March 29, 2001

Officials: Vatican Won't be involved in San Francisco Controversy
By Cindy Wooden


ROME (Catholic News Service) -- Jesuit officials in Rome said there is no indication that the Vatican has been or will be involved in the controversy over the St. Ignatius Institute at Jesuit-run University of San Francisco.

Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Jesuits, is satisfied that the university's efforts to reorganize the institute will not alter its “unique character,” said Father Frank Case, an assistant to the superior.

The institute, using a “Great Books” curriculum, emphasizes traditional Catholic values and Jesuit teaching methods bringing together philosophy, theology, the arts and humanities.

In January, the director and assistant director of the institute were dismissed by Jesuit Father Stephen A. Privett, university president.

Father Privett said the dismissals were part of an effort to better coordinate the use of staff and resources from the institute, the university's Catholic studies program and its theology department.

But Jesuit Father Joseph D. Fessio, a co-founder of the institute, said the move was the result of a longtime effort by professors outside the institute, particularly Jesuit theology professors, to gain control over the institute, which they saw as “too narrow and too extremist.”

He said they saw the institute's emphasis on traditional church teaching as “an implicit criticism” of what they were teaching.

Father Fessio told reporters in late March that he had met with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, about the situation and that he had appealed to Pope John Paul II to intervene.

Father Case said that as of March 29, officials at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome had no indication that the Vatican was considering Father Fessio's request. It would be very unusual for the Vatican to get involved in the matter without informing the Jesuits, he said.

The Jesuit superior general's position is that the dispute is a matter that must be resolved locally, Father Case said.

“He has encouraged them, however, to protect and maintain the unique character of the institute, which they are trying to do,” he said.

Msgr. Walter Edyvean, head of the university section of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, would not comment on the San Francisco situation.