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| William Peter Blatty |
Concluding that his alma mater "takes pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful," William Peter Blatty, author of the best-selling book The Exorcist, filed a Canon Law petition with the Vatican this summer asking that Georgetown University be denied the right to call itself Catholic. Calling Georgetown a "Potemkin village," Blatty complained that at "alumni dinners, a Jesuit would be placed at every table like a flower centerpiece." For Blatty, Georgetown is "merely the leader of a pack" of schools that are failing to live up to their Catholic identity.
Mr. Blatty's 200-page papal petition contains more than 480 footnotes, 99 appendices, 124 witness statements. It also includes a commissioned 120-page institutional audit of Georgetown. According to Manuel A. Miranda, who serves as Mr. Blatty's counsel, "We have documented 23 years of Scandals and dissidence, over 100 Scandals in the most recent years alone."The petition -- with the signatures of more than 2,000 Catholics -- asks Pope Francis to require that Georgetown implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the 1990 papal document requiring all Catholic colleges to teach "in communion" with the Church. The goal of Blatty's petition is to revoke Georgetown's right to call itself Catholic -- unless it complies with Church teachings. Since 1967, when Catholic college leaders gathered in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, to create a manifesto that declared their "true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical," most Catholic college presidents have ignored any attempts by their presiding bishops to bring the Catholic colleges and universities into communion with the Church.
Link (here) to The Huffington Post
11 comments:
It is completely within the rights of the Church to insist on conformance to Ex Corde Ecclesiae. This really brings up a related topic - John Paul II. It is true that JPII is a Saint, and Saints are chosen by God, and they have internal characteristics which qualify them to be Saints - regardless of our worldly metrics (or, to be candid, Church metrics). But Saints, like Prophets, are not equivalent. And having a Pope who is a Saint does not mean that good decisions are made for the Catholic Church by that Pope. In the case of JPII, quite the opposite. Ironically, it can be a Pope who is not a Saint - a Pope who is more flawed in God's eyes - who can have the appropriate worldly personality and judgement to move the Church in a positive direction.
The Huffington Post got it wrong, of course. The summer submission was made to the Archbishop of Washington. According to The Hoya's article last Friday, petitioners are waiting to make their next step any day now.
A terrible shame that a lay Catholic has to be the one to do this deed. What is wrong with Cardinal Wuerl!!!! He should be the one doing it, since he is the head of that diocese. Cardinal Burke, while still Archbishop of St. Louis had a similar encounter with St. Louis U. He stood up to them and won..... Our leadership in the Catholic Church in America is pathetic..
Amen!!! I hope Blatty's petition is well-received and implemented by the Vatican. My Jesuit University experience is equally as harrowing; devoid of any orthodox Catholicism to speak of. Aside from a few Jesuit professors (only one of whom taught a religion course) it could have been any state-run University. Enough with the "CINO" marketing ploy.
Ray, Archbishop Wuerl is one of those bishops about whom you really wonder if he has been either paid off or has some very dark skeletons of his own. Ineffective is probably one of the most charitable words to describe him.
Now that the church has been rightly been re-established as a hospital, we are setting up triage at Georgetown, right? Lord, hear our prayer...
Qualis Rex, if it were just this one Archdiocese we could offer prayers of thanksgiving. This same scenario occurs throughout the Catholic Church in America. It seems a shame that our leaders are in such a state of disarray. We have no true leader to speak for our cause, mainly due to being overly reliant on the USCCB structure. Devout Catholics had better recommit to praying, as it is our only salvation....
They only found 2,000 Catholics to sign the petition? Really?
Ray, I agree. I come from an archdiocese which was saddled with TWO (count them: 2) incredibly ineffective, scandalous and divisive bishops-- consecutively. The one we have now is a god-send (literally). I would not equate or lump him in with the USCCB as I prefer to acknowledge the decisions and "fruits" of the labor from individual bishops, rather than the disastrous effect of the "whole".
A minor story about a marginal figure who wrote a best selling book four decades ago.
Luke 18:8
I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?
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