Victory of C.U.

Five, days after their walkout protesting the dismissal of Theologian Charles Curran (TIME, April 28), the 7,200 students and faculty members of Washington's Catholic University returned to class last week-- following the total capitulation of their trustees. Before a crowd of strikers gathered outside the campus library, the university chancellor, Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle of Washington announced that the board-- composed of 33 U.S.Roman Catholic prelates and eleven laymen-- had decided to rehire Father Curran. More than that, the trustees agreed to promote him to the rank of associate professor.

Curran had been fired by the trustees, without a hearing, largely because of his unconventional teaching on doctrinal issues -- most notably, approval of birth control. O'Boyle explained to the cheering throng that the board's decision in no way "derogates from the teachings of the church, the popes and bishops trustees' on birth control." Cause of the trustees' sudden change of mind was what O'Boyle described as described as "additional information" -- meaning their belated and sudden embarrassed discovery that prior to the dismissal decision Curran had been unanimously recommended for promotion by both the C.U. theology faculty and its academic senate.

For most of the strikers, the basic issue involved in Curran's firing was not a question of the correctness of his views but of the faculty's right to decide on the competence of its membership. "I do not approve of Curran's ideas on birth control," admitted Sculpture Professor Alexander Giampietro, one of the strike supporters, "but I defend the man's right to say what he thinks."

Faced with the all but unanimous campus support for Father Curran, the bishops had no choice but to agree.

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