LETTERS

National Catholic Reporter, March 23, 2001

Ignatius Institute

* I am one of the professors named in your article on the St. Ignatius Institute that appeared in the Feb. 16 NCR. I have taught in the program for 17 years. I am writing to correct several errors that appeared in your article.

Your article claims that the institute "operates as a special school within the university." This is incorrect. It offers an alternate general education curriculum, one built around the great books. It is not a "separate school." (Indeed, it does not even offer a major.) On the contrary, it functions as do many other programs at the university, drawing its core faculty from various departments.

Thus, your article's statement that it "hires its own faculty -- including conservative theologians" is misleading. It hires part-time faculty only, in order to fill some sections of its program. The usual reason for this is that there are insufficient full-time faculty to cover these sections. It does not have its own full-time faculty; on the contrary, all of its full-time faculty are drawn from departments. In recent years, none of the part-time faculty hired have been theologians, conservative or otherwise.

The article further asserts that Jesuit Fr. Joseph Fessio "has remained an influential adviser" to the institute. This is misleading. He has not functioned as such an adviser. Indeed, when the institute faculty last revised its curriculum, four years ago, it eliminated (against his own judgment) the one course he was then teaching in the program. Since then, he has not taught any required courses in the institute.

The article further states that there bas been a "deep ideological split" between the institute's faculty and staff and "the mainstream academic community at the school." This is misleading. What its supporters have said, as your article goes on to indicate, is that it has been assaulted by "members of the Jesuit community." They, and several of their allies (mainly in the theology department) have objected to the institute's position on Catholic theology. However, there has been a generally cordial relation between the institute and many other "mainstream faculty" not part of the program. Some of these did not agree with the institute's views (in theology or otherwise), but they respected the program and its right to exist in the form that it had throughout its 25 years. Perhaps its detractors might claim a split with the "mainstream faculty," but its supporters would regard such a claim as an inaccurate exaggeration.

The cumulative effect of your article's inaccurate statements is to mischaracterize the institute as more separate, more conservative and more opposed at the university than was the case. This is the kind of mischaracterization of the program that it has had to endure for 25 years at the hands of its opponents. It is time this stopped. Such inaccuracy is irresponsible journalism, and it does a disservice both to the truth and to an understanding of this crisis that the Catholic community deserves.

MICHAEL TORRE San Francisco

Michael Torre is professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco.

Editors' response: Administrators at the University of San Francisco say that the "errors" cited in Torre's letter are actually matters of interpretation and semantics. Therefore, while we welcome his point of view, we stand by the reporting in the article.

Not high drama

* An NCR subscription renewal offer said, "Will Sr. Jeannine's refusal to be silenced lead to her dismissal from the School Sisters of Notre Dame?" I find it disheartening that the National Catholic Reporter would use this situation and orchestrate high drama to sell its paper.

I sympathize with Sr. Jeannine Gramick's disappointment concerning the Vatican's ban on her ministry to lesbian or gay persons. However, the sanctions Sr. Jeannine received from her superior general in Rome are an internal matter between a vowed religious, her religious superiors and the congregation. What good can come from sensationalizing these internal affairs in the public arena and press?

I know the School Sisters of Notre Dame and their leadership as women of integrity who have provided support and a home for Sr. Jeannine these many years. In following her conscience, Sr. Jeannine may indeed leave this home.

Misunderstanding, rejection and suffering, even to death on the cross, are pivotal in Christian tradition. In leaving home, Jesus fulfilled his calling; yet, he did not vilify his mother, Mary. For her part Our Lady let him go, and her heart was pierced with a sword of sorrow.

(Sr.) CONSTANCE BAKER, SSND Baltimore

Free markets

* As a rule I am among the least inclined to impute miraculous powers to my writings, but Richard McBrien's Jan. 26 column on an article I published in The Wall Street Journal persuades me that we have indeed witnessed something of the sort: Fr. McBrien invoking papal authority favorably!

The original article that provoked this resort to papal teaching was a Journal piece on a conference on globalization, economics and the family co-sponsored by the Acton Institute and the Pontifical Council for the Family. The gist of the argument was that I had quoted the Holy Father's praise of the market out of context (and even implied that he was at the conference). These are not unfamiliar complaints. I read an almost identical argument in a column in Catholic New York by Msgr. George V. Higgins that appeared at the same time.