Tenn. School Wins Right to Ban Gays and Women Who’ve Had Sex: ‘This Is Who We Are’

[Chan790]

19. You kind of have to understand how the church views CUA...and BC and ND...

as compared to other Catholic colleges.

CUA is a pontifical university (meaning it is founded by a decree of the Pope and directly funded in part by the Church...as an aside, campus is technically an embassy of the Vatican), the only one in the US. While it may not have the most prestigious reputation outside of its politics programs, it is very much meant to be the crown jewel of the Catholic colleges in the US. We get all the best stuff the Church can buy us. It takes its policies and leadership directly from Rome as well...if the Pope declared he wanted the bathrooms painted orange on Christmas day and repainted the normal color by the open of business on the 27th, they'd be painted. This is the only college in America that the Vatican actually gives a damn how it's run. (...and they do. They fired one of my professors senior year mid-semester for being a heretic...by decree from Rome. The Pope literally signed his termination and refusal of tenure.)

Notre Dame, Boston College and a handful of others are one tier down...they're universities appointed by the US College of Catholic Bishops either directly or as existing universities founded by religious orders...they're meant to be elite. Ironically, this makes them more conservative as the USCCB is a raging nuthouse of RW fascists largely appointed and empowered by JP II. (Both Benedict XVI and Francis have been more liberal than JP II, Francis dramatically so.) The USCCB partially funds these schools and requires them to be in close communion with both themselves and Rome. they get more leeway in how they run themselves.

Everybody else (including Georgetown) is either founded by an order, in which case, their direction comes solely from the order and not Rome...or they're basically dog-chum as far as the Vatican is concerned. Rome has very little control over the policies of these schools or how they are run...outside of their Theology departments. They're required to abide by a document called Ex Corde Ecclesiae which dictates that they have to teach teachings in accordance with Catholic doctrine within their Theology programs...but other than that, they are on their own. They set their own policies and are fully-responsible for their own funding. If they want to request Title-IX exemptions and forebear themselves from receiving federal funds....that's their choice. Just don't come calling to Il Papa when the US Dept. of Education refuses to permit you federal education funds because you opted out of compliance with non-discrimination policies.