Catholic St. Thomas University Votes to Sever Historic Ties with St. Paul Archdiocese

LifeSite ^ | November 21, 2007 | Hilary White

[NYer]

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, November 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Minnesota’s St. Thomas University has voted to remove the bylaw that maintained the sitting archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis as the Vicar General and Priest President of the University. The board of directors voted unanimously to change the university’s bylaw and install soon-to-retire Archbishop Harry Flynn as chairman for a five year term. The move is feared to be an effort by the university to override the authority of and possible reforms by Archbishop John Nienstedt, Flynn’s more orthodox Catholic coadjutor bishop who will fully succeed him as head of the archdiocese next year.
 
The surprise move has alarmed some Catholics who attend St. Thomas, the only Catholic university in the US founded directly by a bishop, who fear that the break with its historic ties to the archdiocese presages the “complete secularization” of the university, widely known as one of the US’ more doctrinally liberal Catholic schools.
 
A memo from the board of directors said, “Implementing a process the Board Affairs Committee began last February, the board also elected Archbishop Flynn to a five-year term as chairman of the board after making appropriate changes to the university's bylaws which heretofore had stipulated that the ordinary (head) of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis serve ex officio as chairman.”
 
Archbishop Flynn is due to offer his retirement to the Vatican next year when he turns 75, and his coadjutor bishop, John Nienstedt, is known to be a strong supporter of Catholic moral teaching and an opponent of the homosexual political movement and dissenting trends in the Church.
 
The university describes itself in its recently revised mission statement as “inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition,” and was founded in 1885 as a Catholic seminary by Archbishop John Ireland. St. Thomas currently enrols more than 11,000 students, making it Minnesota's largest independent university.
 
At a meeting following the decision, about a hundred concerned students vowed to petition the university to reverse the decision. A student organiser wrote in a circular email to supporters, “By removing the ex officio position of the Archbishop, the University largely purges itself of a continual, institutionalized connection with the Church.”
 
“With the ecclesial connection lost, we lose the presence of a continual conscience of the Board, and we can be confident of rapid secularization over a number of years,” he added.
 
Archbishop Flynn retires after years of complaints by faithful Catholics over his handling of a host of scandals involving homosexual activists both within and without the archdiocesan administration.
 
Under his rule, a notoriously pro-homosexual parish, St. Joan of Arc, was allowed to continue in open support of the Gay Pride parades and homosexual lifestyle. The parish’s opposition to Catholic teaching was so brazen that it resulted in 2004 in a rare direct intervention by the Vatican.
 
Flynn was named by homosexual political activists as one of the US’s four most “gay friendly” bishops. When he publicly supported the orthodox Catholic teaching on marriage, gay activists in the Rainbow Sash Movement were furious at what they saw as a betrayal by a friend of their cause.
 
Nienstedt, who came to St. Paul-Minneapolis this year from the diocese of New Ulm, is well established as a defender of orthodox Catholic teachings in his diocese, especially on homosexuality. He supported the Minnesota constitutional amendment banning same-sex “marriage” and in 2004, joined the eight other Catholic bishops in spearheading a campaign for a constitutional amendment defining marriage strictly as between a man and a woman.

Contact:
University President
Father Dennis Dease
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105

DJDEASE@stthomas.edu

See list of Board of Trustees
http://www.stthomas.edu/administration/board/default.html
 
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
 
Archdiocese of St. Paul claims no "Subculture of Homosexual Priests" Here
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032801.html
 
Prominent Minneapolis-St. Paul Priest a Leader in National Homosexual Lobby Group
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032009.html
 
New Society of Faithful Catholics Forms to Confront Priestly Sexual Abuse
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06031311.html
 
Gay-Friendly U.S. Bishops Outed by Homosexual Activist 'Catholic' Group
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04111108.html
 
Bishop Silences Faithful Priest for Objecting to Graphic Sex-Ed Program
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06030602.html
 
Vatican Intervenes in Minneapolis Catholic "Gay Pride" Parish
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/oct/04102806.html
 
New Catholic Bishop Expected to Bring Orthodoxy and Opposition to Homosexual Agenda to Minneapolis
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jun/07060507.html

[NYer]

As the more liberal bishops reach retirement age, expect to see more and more of this.

[steadfastconservative]

If this happens, then the new Archbishop can strip the university of its standing as a Catholic university, which he has the authority to do.

[steve8714]

I notice the vicar general of the archdiocese is among this group. Perhaps a few years in Belize would help him rediscover Catholicism.

[Salvation]

**Archbishop John Nienstedt**

Not to worry — Neinstedt won’t allow Catholic funds to prosper this university. I doubt that it will all change. For example, they would have to take the words, St. Thomas Catholic, out of their name.

[sitetest]

Dear steadfastconservative,

“If this happens, then the new Archbishop can strip the university of its standing as a Catholic university, which he has the authority to do.”

I think that the folks who run the university would be fine with this. A bit of B’rer Rabbit and all that.

sitetest

[sitetest]

Dear Salvation,

No, they couldn’t be forced to take “Catholic” or “St. Thomas” out of their name. They would be unable to make any claim concerning formal association with the Catholic Church in communion with the Supreme Pontiff, but unfortunately, the Catholic Church has no trademark or copyright on the word “Catholic” or on the name “St. Thomas.”

sitetest

[Salvation]

Definitely a valid point. Thanks for adding it.

[Unam Sanctam]

his coadjutor bishop, John Nienstedt, is known to be a strong supporter of Catholic moral teaching

Can't have that, you know...

[Antoninus]

It's about time that the heretics were driven into formal schism instead of corrupting the Body of Christ from within.

Our institutions will have to be fumigated before they're fit to educate our children again. It may take decades.