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‘Exorcist’ author, William Peter Blatty, to sue Georgetown University in Catholic court
Washington Post ^ | 5/18/2012

Posted on 05/21/2012 4:18:06 PM PDT by Altura Ct.

The author who turned Georgetown University into a horror scene in “The Exorcist” plans to sue the school in church court, charging that his alma mater has strayed so far from church doctrine that it should no longer call itself Catholic.

William Peter Blatty, who graduated from Georgetown in 1950, says the “last straw” was the university’s speaking invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Sebelius, who addressed graduating public policy students on Friday (May 18), has been criticized by conservative Catholics for approving a mandate that requires many religious institutions to cover employees’ birth control costs. The Archdiocese of Washington called the Sebelius invitation “shocking.”

Blatty, 85, credits a Georgetown scholarship with fostering his writing career, which includes an Academy Award for “The Exorcist,” a blockbuster based on his best-selling 1971 novel. In the book and movie, a Jesuit priest at Georgetown, the nation’s oldest Catholic university, struggles to save a demon-possessed girl. Now retired, Blatty lives in Bethesda, Md.

“What I owe Georgetown, however, is nothing as compared to what Georgetown owes to its founders and the Christ of faith,” Blatty said in a statement.

The author says that Georgetown has violated church teaching for decades by inviting speakers who support abortion rights and refusing to obey instructions the late Pope John Paul II issued in 1990 to church-affiliated colleges and universities.

Georgetown should amend its ways or stop calling itself a Catholic or Jesuit institution, Blatty said.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: anticatholic; bhohhs; blatty; catholiccolleges; georgetownu; georgetownuniv; lawsuit; sebelius
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1 posted on 05/21/2012 4:18:16 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Altura Ct.

It’s just what Georgetown needs: an exorcism.


2 posted on 05/21/2012 4:24:29 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West.")
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To: Mrs. Don-o
It’s just what Georgetown needs: an exorcism.

As does the entire Democrat Party.

3 posted on 05/21/2012 4:27:20 PM PDT by JaguarXKE (If my Fluffy had a puppy, it would look like the puppy Obama ate!)
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To: BlackElk; AuH2ORepublican

*ping of interest*


4 posted on 05/21/2012 4:29:39 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (If you like lying Socialist dirtbags, you'll love Slick Willard)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

“It’s just what Georgetown needs: an exorcism.”

You might as well exorcise the entire city, especially the damn politicians.


5 posted on 05/21/2012 4:34:00 PM PDT by alice_in_bubbaland (Anyone But Obama in November !!!)
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To: Altura Ct.

Catholic church court, eh. Watch the left say “well, if you’re gonna allow that, you shouldn’t complain about Sharia law courts blah blah blah and look at the Orthodox Jews blather blather blather” . . .


6 posted on 05/21/2012 4:36:08 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Altura Ct.

The power of Christ compels him.


7 posted on 05/21/2012 4:39:09 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Some day our schools will teach the difference between "lose" and "loose")
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To: Olog-hai

If the issue is about whose school qualifies to be called Orthodox Jewish or Muslim then such things would make perfect sense.

Why nobody else bothered to do this earlier would be the only even slightly puzzling thing to me.


8 posted on 05/21/2012 4:46:31 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Mitt! You're going to have to try harder than that to be "severely conservative" my friend.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Isn’t that the move that made millions of people vomit in some kind of possession experience?


9 posted on 05/21/2012 4:49:27 PM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: Altura Ct.

These days Jesuit and Catholic have very little to do with each other.


10 posted on 05/21/2012 4:51:42 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Altura Ct.

When he’s done with Georgetown he should move on to Notre Dame.


11 posted on 05/21/2012 4:54:31 PM PDT by mc5cents
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So does my alma mater, Boston College


12 posted on 05/21/2012 4:56:41 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: Olog-hai
Catholic church court, eh.

Well, yes. Who else would you expect to decide who or what qualifies as Catholic... or Jewish, or Muslim except the religious institutions themselves?

MacDonald's still gets to decide which franchises are allowed to be called MacDonald's. If the franchise is selling Whoppers then they can be kicked out.

For Georgetown to call itself Catholic while embracing someone whom Father Malachi Martin would have termed the "perfectly possessed" is the biggest whopper of them all.

13 posted on 05/21/2012 4:59:35 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (When we cease to be good we'll cease to be great. Be for Goode.)
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To: mc5cents

The Catholic Church should take ALL these liberal “Catholic” universities into receivership just as the church did to the LCRW (Leadership Conference of Religious Women). Make them meet Catholic doctrine or cut them off from the church!


14 posted on 05/21/2012 5:02:20 PM PDT by Afisra
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To: Altura Ct.

wow... i like this!


15 posted on 05/21/2012 5:04:49 PM PDT by Mr. K (If Romney wins the primary, I am writing-in Palin/Gingrich)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

"MERRIN!!"

16 posted on 05/21/2012 5:14:09 PM PDT by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: Campion

Dick Cheney looks like he has lost some weight.


17 posted on 05/21/2012 5:20:48 PM PDT by forgotten man (forgotten man)
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To: Afisra

Excellent idea. Do you think the church will actually do this?


18 posted on 05/21/2012 6:00:07 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: Altura Ct.
never saw that movie but often wondered if its message was missed in the hype. I mean, it wasn't really a horror movie, was it?

I guess that composer, what's his name, Andrew Oldfield? was very young when he wrote tubular bells. I always thought it was annoying, but it was really probably pretty good.

19 posted on 05/21/2012 6:01:27 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (they have no god but caesar)
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20 posted on 05/21/2012 6:13:06 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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