The Code of Canon Law (can. 812) requires that all Catholics who teach Catholic theological discipline in a Catholic institution of higher studies have a mandate, or mandatum, from the local competent ecclesiastical authority, which in the case of Wyoming Catholic College is the Bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne.

 

The mandatum is fundamentally an acknowledgment by Church authority that a Catholic professor of theology is teaching in full communion with the Catholic Church, and it concerns both the content of what is taught as well as the professor’s commitment and responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the Church’s magisterium.  While the professor who receives the mandatum is not teaching in the name of the Bishop or of the Church’s Magisterium, his teaching of Catholic theology is considered to be a genuine part of the Church's mission of evangelization.

 

All professors and teachers of theology at Wyoming Catholic College are required to seek and obtain a mandatum from the Bishop of Cheyenne prior to teaching students at the College, and must always retain this mandatum if they are to retain the right to teach the students.