"The University of St. Thomas can only live in the Heart of the Church." |
![]() |
The docsociety welcomes the Men of Sherwood-a hearty group of Catholic laymen and a few friar tucks. Their goal and ours is to seek an honest dialogue and change of heart (metanoia).
The docsociety joins the Men of Sherwood in asking the University of St. Thomas
Board of Trustees to reverse their decision to remove the sitting archbishop
and vicar general as ex officio chairman and vice chairman of the university
Board of Trustees. We are asking Archbishop Harry Flynn to admit that allowing
this hostile takeover of an archdiocesan institution by a sitting board was
an error. We ask Archbishop Flynn to welcome his brother bishop, John Nienstedt,
in charity and apostolic fraternity. We seek the resignation of President
Dennis Dease who engineered his own reappointment for a five year term at
over $200,000 a year. He has blatantly lied to students, faculty and the public
in explaining the change in by-laws by saying, “The simple reason was
that ordinaries of the diocese typically chair so many boards and are so inundated
with the demands of their jobs that it has become increasingly difficult to
be actively involved as university chairs.” In fact the great fear of
Fr. Dease was that the incoming bishop was going to devote too much time and
fatherly authority in safeguarding the university’s Catholic mission.
Fr. Dease knew his own record of undermining Catholic culture and university
freedom was so blatant he could never remain in the archdiocese’s highest
paying job under Archbishop Nienstedt. Fr. Dease has consistently concealed
the real power players and narcissistic reasoning for this historic severing
of the university from the Eucharistic Heart of the Church. This community
of learning that was given to us by our forefathers and intended for our descendants
has been seized by the most self-centered generation of clerics the diocese
has ever known.
The docsociety has argued for several years that the public, evangelical love
which must animate the priestly fraternity in our archdiocese has been corrupted.
This corruption now extends to the sacred apostolic fraternity of the bishops
as Archbishop Flynn has greeted his brother archbishop with a public smile
and a private act of betrayal. How can our local Church and university credibly
witness to the death, resurrection, and second coming of Christ if our archbishop
and university president have so disgracefully discarded their sacred duty
to be honest and loyal men? The Church has received a message which she shares
with others. When she loses her credibility as a witness, she loses her ability
to evangelize.
Read Pope Benedict's compelling address at Catholic University on April17,2008,
to American Catholic educators on the purpose of Catholic education.
A Catholic university is a place for dialogue seeking the truth. We seek that
dialogue. Let’s get this settled on campus—that’s what a
university is for. We urge student groups, faculty, diocesan priests, lawyers,
journalists and laymen to enter a dialogue on this campus to remember the
Catholic Eucharistic Church which built the place. Every stone and statue
will shout its memories. May hearts of stone hear and turn to flesh.
Our extended narrative, A
Trust Betrayed (PDF), we think is the best reporting thus far on
the full story of the takeover. You can also read
a short summary here
(PDF). Our case that the secularization of St Thomas is directly
related to the moral and intellectual incoherence of Dennis Dease, Losing
the Sacred Center
(PDF). The key role of Judge Diana Murphy in the secularization of
St Thomas is related here Abortion's
Handmaid
(PDF). Finally-- The
Men of Sherwood pictorial summary and powerpoint
(PDF) here. If you can only read one piece—look at the powerpoint.
To learn more about the St Thomas father trying to clean up the English Department see http://www.ustclassaction.com.