Online orthodoxy police.

School's out for the summer, but the debate about Ex Corde Ecclesiae--the 1990 Vatican document on the Catholic identity of colleges and universities--is about to heat up again. This month, the U.S. bishops are scheduled to vote on the implementation of the mandatum, the certification Catholic theologians would be required to receive from their bishops, according to the norms related to Ex Corde. The Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) also will be discussing the mandatum and its implications at its annual meeting in Milwaukee in June.

Sure to be in the back of people's minds--if not on their official agendas--is the controversial, unofficial Web site mandata.org, which purported to give students and parents an "objective measurement" of a school's ability to teach authentic Catholic doctrine by identifying which faculty members have applied for and received a mandatum and which have not. The plan was to assign each school a Mandata Quotient (MQ), based on the percentage of theologians who have been certified.

However, by late April the site had been reworked in response to widespread negative reaction, says the site's creator, Father John J. Stryjewski of the Mobile, Alabama diocese. "People were upset that we dared to report the information. They don't want to be held accountable," says Stryjewski, who defends himself as "just a scorekeeper." He has now abandoned the Mandata Quotient and instead offers only lists of schools and theologians and their mandata status. Those lists can be accessed through Stryjewski's other site: www.alapadre.net.

A "Yea Roster" on the site features theologians from only six schools, primarily Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Catholic University of America in Washington, Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and Christendom College in Winchester, Virginia. The "Nay Roster" lists seven theologians who have publicly stated that they will not seek a mandatum.

It was the possibility of its use in this kind of"orthodoxy policing" that had many theologians concerned about the mandatum in the first place. "This is just the first of what will likely be a series of fairly scurrilous, self-appointed orthodoxy guardians," Father Kenneth Himes told the National Catholic Reporter. Himes is professor of moral theology at Washington Theological Union and president of CTSA. "My concern is that not only individuals but institutions and their reputations are going to be defamed by this Web site, which I think is very unfortunate," he said.