Date of Award
Spring April 2013
Access Restriction
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Theology
School or College
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Jonathan Rothchild
Abstract
This thesis critically examines the cases of Vatican intervention with the Leadership Conference for Women Religious (LCWR) and Charles Curran to explore the question of whether legitimate dissent is possible as an act of conscience. The Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, as well as the exchange between Sr. Pat Farrell, then-president of the LCWR, and Bishop Blair, the one who conducted the investigation on the LCWR, on “Fresh Air,” a radio show on National Public Radio raise questions about how the Church is to understand truth, obedience, and conscience. This event also raises questions about why this controversy occurs at this point in history.
To critically examine the differing perspectives of dissent and conscience, I analyze the case of Charles Curran, a Catholic priest and former professor at Catholic University of America, to exlore how dissent might be understood to be an act of a holistic conscience – one that takes seriously the subjective/ affective elements of human experience as well as the objective pole of morality. By applying the insights of the Curran case analogously to the LCWR case, with the help of Robert K. Vischer’s articulation of the relational dimension of conscience, this thesis articulates how the Church might understand its role in being a venue for consciences to thrive while preserving its claim of authentic teaching authority.
Recommended Citation
Pangindian, Dennis Albert, "Fidelity, Conscience, and Dissent: Engaging the LCWR and Charles Curran on the Issue of Dissent in a Roman Catholic Context" (2013). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 39.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/39
