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One Piece
Missing
A new Catholic institution
emerges—with a painful birth.
By Philip F. Lawler
On March 11, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, received an order from his provincial, Father Thomas H. Smolich, SJ: “You are to have no role, public or private, in Campion College, just as Campion College has no relationship with the Society of Jesus.” The provincial’s letter continued: “I mission you to become associate chaplain at Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, California.”
There was nothing subtle about the new assignment. The head chaplain at Santa Teresita is Father Cornelius Buckley, SJ, a former history professor who had been assigned to the hospital just outside Los Angeles after his criticism of liberal colleagues made him unwelcome at the University of San Francisco. Father Smolich conceded that “there is not sufficient work for two full-time priests” at the 40-bed facility. But the assignment would move Father Fessio out of San Francisco, and away from Campion College.
Father Fessio replied to his provincial’s letter on the same day. “I am a Jesuit,” he wrote. “I will obey.”
A year of conflict
The reassignment of Father Fessio was precipitated by a series of events that began last March, when Father Stephen Privett, SJ, the president of the University of San Francisco (USF), dismissed several faculty members from the St. Ignatius Institute, a small arm of USF that was known for its “Great Books” approach to the liberal arts and its firmly Catholic identity. As many alumni and friends protested what they saw as a gutting of the Ignatius Institute, Father Fessio made an appeal to the Vatican for help in saving the program.That appeal proved successful. Two influential prelates—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, the chief editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church—signed a letter calling for the restoration of the Ignatius Institute program. Cardinal Ratzinger presented the letter to Pope John Paul II, who gave his general approval to its contents and referred the matter to the Congregation for Catholic Education for implementation.
At that point, however, Father Fessio’s initiative began to meet organized resistance—from the administration of USF and the leadership of the Jesuit order. After months of wrangling, when the Vatican finally issued its pronouncements, they were thoroughly ambiguous. Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, wrote to Father Privett, urging him to exercise “diligence” in guarding “the integrity of doctrine and the uprightness of life of teachers,” so that “the Institute continues as before with its own teaching in full fidelity to the magisterium of the Church.” At the same time, the cardinal called for an end to the battle over the Ignatius Institute, urging all parties to “seek to collaborate in providing the best education possible” to students at USF and the Institute.
The USF administration characterized the letter from Cardinal Grocholewski as an unqualified statement of Vatican support for the changes at the Ignatius Institute. “One thing is clear,” a USF press release insisted: “It is the St. Ignatius Institute that is remaining faithful to the Vatican on this matter, and it is some former SII members who are distancing themselves from the Holy See.”
The birth of Campion College
When it became clear that the USF administration saw “collaboration” as a one-way street, the original supporters of the Ignatius Institute began to discuss the creation of a separate institution. If their approach to Catholic liberal education was no longer welcome at USF, they reasoned, they could set up their own college, dedicated to the same principles that had once guided the Ignatius Institute. This new institution would be (as the promotional materials for Campion College soon announced):. . . a small, intense learning community. At its core is an integrated curriculum grounded in the long and rich tradition of Christian humanism as it has been preserved and fostered within the Catholic Church.
The first plans for Campion College were simple and straightforward. There would be a small faculty, made up primarily of scholars who had formerly taught at the Ignatius Institute. The college would offer a fixed two-year curriculum, centered on classic texts, with a heavy concentration on philosophy and Catholic theology. For the handful of students who entered the program, Campion College would offer a commitment to spiritual as well as intellectual formation.
Cardinal Schönborn, who happened to be visiting San Francisco as these plans were hatched, expressed his wholehearted support for the plan. “Congratulations for Campion College!” he wrote. “It will be a beautiful enrichment for the vast field of Catholic education. It will provide an excellent formation in the best tradition of Christian humanism.”
Eager to cement the “collaboration” that the Vatican had sought, Father Fessio wrote to his Jesuit provincial, outlining the plans for the new venture. He explained that “it is very important to me that this college both be and appear to be complementary to the work of the Society of Jesus in general and of the University of San Francisco in particular.”
The reply came in the form of a cease-and-desist letter from USF. Donna Davis, the general counsel for the University, threatened that USF would take legal action against the upstart institution. Campion College, she charged, was falsely claiming an affiliation with USF and with the Ignatius Institute there.
Responding on behalf of the new school, Father Fessio replied that Campion College was not claiming any affiliation with USF. In fact, he pointed out, the new institution would not even be a competitor for its larger neighbor, since no one could fail to notice the differences between the educational approach taken by Campion College and that of the newly remodeled Ignatius Institute:
With the differences between Campion and USF so sharply defined (in the minds of interested parties), it is almost a certainty that Campion will draw no student away from USF. On the contrary, I believe that Campion’s proximity to USF might lead some graduates of its two-year program to seek to transfer to USF to complete their undergraduate degrees.
However, Father Fessio did concede, “To the extent that the mere existence of Campion is viewed as a criticism of USF, I don’t think there is much to be done.” But something could be done. Less than a week after he wrote that letter to Donna Davis, Father Fessio was informed of his new assignment—far from the scene of Campion College.
Campion College will open in September, under the leadership of John Galten, the former director of the Ignatius Institute. Father Fessio will have no role in the new institution (although he continues to serve as director of Ignatius Press). Like any new educational institution, the new school will face a struggle to survive. But Campion College has already passed one market test. In Washington, DC, an enterprising group of Catholic scholars have announced that they will open their own branch of Campion College this fall.