--Fr. Fasio
Posted on 03/23/2007 6:09:19 AM PDT by NYer
Less than 24 hours after the beloved provost of Ave Maria University was fired, he was back on the job Thursday night — this time wearing a new hat.
Father Joseph Fessio will become a “designated theologian in residence” who will maintain a room on campus, assume teaching responsibilities and make further plans for student study abroad, Fessio and university officials said.
“I’m back and I’m glad,” Fessio said.
But Fessio said he was never given a reason why he was asked to resign Wednesday, other than administrative differences.
Asked what he thought of not being told, the 66-year-old priest quipped: “That may be one of our differences.”
University officials were tight-lipped about Fessio’s firing and reinstatement, issuing a press release Thursday night through a public relations firm.
“We expressed yesterday that the separation of Father Fessio from the University’s administration had nothing to do with our shared commitment to our mission. ... As a sign of our esteem for his great gifts and abilities, we have asked Father Fessio and he has agreed to continue a relationship with us,” the statement said.
Students congratulated Fessio after learning of the news. They could be heard in the background as Fessio spoke with a reporter on his cell phone from the school’s campus in North Naples.
“We are so glad, father. We are so glad,” they repeated with warmth.
Fessio told the students he was leaving for a few days but would be back Sunday night. He is heading to Washington, D.C., today to be inducted in the Catholic Education Hall of Fame.
“The timing is ironic,” Fessio said.
As the founder and editor of Ignatius Press, Fessio had also already made plans to return to San Francisco to work full time at the Catholic publishing house in San Francisco that he started in 1978. Now he isn’t sure whether he will conduct Monday’s Annuciation Mass — the last Annunciation Mass under the tent before the oratory on the campus opens. Fessio said he had planned the celebration for months.
The turn of events Thursday occurred after Ave Maria University founder Tom Monaghan and President Nick Healy came to Fessio saying they wanted to work something out, Fessio said.
“As they began to focus more on what’s going to be best for the students and the university as a whole,” he said, the idea surfaced that if they wanted Fessio to step out of leadership, he would, but that he could still be effective in other roles. “If we disagreed on the administration process, then send me from administration,” he said, adding “I will not be involved in major policy decisions.”
Fessio said he is not upset with the administrators even though he disagrees with them over his firing from the unpaid position.
“I think it would have been better to have foreseen a little more clearly. It wouldn’t have been so much turmoil. But all’s well that ends well,” he said.
He disputed the speculation that his firing was tied statements he made on homosexuality that became public Tuesday.
The California Catholic Daily article quoted Fessio as saying: “Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb, and a way of treating them that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science.”
Fessio also doesn’t think the firing was tied to fundraising or student enrollment coming in below expectations. “I’m one of the principal engines of fundraising here. I’ve got 40,000 people on the mailing list and 25,000 donors. I don’t think it was that. And I don’t think it was student enrollment. We just had a meeting in Richmond, (Va.) with a company that specializes in matching high school students with institutions that would want them. We were planning to cooperate with them,” he said.
The campus, 20 miles outside of Naples in eastern Collier, is set move from its temporary quarters in the Vineyards in North Naples in August. Originally, the school was expected to open with 600 students. As of Thursday, there were 350 undergraduates and 40 graduate students, Fessio said.
Fessio said he couldn’t guess why he was fired.
“I really don’t know,” he said. Although he and the pope have a longstanding relationship, Fessio was the pope’s student at one time, Fessio doesn’t think the Vatican helped get him reinstated.
“I am not sure he’s been told yet,” Fessio said. “It’s only been 24 hours. They were sleeping in Rome when it happened.”
Ignatius Press is the primary English-language publisher of Pope Benedict XVI, publishing more than 40 books each year with over 1,800 titles in print, including Catholic World Report and Homiletic & Pastoral Review magazines, music and films.
In a statement e-mailed Thursday, Diocese of Venice officials said, “Ave Maria is a private university in the Catholic tradition located in the boundaries of the Diocese of Venice, and is not related to the Diocese of Venice. The Diocese can speak only on behalf of its own entities.”
Later Thursday, the chancellor of the diocese said the Bishop Frank Dewane had been told of the firing.
Fessio said he doesn’t think he’ll end up teaching full-time at the university.
“Because of my traveling and I have too many other things I have to do.”
Well, if I were he I would be lining up other things to do. Sounds to me like they will try to ease him out over time.
Keep the heat on, everyone! "Theologian in residence" is not good enough.
Fiasco.
Dear B Knotts,
I know that there was a lot of controversy and upset concerning the closing of the Michigan school. There was also at least some controversy surrounding the transfer of certain academic assets from Michigan to Florida. Quite a bit of drama has passed on the road from Michigan to Florida.
There have been other issues of controversy, as well.
One wonders whether similar sorts of issues drove a wedge between Fr. Fessio and others in the administration.
sitetest
Well, if I were he I would be lining up other things to do. Sounds to me like they will try to ease him out over time.
************
Very possible. The poor man has been through the wringer. Prayers for him.
**But Fessio said he was never given a reason why he was asked to resign Wednesday, other than administrative differences.**
He deserves to know why he was fired in the first place!!!!
Shame on them.Use his name one way or the other.
“The timing is ironic,” Fessio said.
He's also a master of understatement. Good to see he's back.
He can take solace is the fact that Newman didn't succeed in his efforts to start a university in Ireland. Did lead to a great book, however.
--Fr. Fasio
From Provost to Theologian sounds like a promotion to me.
I was unaware of liturgical lunacies at AVM. Is that really the case?
I recall when Ave Maria Law School was in the process of organization in Michigan. Catholics in the forum were jubilant and so excited as we followed all of the announcements leading up to its opening. Some even contributed hard earned salaries to give the school a boost of loving support for the great challenge of educating law students in the Catholic Tradition. I confess to 'assuming' that once opened, it would hold fast to the great educators gathered to work with the new student body. Apparently, we were wrong. For many of us, this is beyond disappointing news.
My understanding:
Fr. Fessio is an absolutist on liturgy being in Latin and ad orientam.
But there are 2 people who outrank him - Nick Healy and Tom Monaghan. Neither of them are Latin absolutists like Fessio is.
It seems that he was trying to impose his will despite directives from above to the contrary.
So you are guessing or supposing that he was fired because of how he chose to offer the liturgy?
Why shouldn't he offer Mass the way he feels it should be, with reverence and spirituality and without interference from "above"?
Amen. He is the celebrant, and in that capacity neither Nick Healy nor Tom Monaghan outrank him.
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