Thomas Mead, Executive Vice President of the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), today commended the administration of the Catholic University of San Diego (USD) in rescinding a key academic appointment to a pro-abortion theologian last month and urged them to remain steadfast despite radical feminist protests.

In June USD announced that Rosemary Radford Ruether had accepted and would assume the honorary Monsignor John R. Portman Chair in Roman Catholic Theology for the 2009-10 academic year. She was to teach an undergraduate course and deliver the annual Portman Lecture in the fall. However, the university reversed its decision in July after reviewing “the specific purpose” of the Chair.

Earlier today, a 2,000 plus signature petition was delivered to the offices of the President and Vice President of USD calling on the university to reverse its decision. The petition, initiated by the Woman’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) and the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), included 56 signatures of USD faculty.

“On behalf of our 20,000 plus member base, dedicated to the renewal of Catholic higher education, the Cardinal Newman Society publicly supports the resolve of the University of San Diego administration to not re-extend the offer to Ruether,” stated Thomas Mead.

The honorary chair, named after founding department member Monsignor John R. Portman, is described to be fit for “distinguished theologians who think from within the Roman Catholic tradition while exploring and expressing the tradition in contemporary contexts."

Despite Ruether’s refusal of Church teaching on an exclusively male priesthood and her status as a board member of Catholics for Choice, an organization that publicly supports abortion and contraceptive rights, the petition states: “Professor Ruether clearly satisfies this description as a Catholic scholar in good standing.”

The protesters urge the University of San Diego to either fully re-extend the offer made to Ruether to hold the honorary chair in theology, or engage her so as to “deliver the Portman Lecture on the matter of academic freedom in Catholic higher education.”

The protesters cite as support for their demands this quote from Pope Benedict’s April address to Catholic educators in Washington, D.C.: “In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges and universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you.”

In the next sentence after this quote, which the protesters do not cite, Pope Benedict states: “Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission”

“This petition takes our Holy Father’s words out of context and completely misrepresents his meaning,” said Thomas Mead. “Pope Benedict clearly warned against the intrusion of ‘positions that contradict the faith’ into Catholic university life. Permitting Rosemary Radford Ruether to hold the honorary chair in Roman Catholic Theology certainly would have betrayed this essential mission.”

“The Cardinal Newman Society calls on all supporters of Pope Benedict’s vision for Catholic higher education to support the University of San Diego against the assault of this insidious petition,” finished Mead.