Monika Hellwig, 74; Theologian and Ex-Nun Fought Vatican Pressure
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Monika Konrad Hildegard Hellwig, 74, a former nun and respected theologian who defended Catholic intellectualism against a Vatican crackdown, died Sept. 30 of a cerebral hemorrhage at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
As head of the Assn. of Catholic Colleges and Universities from 1996 until two months ago, she spoke up when the Vatican required colleges to follow church doctrine more closely.
She responded in 2003 by asking “whether the task of higher education ... is to lock students into rules -- even rules I agree with -- or to teach them critical thinking.”
Efforts by the Vatican to discipline the U.S. church could backfire, Hellwig repeatedly warned, because Americans knew there weren’t many sanctions that could be used against them.
Hellwig was born in Germany and fled to Scotland with her family as a child during World War II. After earning law and social science degrees from the University of Liverpool, she moved to the U.S. in the 1950s and spent 14 years as a nun.
She left to pursue intellectual goals, earning a doctorate in theology and teaching at Georgetown University for more than 30 years.
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