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From Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor of Ignatius Press:This morning, (Monday, July 20th) Dr. Jack Sites, Academic Vice President of Ave Maria University,  flew from Houston, where he was attending a meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, to San Francisco, to inform me personally that I was being dismissed from Ave Maria University. Our meeting was amicable and Dr. Sites, as always, acted as a Christian gentleman. He said that the reason for my dismissal stemmed from a conversation I had in November of 2008 with Jack Donahue, then chairman of the board of AMU....

HH: It’s a special program, one of a couple I’m going to be running in anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States. Benedict was elected Pope on April 19th, 2005, and much has happened in the succeeding three years. To discuss what has happened in those three years, and what to expect when he visits the United States, we’re joined by Father Joseph Fessio, SJ. If you’ve listened to this program in the past, Father Fessio has often been here, and we really appreciate it. He received his doctorate in theology in 1975 from the University of...

An Ave Maria University dean who spoke out last week about the firing of the school’s provost has been reassigned to a new position in Michigan. However, the Rev. J. Michael Beers, 57, dean of the pre-theologate program at Ave Maria, said his reassignment has been in the works since last year. Beers will become the founding director of a seminary in Bay City, Mich., under the Diocese of Saginaw, Mich. Last week, Beers told the Daily News that he was shocked by the dismissal of Ave Maria Provost Joseph Fessio, who has since been reassigned to another position at...

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...

The provost at Ave Maria University, once a student of the current pope, has been asked to resign his position immediately. Provost Joseph Fessio sent an e-mail shortly after 2 p.m. today to members of the Ave Maria community, saying he’s been asked to resign and leave the campus immediately. His brief e-mail reads: "To the Ave Maria University community: I have been asked to resign my position as provost and leave the campus immediately. I will miss Ave Maria and the many of you whom I hold dear. Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J." In a statement, university officials said Fessio...

Rev. has beard to thank for relation with pope By Jennifer Brannock Saturday, September 30, 2006 The Rev. Joseph Fessio has a rebellious beard to thank for his close, personal relationship with Pope Benedict XVI. The seemingly strait-laced, clean-shaven provost of Ave Maria University laughs when he recalls the strange series of events that led to his association with the former professor. As a seminary student in California in the 1960s, a tough professor classified Fessio as a rebel because of his slightly unruly beard. Feeling the student needed more discipline, the professor recommended Fessio train for his theology degree...

ROMA, January 23, 2006 – Joseph Ratzinger has written little on the topic of Islam over the years. But it is a topic very much on his mind, and all the more so since he became pope. Last September, in Castelgandolfo (see photo), Benedict XVI dedicated two days of study to Islam, behind closed doors, together with two experts in Islamic studies and a group of his former theology students. The news of the meeting leaked out, but until last January 5 nothing was known about what was said there. But on January 5, one of Ratzinger’s former students...

Joseph Fessio is a million-dollar publisher, the man who runs a university founded on a pizza fortune, a conservative Jesuit who fell out with his superiors and a friend of the Pope. It’s made him one of the US Church’s biggest players. HE IS a plain priest, neither a cardinal nor a bishop. But the combination of Benedict XVI’s prolific output as an author and the fortune of a pizza billionaire have helped make Father Joseph Fessio, the standard-bearer of Catholic orthodoxy, one of the most powerful men – indeed, perhaps the most powerful man – in the Church in...

My Friend, Benedict XVI | An Interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ These are Father Joseph Fessio’s answers to a series of questions posed about Pope Benedict XVI. They were answered on April 21, 2005, before he got on an airplane to fly to Rome for the formal installation of Pope Benedict XVI. You have a long-standing relationship with Pope Benedict XVI. Can you describe when you first met him? Father Fessio: I first met Fr. Joseph Ratzinger when I arrived in Regensburg, (then West Germany) in the fall of 1972. I began my doctoral studies there and he...

He twirls his rosary ring, pacing back and forth like a professor in his cabana by the pool at Ave Maria University. The Rev. Joseph Fessio has been repeating himself for almost three hours now, proudly talking to journalists by phone from all over the world, sharing stories of his friendship and admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, elected Tuesday to succeed Pope John Paul II who died earlier this month. "I want people to know what a saint we have. He's good, good," says Fessio, the AMU provost, while inhaling a bowl of bean salad before his next interview. "I'm...

Ave Maria University granted provisional license Wednesday, February 19, 2003 By MARCI ELLIOTT, Ave Maria University has reached a turning point. It has received a provisional license from the Florida Commission for Independent Education, a state board that grants licensure to nonpublic educational institutions, that has opened the door to accepting students. "This is a critical milestone for us," university President Michael J. Healy Jr. said Tuesday. "It means we're now able to recruit students and offer courses for credit." Healy and other Ave Maria officials, including the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a Jesuit priest serving as the university's chancellor, have...

Reassignment of Fr. Fessio, S.J., Editor of Ignatius Press Dear Friends of Ignatius Press, I have been assigned by my Jesuit superiors to become associate chaplain at Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, California, beginning May 1, 2002. At the same time they confirmed my ongoing mission as director of Ignatius Press. I am to have no role, public or private, in the latest initiative of Ignatius Press, Campion College of San Francisco, which is a wholly owned subsidiary. The Board of Directors of Guadalupe Associates, Inc. (which does business as Ignatius Press) has elected as President and Chief Operating Officer,...

SAN FRANCISCO, (CWNews.com) -- Father Joseph Fessio, the Jesuit priest who founded Ignatius Press, has been reassigned to serve as a chaplain in a hospital in Los Angeles. Although Father Fessio will be allowed to continue his work as a director of Ignatius Press-- which is based in San Francisco-- he has been ordered under obedience not to play a role in Campion College, the new Catholic liberal-arts institution being founded by Ignatius Press. Father Fessio received his new assignment from the California Jesuit province after a dispute with the administration of the University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit...