The Jesuit president of the University of San Francisco, facing criticism for making changes at a popular academic institute on campus, said the Vatican has sent no signals of disfavor to him or to the trustees.
“We have heard absolutely nothing, “ the Rev. Stephen Privett said yesterday, contesting a report in The Washington Times that a papal letter has entered the fray over changes at the St. Ignatius Institute.
“The Holy See would communicate with us through out curial in Rome and the provincial,” he said, referring to senior leaders of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, there.“We haven’t seen anything but rumors.”
Father Privett, who became president of the Jesuit-founded school last summer, said the board of trustees who met at the school last week and who are its governing body also have not received any guidance from Rome or the church on the issue.
“Nobody has heard anything from any ecclesiastical authorities,” Father Privett said. He said a canon lawyer told him he could sleep well, despite the rumors.
Critics of the changes that Father Privett made at the conservative St. Ignatius Institute, founded on the campus in 1977, have said an appeal had been made to Rome to restore its former management.
They also have said that senor clergy in Rome knew well its reputation in classical and orthodox Catholic learning, which some believe has become liberalized under the new president.
“An appeal has been made through the proper channels, and the pope is aware of the situation,” the Rev. Joseph Ressio, a Jesuit who founded the institute, said over the weekend.
But he added that it was hoped that Pope John Paul II would not have to “interfere” to return the institute to its former management, faculty and approach of teaching.
The Vatican, in guiding affairs in the U.S. church, may communicate directly with individuals, or do so through the apostolic delegate, local bishop or head of a religious order.Father Privett said the canon lawyer advised that freelance messages, even when from Rome, have no official standing.
The case arose n January when Father Privett, wanting to focus resources on campus, fired the St. Ignatius Institute’s conservative director, John W. Galten, to place under the university’s director of the Catholic Studies program.
The institute still exists and offers courses, but with the action, five campus faculty will resign from the institute, saying it would not allow them to teach the more classical and orthodox courses on Catholicism and Western thought.
“We made it clear they can come back to the program, “ Father Privett said. “ The [new] faculty of the program are loyal to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”