SOUTH BEND, Indiana (CWNews.com) - A prominent theologian at the University of Notre Dame said this week that he expects most of his American colleagues at Catholic colleges to refuse to ask for teaching mandates from local bishops as required by new rules.

    The US bishops approved new guidelines for implementing the papal document on Catholic higher education, "Ex Corde Ecclesia," at their biennial meeting last November. They were forwarded on to the Vatican which will approve them.

    Father Richard McBrien said in the current issue of the Jesuit magazine America that he believes most Catholic theologians will follow his lead in refusing to request a teaching mandate. "I'm simply the first one to come out," he said. He added that the plan will be unworkable if tenured professors refuse to seek a mandate. Father McBrien is an outspoken critic of Pope John Paul II and his pastoral initiatives.

    Some Catholic academics support the plan. Father Michael Scanlan of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, has said the Ex Corde guidelines allow the nation's 235-Catholic colleges and universities to more clearly project their Catholic identity.