ABSTRACT
In 1995, Georgetown University attempted to "relate Georgetown's new promise as an academic institution to its heritage as a school founded and administrated by Jesuits" by issuing a document intended as a basis for discussion on the Jesuit and Catholic identity of Georgetown. Under the Centered Pluralism rubric at Georgetown, Catholic ideas and teachings were no longer allowed to interfere with the work of the faculty, and the Catholic intellectual tradition cannot be privileged any more than any other philosophical perspective—with the exception, of course, of the Catholic traditional commitment to social justice. In some ways the public-private ploy continues today on many Catholic campuses as they proclaim a Catholic identity for their Bishops, Catholic donors, and concerned Catholic alumni and parents of their students, yet publicly renounce most ties to a Catholic identity in their day to day activities.
