Jesuit, Fr. Steven Privett On The Holy Fathers Visit To America

Pretty much ignored in the U.S. today
Pope meets with heads of Catholic colleges and universities
Presidents of U.S. Catholic colleges and universities have been “summoned” to a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI today in Washington, D.C., during the pontiff’s visit to the United States, said the April 15 Los Angeles Times. Superintendents of Catholic schools are urged to attend the meeting as well. What will the pope say at this meeting?

Will he celebrate U.S. Catholic education or criticize it for a lack of adherence to Church teaching and tradition? "He understands universities, and I think he really understands how Catholic universities serve the church,"

Jesuit Fr. Stephen Privett, president of the University of San Francisco, told the Times. But while Privett said the pope "will be very comfortable with this group," he will challenge them to promote more strongly their institutions’ Catholic identity. Bishops, priests, and laity have been critical of Catholic universities for hosting dissident speakers (such as pro-abortion politicians), hiring theological faculty who dissent from Church teaching, and permitting plays such as the Vagina Monologues on campus. For instance, Privett’s USF had pro-abortion congresswoman and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, deliver last year’s commencement address to undergraduates at the university’s McClaren College of Business. One of the university’s theology professors is openly homosexual and, though a Catholic, in 2006 was ordained a priest in the Celtic Christian Church.

Read the full article (here)