuals are called to conversion, to be "more completely that which we say we are," so too are Catholic institutions, he said. Curriculum must reflect and promote Catholic values, and students must be assisted in living a solid, sacramental life and in understanding Catholic tradition. "Everybody is called to be more deeply that which they proclaim they are," he said.

Archbishop Miller said student life at a Catholic educational institution must include a "fervor for and devotion to the sacramental life of the church" as well as discussion that considers church teaching on moral questions. The voice of the church must be respected and heard, he said, and students must be given the opportunity to learn the convincing reasons behind what the church teaches.

Calling for respect for individuals with differing views, Archbishop Miller said respect "doesn't necessarily mean equal time." For example, he said, Catholics believe abortion is the taking of innocent human life, and in a Catholic institution opposing beliefs should not be promoted. "We cannot foster or promote views we believe to be contrary to human persons and their dignity."

A Catholic institution, he said, is expected to foster Catholic identity and Catholic understanding.

Asked if Catholic institutions could expect increased scrutiny from the Vatican now that there is a new pope, the archbishop said he did not think so because Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI shared a similar commitment to higher education and concern for the teaching of the faith.

Addressing a question about U.S. seminary training, Archbishop Miller said seminary formation "is probably in better shape" now than it was before "The Marshall Study," an examination of U.S. seminaries conducted by the late Bishop John A. Marshall of Burlington in the 1980s.

Academics are "more solid," seminarians' fidelity to church teaching has improved, and candidates for priesthood are more mature, he said. In addition to the influence of the Marshall seminary study, he said, other factors in such improvements include a synod on priestly formation, a papal apostolic exhortation on priestly formation, the American bishops' program of priestly formation and the general cultural climate.

"The quality and seriousness of applicants (for the priesthood) is very good," the archbishop said, although many areas of the country do not have enough applicants.

Archbishop Miller is a former president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston and has worked extensively as a interpreter and popularizer of the writings of Pope John Paul II. He received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree at the St. Michael's College commencement.

END

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