AGENDA OF RESEARCH FOR CHURCH AND CONTEMPORARY LIFE

As described above, questionnaires were sent to faculty members of the larger research oriented universities participating in the Inter-University Committee on Research and Policy Studies (ICR) and to the members of the societies in The Joint Committee of Catholic Learned Societies and Scholars (CLS). Along with requesting scholars to volunteer their work, the questionnaires also requested suggestions for research objectives. The following summary of the responses to that question along with suggestions received from the NCCB/USCC was drawn up by Prof. Charles Dechert. It is divided into three areas:

a. The Church: its structures, ministries and sacraments;

b. Christian Life and the Family; and

c. The Church in the Contemporary World.

1. To examine in greater theological, philosophical and sociological depth the nature and structure of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, as Sacrament, as organization, as social system, etc.

2. To define more closely and to justify:

a. the various activities undertaken by the Church (directly and indirectly) and the relative levels of effort assigned to them; and

b. more specifically, the properly sacramental and religious mi nistries of priests, deacons and other institutional roles in the Church and their relations one to another.

3. In terms of A 2 b above

a. to define more accurately the knowledge, personal attributes and skills needed in the various religious ministries; and

b. to apply this to structuring the curriculum and the personal formation of the clergy, in and out of the seminary.

4. To study in greater detail:

a. the rewards and dissatisfactions attendant on religious ministries and their relations to personality structures, with particular regard to the reasons for leaving priestly ministry;

b. the careers of laicized priests with special consideration to the possible religious functions they may serve; and

c. the functions, satisfactions and frustrations of permanent deacons, and the effect of their ministry on their marriages and vice versa.

5. To examine the state of scholarly debate on the following issues, with an objective statement of divergent and alternative

positions:

a. foundational theology (apologetics);

b. the sacrament of Co nfirmation;

c. the indissolubility of marriage;

d. the theology of the single life;

e. the role of women in the Church, including the question of ordained ministry; and

f. intercommunion.

CHRISTIAN LIFE AND THE F AMILY

1. To study the condition of modern family life, specifically regarding:

a. what personal and social factors tend to preserve or to destroy the family unit;

b. the relation between the family unit and the development of the moral standards and comportment of its members;

c. the problem of the divorced Catholic in its personal, moral and religious dimensions.

2. To study:

a. the practice and incidence of abortion in relation to diverse legal policies; and

b. the interaction and the long range physical, psychological, social and religious effects of abortion/abortion procedures on women and on their future children.

3. To investigate the cognitive and emotional growth of the child as related to:

a. moral and religious development;

b. the relation of family values to outside values training;

c. the impact of the media on the family;

d. the effect of violence and secularist values in TV programming and advertising;

e. the possible and probable effects on the family of video discs and other developing communications technologies.

4. To explore:

a. activities directed at the evangelization of youth by the major faiths;

b. the role of schools in promoting vocations;

c. practical programs of youth ministry; and

d. the preparation of adults for reception into the Church.

5. To study:

a. why the private religious school option was chosen;

b. the religious attitudes, values, habits of Catholic students in Catholic and public high schools and colleges;

c. the impact of religious schools, with specific attention to disadvantaged, poor or linguistically/culturally different children; and

d. trends in religious education regarding attendance, effectiveness.

6. To examine:

a. the content and quality of released time denominational education of students in public schools;

b. its impact on students and on school administrators;

c. the role of the public school in teaching values, theoretically and practically, especially values relating to money, family, education, sexuality, marriage, employment, drugs and alcohol; and

d. the teaching about religion in public schools, its content, quality and impact.

1. To explore:

a. the characteristics of an adequate moral or ethical methodology and the Roman Catholic contribution thereto;

b. the relation of morality and law in a pluralistic society;

c. the extent to which a religion, in terms of its values and commitment, can/should influence business, government, education; and

d. the obligations which arise from the Vatican II declaration on religious liberty.

2. To examine the role of the mass media in shaping the knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, values and beliefs of the Catholic community, in particular:

a. the way its impact differs in function of age, sex, education, culture and lay, religious or clerical status;

b. the gaps in knowledge in the communications literature relating to the Catholic community; and

c. ways in which the media may be accessed and employed in the interests of religion (including evangelization), of the Catholic community, and of Christian culture and moral values.

3. To study:

a. the implicit or explicit images of the person characteristic of modern society and their moral and social consequences;

b. ways of shaping institutions to human nature and human scale; and

c. questions regarding quality of life and the "correct" relation of man to nature.

4. Because Christian witness to the world requires accurate understanding of the present situation and its comparison to the Christian ideal, to explore:

a. this ideal in terms of a range of more or less desirable/acceptable social institutions and arrangements;

b. the direction(s) which should be pursued on the basis of a Christian or Catholic consensus; and

c. the range of realistic options given the actual historical situation.

5. To determine:

a. on which public issues the American Church should express policy recommendations to the Congressional and Executive branches of the U.S. government;

b. to what extent these should express a consensus in the American Catholic community--and what level of consensus;

c. the extent to which a consensus should be expressed officially (NCCB/USCC), and/or unofficially through organs of American Catholic opinion; and

d. whether a Catholic position should be sought and expressed on:

(1) national health insurance

(2) heal th care (costs, ed ucation, services)

(3) hous ing and community development

(4) human rights (race, ethnicity, sex, age)

(5) full employment, income maintenance

(6) economic recovery

(7) domestic food production and distribution

(8) reform of prisons and correctional institutions

(9) land use

(10) energy policy

(11) han dgun control

(12) rural life (preservation and protection of family farms) (Many of these issues revolve around questions of distributive justice and the use of public as opposed to non-public approaches to the allocation of scarce resources.)

6. To explore the spectrum of views and the degree to which it is prudent and desirable to express official Catholic views on such issues as:

a. the preservation of the defective, the expiring and the severely traumatized;

b. the limits of personal and group freedom;

c. a social pluralism permitting life styles contrary to the Christian conscience, especially when these are expressed publicly and/or may prove inviting to the immature;

d. the nature of a "normal" personality, a "healthy" group;

e. motivation and behavior as a function of culture; and

f. character development and socialization processes in an essentially secular culture.

7. To study issues relating to the interrelations between the "free exercise" and the establishment" clauses in the first amendment to the U.S. Con stitution.

8. To research policies and practices which might provide guidance in Church relations with government, other churches, et al., and the degree to which these may or should be developed, directed and implemented in a centralized fashion.