Ousting the Archbishop?! What would St. Thomas say?

 

While everyone was getting ready for the Thanksgiving break, the Board of Directors at the University of St. Thomas were conducting a quiet little coup.

Minnesota’s St. Thomas University has voted to remove the bylaw that maintained the sitting archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis as the Vicar General and Priest President of the University. The board of directors voted unanimously to change the university’s bylaw and install soon-to-retire Archbishop Harry Flynn as chairman for a five year term. The move is feared to be an effort by the university to override the authority of and possible reforms by Archbishop John Nienstedt, Flynn’s more orthodox Catholic coadjutor bishop who will fully succeed him as head of the archdiocese next year.

What?!!

The surprise move has alarmed some Catholics who attend St. Thomas, the only Catholic university in the US founded directly by a bishop, who fear that the break with its historic ties to the archdiocese presages the “complete secularization” of the university, widely known as one of the US’ more doctrinally liberal Catholic schools.

About that last part, I have to say that my seminarian son graduated from UST two years ago with an excellent education in Philosophy, Theology and Catholic Studies, among other things. UST has what I think is the best college seminary (St. John Vianney), and one of the best Catholic Studies departments in the country. Yes, there are liberal professors there who hold more of a secular worldview and don’t want the influence of the Church to interfere with the school’s academics or current mission. They teach in some of the same departments with professors who uphold the moral teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church. The two co-exist….uneasily these days.

If that concern (in the above article) about secularization at UST sounds familiar to InForum visitors, this is why.

So now UST is in controversy again, over this rather stealthy move.

A memo from the board of directors said, “Implementing a process the Board Affairs Committee began last February, the board also elected Archbishop Flynn to a five-year term as chairman of the board after making appropriate changes to the university’s bylaws which heretofore had stipulated that the ordinary (head) of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis serve ex officio as chairman.”

Actually, that snip was buried pretty deep in the ‘UST Bulletin’ e-mailed to students about the Fall Board of Trustees meeting. Someone from UST forwarded that to me. The above quote is actually about nine paragraphs down, after the bulletin opens with reports on the school’s capital campaign and progress, plans for improvements, endowed funds and endowed chairs……and the “dialogue” going on between St. Thomas and a certain hospital about the future creation of a medical school, though that hospital performs abortions.

That’s for another day, if those talks proceed.

So the approximately 9th paragraph has the above quote about a process that “began last February”, though it doesn’t say anything more about what began last February. The statement does say this (in its own way): the Archbishop of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese has always been the chairman of the board of UST, but the board just changed the rules about that. They re-wrote the bylaws so the new Archbishop cannot serve that function anymore. If the desire was (as stated) to honor retiring Archbishop Flynn, the board could have created a new position for him – easily. As the top of this story says, a lot of UST’s population see this as a move to deny Archbishop Nienstedt any influence.

At a meeting following the decision, about a hundred concerned students vowed to petition the university to reverse the decision. A student organiser wrote in a circular email to supporters, “By removing the ex officio position of the Archbishop, the University largely purges itself of a continual, institutionalized connection with the Church.”
 
“With the ecclesial connection lost, we lose the presence of a continual conscience of the Board, and we can be confident of rapid secularization over a number of years,” he added.

I’ve heard from a number of UST students, alumni and faculty, and they’re worried about what’s happening there, but still hopeful. One wrote this in an email:

It seems that the battle still rages at UST for whether or not the university will be Catholic or secularized…I sure hope Flynn knows what he’s doing and can bring his flock back – he’s in a good position to do so, since they CHOSE him apparently. We need to pray for him and for UST. In Flynn’s defense, he’s already proven (himself in) forming the laity and younger generations of priests and religious. I want to trust that he has a plan with this too.

That same writer went on to say this:

What it all boils down to is to whether the secular forces are more committed to pulling away from the school’s foundational relationship with the Church that nurtured it and gave it life, or if the Church and her shepherds are able to step in and, gently or otherwise, restore the right order of faith and reason in a publicly-declared Catholic educational institution.

I have more emails. Want an idea of the caliber of the student body organizing the effort to plead for the continuing role of the local Church (in Archbishop Nienstedt) at UST? Here’s part of the letter that circulated there, written by one of the organizers:

I believe our project, in terms of the influence it might have in preserving the Catholic identity of this University, is the most important project that any of us might be a part of during our time at St. Thomas.  Our chances of successfully altering the decision are slim.  There does, however, exist a real possibility of success.  We must recognize that this is the most significant attack on the Catholicism of this university in many years, and we must be firm in our resolve that we will not stand idly before a reality so grave as this.

We will call our effort Apologia.  The word is Greek for “a defense.”  We seek to defend the University and the Church we love. 

We will conduct all of our affairs with great respect for Archbishop Flynn and [UST President] Father Dease.  We will express to them our profound sadness over the decision, and our anxiety over the implications the decision, in which they participated, will have for this university.  We will not presume motives for the decision other than those outlined by the Board.  We will carry ourselves with true humility, with charity, and with confidence.  Throughout the effort, we will refer to Father Dease as Father Dease, not Dease, and refer to Archbishop Flynn and Archbishop Nienstedt by their titles as well.

We act as concerned students, unaffiliated with any department or university organization.

It ended with this quote:

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”  G.K. Chesterton