Point Blank
laquino@theguidon.com
The whole controversy that trailed the 192 Ateneo faculty members’ public expression of support for the RH bill in a statement released a few weeks ago points to a prevalent misunderstanding of the nature of a university among our bishops. The way some members of the CBCP have spoken about dissenters shows how they seem to believe that conscientious, compassionate and critical thinking cannot possibly come from the pro-RH side.
I do not know if the local Church hierarchy has a preference for a particular teaching style, but if what the bishops have in mind is a kind of totalitarian indoctrination, then they have to entirely reconsider their involvement in higher education. Their vision of learning is opposite what precisely makes the university such a good place: the communal search for truth, done freely and courageously. An institution where the freedom that makes this possible is not respected cannot arrogate unto itself the title of university.
In the Ateneo, I have met and have been shaped by who are, in every sense of the word, outliers—those who transgress the most established norms, challenge the most deeply entrenched social structures, or go the most dangerous distances in the act of thinking. There is an understanding that, for the search for truth to prosper, no topic should be considered taboo. Perhaps the CBCP would be scandalized to find out that the Ateneo has been an understanding home to Marxists, feminists, atheists, agnostics, queer thinkers, liberation theologians and so many other men and women with ideas diverging from dominant thinking. After all, condom use is hardly the most contentious topic to have been discussed in the Ateneo.
Nevertheless, these difficult conversations are never stopped because, in fact, when it comes to the school’s aim of fostering an environment where faith can grow, the Ateneo understands that a Catholic would also find much growth in discussing and reflecting on issues as diverse as class, gender, the relation of faith to poverty and even the very existence of God. The bishops don’t seem to see this and are acting as if the search for truth is an enemy of faith.
In a past interview with The GUIDON, University President Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ talked about his desire for the Ateneo to “help society do some higher-order thinking.” Such higher-order thinking necessarily takes place at the frontiers of knowledge, as thinking becomes fruitless when the mind is held back by fear or blissful ignorance. In the case of the 192 faculty members, they were brave enough to cross the frontier even when that frontier was the official line of the CBCP.
If only the bishops were humble enough to recognize the effort and thinking our professors put into their pro-RH bill statement, they would have been able to ask with sincerity: how could the search for truth of 192 professors lead to an expression of support for the RH bill, entirely different from the CBCP’s own position?
With such reflexive questioning, the bishops would perhaps eventually realize that their call is not to stay atop the pulpit, facing the altar with their backs to the people, but at the same place where the 192 faculty members are: in the company of the suffering masses asking to be heard.
