The Blatty Effect

Protesting the speech by Kathleen Sebelius at Georgetown University

In over the year that the canon law Petition led by William Peter Blatty has been worldwide news, Georgetown University's "newspaper of public record," The Hoya, has given the matter scant news coverage, their last piece invented facts that were not true. By contrast, the managing editor of the blatantly liberal Georgetown Voice recently published an op-ed agreeing with one of Blatty's main allegations.

On Friday, The Hoya finally weighed in with some substance, publishing an interview of Georgetown University's canonist, Rev. Ladislas Orsy, S.J., still going strong at 92!

Orsy was one of the earliest critics of Ex corde Ecclesiae when it was issued 23 years ago and has argued for years that it has minimal reach. He does so again in The Hoya. Orsy had previously made the same argument regarding the canons of the 1983 Code of Canon Law addressing Catholic universities. Both documents were promulgated by Blessed Pope John Paul II and were each unfinished matters called for by the Second Vatican Council. (Vatican II). Both documents ended the "Land o' Lakes" apostasy, at least in words. Unfortunately, part of the problem with the Orsy interview is The Hoya's uninformed questions. Orsy clarifies that the Blatty Petition is not a lawsuit. There is no disagreement there. A recent press release by the Father King Society states: "The canonical procedure being employed is not a 'lawsuit'." Astonishingly, however, Fr. Orsy tells The Hoya that "[Ex corde Ecclesiae} says that the president of a Catholic university should be voted on by the board of trustees and agreed upon by the Vatican." In fact, Ex corde neither says nor suggests that! Orsy tells The Hoya that the Church has no power to remove its consent for Georgetown University to call itself "Catholic," suggesting that there is a difference between a university like Georgetown and a university that has "Catholic" in its name. Orsy's opinion has been repeatedly contradicted by Church officials and other canonists for decades now. 

Link (here) to Catholic.org