By Rita McInerney

Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan is one of eight bishops who will be advising the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars on the organization’s contributions to the 1987 International Synod of Bishops on the laity.

New York Cardinal John O’Connor will head the bishops’ committee, according to Msgr. George A. Kelly, S.J., fellowship president and professor at St. John’s University in New York. In announcing the committee, Msgr. Kelly said that “Prior to submitting any papers to Rome or to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the work of the fellowship’s study commission will be reviewed by one or the other members of our bishops’ advisory committee. We do not wish the Roman synod to be bogged down with material which is either inferior or inappropriate.”

“We were invited to contribute to the synod on the laity. All kinds of organizations have been asked to contribute. We decided we ought to have the bishops look over the material,” he said.

Archbishop Donnellan said of the appointment: “Msgr. George A. Kelly, whom I have known since our days at Saint Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, N.Y., wrote to ask if I would serve on a committee of bishops to review the papers that his Fellowship of Catholic Scholars would be submitting for the 1987 Synod of Bishops on the Laity. He listed the other bishops who would serve on the committee. I know them all well and would enjoy working with them. I accepted Monsignor Kelly’s invitation and will try to be of service.”

Other members of the bishops’ committee are: Archbishop Roger Mahoney, Los Angeles; Bishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Bishop Thomas V. Daily, Palm Beach; Bishop John F. Donoghue, Charlotte, N.C.; Bishop Adam J. Maida, Green Bay, Wis.; and Bishop Norman F. McFarland, Reno.

Moral theologian William E. May, of The Catholic University of America and recently appointed by Pope John Paul II to the International Theological Commission, is lay chairman of the fellowship’s study commission. The fellowship is an association of Catholic scholars whose interdisciplinary research and publications are in accord with the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Dr. John Hammes, professor of psychology at the University of Georgia and member of St. Joseph’s Church in Athens, heads one of the five committees on the state of Catholic life that will be reporting to Dr. May. As chairman of the seven-member committee on adult catechetics and lay spirituality, he has compiled a paper on the subject he told the Georgia Bulletin in a telephone interview. He said he looked into the questions of whether U.S. Catholics are, in general, following the Church’s teaching and if they are not, how far have they deviated?

He said he culled his information from surveys conducted between 1970 and 1986 by such organizations as the Gallup Poll, the Notre Dame study of parish life and the National Catholic Education Association.

“I came up with some very depressing data on how much American Catholics disagree with the magisterial teaching. This finding reflects directly on the quality of our catechetical instructions, reflects negativism,” he said.

The primary recommendation his paper makes is “that the bishops need to recover a role usurped by dissenting theologians” that teaches Catholic doctrine. It is imperative, he believes, that bishops “examine catechetical situations in their own dioceses and root out heterodoxy, whether found in instructional materials or in instructors.”

“Since priests are supposed to be the extension of their bishops in service to God’s people,” he hopes “to see the seminaries produce clergy who are orthodox in beliefs and values.” His paper concludes that there is “an urgent need for American bishops to activate their divine mandate in a permissive society which has influenced so many religious and laity.”

A member of the university faculty for 30 years, he has served as advisor at the Catholic student center and has taught religious education to high school seniors. He also has served on the parish board of education and is a member of the Holy Name Society.

He has been a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars since shortly after it was founded by Msgr. Kelly ten years ago. The fellowship has 700 members according to Msgr. Kelly.