Women’s Ordination Conference calls for public apology from University of San Diego

Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, issued the following statement about the University of San Diego (USD) rescinding the invitation to Rosemary Radford Ruether to hold the Monsignor John S. Portman Chair in Roman Catholic Theology. It was announced in June that Ruether would hold this position, which involves a one-year appointment that includes teaching and a major lecture on campus. On Friday, July 18, USD released a statement that said “upon review of the specific purpose” of the position, Ruether had been uninvited.

The University of San Diego has violated the principle of academic freedom and has disregarded its own faculty’s decision to appoint Rosemary Radford Ruether to this honorary chair. Ruether, a world-renowned feminist theologian, is a prophet for our time who strives to bring about justice for women, our planet and all of God’s creation.

We call on USD to apologize publicly to Ruether and the faculty of the theology and religious studies department.

Within the last month, Catholic women have been excommunicated by the Vatican, penalized by their local bishop, and banned from being altar servers. This recent action only exacerbates the mounting oppression experienced by Catholic women. The Women’s Ordination Conference expects more from a Catholic university that prides itself on its strategic goal of being a “powerful advocate for social justice and human rights.”

It is the role of universities to provide the space for scholars to discuss controversial issues, allowing room for both sides. USD has ignored its own core value which states their intention “to uphold the highest standards of intellectual inquiry and academic freedom.”

USD has also stripped the power of its own faculty to recruit and select the scholar for this honorary chair. However, those who will suffer most from the university’s decision, are the students who will be denied the invaluable opportunity to study with one of the world’s preeminent voices in theology.

As an alumna of the University of San Diego, I am personally appalled at this decision. This is the last announcement I expected to hear after being overjoyed at the news of her appointment.

Ruether will continue to express her beliefs and work for justice in the church and society. It is a matter of principle for a university that claims to value academic freedom and justice to apologize for this decision and to hold itself to the values that it proclaims.

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Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest national organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic church. WOC represents the 63-70 percent of US Catholics that support women’s ordination. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity. Ruether is a member of WOC’s National Advisory Committee.