Cleric claims Jesuits want to exile him

San Jose Mercury News ^ | Tue, Apr. 23, 2002

[nickcarraway]

One of the nation's most prominent publishers of Roman Catholic literature has been forced into an obscure chaplain's job in Los Angeles after he criticized the University of San Francisco as too liberal and sought to open his own orthodox college.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[jrherreid]

We were just passing this story around the office. Pretty good, but they don't mention that Albert Jonsen has been instructed by the Vatican not to teach philosophy.

[nickcarraway]

``It is part of the job of a university to allow students to explore a range of issues and ideas...''

Unless their the ideas of the St. Ignatius Institute.

[BlessedBeGod]

"Congratulations for Campion College! It will be a beautiful enrichment for the vast field of Catholic education. It will provide an excellent formation in the best tradition of Christian humanism. Campion College is truly full of promise."

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn Archbishop of Vienna

[Hibernius Druid]

Thanks for this post. We've got to figure out how best to help Father Fessio. Like many on these threads, I'm disgusted at the way today's Jesuits are disfiguring the Catholic Church beyond all recognition.

Once I was proud of being a Jesuit "product." That was then, this is now.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I wonder if the Pope will rethink this this week.

[BlessedBeGod]

Campion College

Ignatius Press

[Aquinasfan]

But he has also been critical of such ``un-Catholic'' actions by the university as hiring an openly gay man as an associate dean and family counselor. And he was upset when, in February, it allowed students to put on a production of the explicit ``The Vagina Monologues,'' a play he considers ``distasteful.''

Clearly this man is insane /sarcasm>. The Catholic Church in America needs a very thorough housecleaning.

[BlessedBeGod]

We've got to figure out how best to help Father Fessio.

This might be one way. Have you added your name to this petition?

Cardinal Newman Society Petition for Fr. Fession

I wasn't sure whether signing it would help or make things worse for him. Then I looked through the signatures and saw that Dr. Ralph McInerny signed it. I trust his discernment.

[Domestic Church]

Here's a bump and a prayer for Fr.Fessio...may he receive a red cap soon !

[BlessedBeGod]

Cardinal Newman Society Petition for Fr. Fession

Gee whiz! Make that Fr. Fessio!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

There has been so much BS shovelled around over the years about the superstitions of academic freedom, that it's enough to make any sensible, open-minded, literate adult puke. Quite obviously, at USF and at too many other institutions of learning, freedom and multicultural diversity are not extended to White Western Christians conservatives (and especially to Catholic conservatives who are male).

Alan Kors of Penn actually has a very excellent article in the current issue of FIRST THINGS which outlines why there is a need for distinctively Catholic institutions of higher learning in the U.S. This is one of the more elegantly argued pieces on the subject I have seen in a while. He certainly seems to like Catholic higher learning a lot more than the president of my alma mater. Or than USF's. It's a disgrace and a shame what has happened to some Catholic and Jesuit institutions during this post-conciliar apocalypse of aggressive neo-gnosticism we have been witnessing. Fortunately, the dissenters are aging and graying. AIDS and strange, obscure forms of cancer will take some no doubt. The devil has given them their 15 minutes in a larger drama. Pathetic.

[Hibernius Druid]

Yes, I've signed it already. I hope there's more we can do than this petition, which has been out for well over a month. Yes, it's good to see Ralph McInerny as an original signer. He's a very good friend and supporter of Fr. Fessio, as I suspect you know.

Too bad the NDU prof we hear most from these days is "Father" McBrien. Ever wonder why the press isn't going to McInerny? (Rhetorical question, disregard.)

[Cicero]

It's certainly disingenuous to say that Jonsen will not be teaching medical ethics. He will be teaching Aristotle, Plato, and the Bible, and a dissident could do plenty of mischief with those works, which should be at the very foundation of a good Catholic education.

This isn't a new story for Catholics, but it's interesting that the secular press is picking it up.

And, no, the Pope can't do anything about it. He tried once to straighten out the Jesuit order, removing their head and putting a caretaker in his place for a while, but it seems that they didn't want to be straightened out. You can't force a bunch of high-order intellectuals to change their ways, you have to persuade them. The sad result is that the Jesuit order and its universities are going steadily down the tubes. But the Church will survive, and other religious orders and colleges will take their place.

[Dumb_Ox]

``They are trying to get me out of the way,'' Fessio said. ``Why else would they exile me? I am highly educated. I'm in the prime of my life. I have so much more to contribute than to minister to the sick.''

This sounds very unlike Fr. Fessio; wasn't he far more obedient and humble in a personal statement? Did a lazy reporter misquote him?

[caisson71]

I think it's about time to expose all of Catholicism. As a graduate of a Jesuit college on the West Coast, I was appalled to find the pervasiveness of a liberal agenda on campus during a recent visit to my alma mater. They even changed the name of their mascot in order to be more politically correct! The bookstore was filled with liberal crap, even a book by Dennis Miller in the political science department. I left, with my checkbook, upset that I wasted my time and was about to make a financial contribution to something I find abhorant and anti-Catholic. I never thought I'd see weak-wristed Jebbies.

[livius]

"... bunch of high-order intellectuals ..."

Alas, I think the Jebbies haven't merited this title for at least 25 years.

They went through a major dumbing-down. The only intellectuals left are folks like Fr. Fessio and Fr. Cornelius Buckley, both of whom have been exiled to the same old-age home in SoCal. Maybe the rest of the idiots felt threatened.

[BlessedBeGod]

This sounds very unlike Fr. Fessio; wasn't he far more obedient and humble in a personal statement? Did a lazy reporter misquote him?

I thought exactly the same thing. I suspect so, or at the very least, paraphrased him in a sure-to-provoke-the-Jesuits manner.

[ELS]

You can add Fr. Mitch Pacwa to the list of intelligent, orthodox Jesuits.