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Gonzaga University celebrates the value of diversity. When it comes to one of GU’s most important lecture“the Flannery Lecture is intended to further excellence in theological study and teaching at GU. The lecture is delivered each year by an outstanding Catholic theologian and is prepared and presented to benefit as wide an audience as possible.” This important lecture series might well reach the hoped-for wider audience if the invited speakers represented something other than what one professor I spoke with called “a celebration of radical ‘Catholicism.’ ”  As the years have rolled by, the Flannery Lecture series has offered a steady parade of theological liberals who, in many cases, oppose Church teaching on important matters. In fact, judging by the records of past speakers, the Flannery Lectures over the last 10 years have been a decidedly one-sided affair.

series, however, viewpoint diversity has been lacking for at least a decade, and orthodoxy has been hard to find. According to a GU news release,

As the GU professor mentioned above put it when asked about the Flannery Lectures, “It is something that I have tended to avoid like the plague. I have gone to a couple of them, but for the most part all they are is a celebration of radical ‘Catholicism.’ ”

This week, in an article published at 1887Trust.org, background on each of the Flannery Lecturers since 2003 is provided and sourced. One finds lecturers who have supported pro-abortion political candidates, and others who are associated with groups that support same-sex marriage. The list includes a professor suspended from teaching theology because of dissent from Church teaching, and a lecturer whose work has drawn scrutiny from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for what they called “statements that, unless properly clarified, are not in accord with Catholic teaching.” One past Flannery Lecture presenter, according to First Things Editor R.R. Reno, “presumes that the Church’s current teaching on sexual morality is unworkable, and in some cases unjust.” The list of past lecturers includes a professor refused a platform by an Illinois bishop because the professor “called into question the authentic teachings of the magisterium of the Catholic Church.”

Link (here) to The Gonzaga Bulletin to read the full article