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 he
battle
to save the Saint Ignatius Institute, the University of San Francisco's
renowned Great Books program, reached
a turning point
last Friday when the USF board of trustees voted 30 to 2 to support
Father President Stephen A. Privett's planned reorganization —
a reorganization that will surely deprive the Institute of its traditional
Catholic character. Although the vote represents a serious defeat
for friends of the Saint Ignatius Institute, all is not lost. A formal
appeal has been made to the Holy Father in Rome, and on the outcome
of that appeal, the fate of the Saint Ignatius Institute now rests.
By university charter, one third of the USF board of trustees must
be Jesuits. And the Jesuits on the board, like their compatriot,
Father President Privett, are long-time opponents of the Saint Ignatius
Institute. With the liberal Jesuits on the board of trustees virtually
assuring President Privett victory from the start, it was nearly
impossible to build a pro-Institute coalition.
But USF is clearly reeling from the unexpected rebellion provoked
by President Privett's attempt to deprive the Saint Ignatius Institute
of its traditional Catholic spirit. Stung by a public
statement in support of the Institute signed by illustrious
scholars and public figures from around the nation, USF has hired
a public-relations firm to put a more positive spin on media coverage.
That won't be easy to do, since the wire services and Bay Area papers
have already run stories highly unfavorable to Privett. And the
bitterness on campus in the wake of Privett's move against the Saint
Ignatius Institute runs deep. Institute students and alumni came
out in force last Wednesday to protest Privett's decision to gut
their program. That rarity of rarities — a conservative student
demonstration — even included chants in Latin (Privett, Privett,
Privett, quod fecisti non ius est: Privett, Privett, Privett, what
you've done is not fair).
Knowing that the liberal Jesuits on the USF board would insure Privett's
victory, it became clear that the only remaining way to save the
program was a formal appeal to the Pope himself. That appeal was
made in perfect accord with the canonical procedures of the Catholic
Church and the Jesuit Order. The Holy Father is being asked to work
with the leader of the Jesuits, Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,
S.J., to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict, so that
USF may remain a place of genuine diversity, and so that the Saint
Ignatius Institute can continue to exist in accordance with the
principles of those who have made it such a success.
No doubt opponents of the Institute will complain that this appeal
is an attempt to subject them to papal oppression. On the contrary,
it is those seeking to deprive the Saint Ignatius Institute of its
traditional Catholic character who are imposing their views upon
others. We are talking about a program of 150 souls in an undergraduate
student body of 7,000 — a mere two percent of the students
at USF. The program is entirely voluntary, and students at the Institute
can, and often do, take courses in Catholic theology from the liberal
Jesuits at the larger university. If one small, voluntary program
with an emphasis on traditional Catholic theology cannot exist at
a nominally Catholic university, what has liberal education come
to? If the Pope cannot protect so modest an outpost of tradition
at a Catholic university, what can he do?
We shall soon see. The battle over the Saint Ignatius Institute
will tell us much about the future role of religion in American
higher education, and about the ability of the Catholic Church to
maintain an even minimal presence for its own doctrines at Catholic
universities. To be sure, American Catholicism is divided. Yet it
seems entirely reasonable that both sides of that division have
at least some sort of presence at American Catholic universities,
particularly those that have made diversity an avowed goal. By the
same token, America itself is culturally divided. Should not our
universities grant a place to voices on both sides of our cultural
divide? The Pope may have it within his power to grant or refuse
the appeal from the Saint Ignatius Institute, but in the larger
sense, the battle over the Institute represents an appeal to the
American public as a whole to defend genuine diversity by returning
some modicum of intellectual balance to higher education.
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