No news from Rome on Fessios
appeal
By RICH HEFFERN
NCR Staff
The Jesuit president of the University of San Francisco, Fr.
Stephen Privett, responding to recent news reports of Vatican intervention at
the university, said he had received no word from Vatican officials regarding
his controversial decision to reorganize the conservative St. Ignatius
Institute. His Jesuit superiors in Rome also said they had received no
word.
Press reports in late March said Vatican officials had signaled
opposition to Privetts recent decision to reorganize the institute and
planned to intervene.
The institutes founder and supporter Jesuit Fr. Joseph
Fessio said he recently met in Rome with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, director of
the Vatican doctrinal office, who assured him his concerns would be passed on
to the pope. Fessio was in Rome for a meeting of the board of Casa Balthasar, a
house of formation.
Fessio said, We have gone through proper channels, and the
Holy Father is aware of what has happened.
According to a San Francisco Chronicle story that
appeared March 28, Raymond Dennehy, a professor at the university who had
taught in the institute, had said, Its my understanding that the
pope has signed a letter saying he wants the institute restored to its pristine
state.
Privett accused Fessio and other institute lobbyists of
McCarthy-like tactics. Joe Fessio is the source of these
rumors, said Privett, but hell produce no document. Fessio, a
la Joe McCarthy, is claiming to have a draft of a document approved by the
pope, but we have seen nothing.
In January, Privett, who became president last summer, dismissed
the two directors of the institute, John Galten and John Hamlon, and replaced
them with a new director, Paul Murphy, a history professor at the university.
Shortly after, six faculty members who taught in the institute refused to teach
their institute classes in protest (NCR, Feb 16).
Privett said he was trying to integrate the institute into the
life of the university. Since its founding 25 years ago, the institute has
operated as a separate school, hiring some of its own faculty -- including
conservative theologians -- and offering a traditional core curriculum under
the umbrella of a Great Books program.
Fessio told NCR that he had spoken with the
universitys board chairman, Dominic Tarantino, and told him in confidence
about his conversation with Ratzinger when he was in Rome. He said he never
mentioned a letter from the pope, that he still has no knowledge of such a
letter.
We have made an appeal, and the Holy Father may or may not
follow up on it, Fessio said.
Jesuit officials in Rome said there is no indication, as of March
29, that the Vatican will be involved. Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior
general, is satisfied that the universitys efforts to reorganize the
institute will not alter its unique character, said Fr. Frank Case,
an assistant to the superior.
Catholic News Service contributed to this report.
National Catholic Reporter, April 6,
2001
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