Open letter to USD President Mary Lyons

November 6, 2012

Dear President Lyons:

We are dismayed that you have rescinded the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture's invitation to Professor Tina Beattie for a visiting fellowship. Professor Beattie is a highly respected theologian and colleague in our field. We are deeply embarrassed, both personally and professionally, that she has been treated by our institution in such an unprofessional and offensive manner. The outcry against your decision is now international. It is entirely in line with the mission and values of USD and the CCTC to host talks and workshops with highly competent Catholic theologians who engage in reasoned dialogue with other theologians (and with bishops and other church leaders) on current theological issues, including moral and ethical questions. In accord with the Catholic intellectual tradition, our university ought to foster careful, educated academic debate. This is especially important when it comes to contemporary controversial topics, including those related to Catholic moral teaching, over which good people of faith struggle and often disagree. To prevent reasoned dialogue is not to stand on the side of orthodoxy but of fear. Canceling a visit from a respected and established scholar, with vague allusions to such issues as the only explanation, casts a pall over USD's respect for academic freedom and its real Catholic identity. Indeed, many of us in the THRS department will attend the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion later this month in Chicago, and most are now expecting a repeat of the awkward questions and glances we had to field after the equally unfortunate "Ruether incident"--which our colleagues in the academy have not forgotten. Your decision seems to be establishing a very troubling pattern. This new incident reflects poorly on USD, on you as this universitys president, as well as on our department and our individual scholarly efforts. President Lyons, we urge you to reconsider your decision. We also urge you to immediately issue an appropriate public apology to Professor Beattie, to the USD faculty, and to all those you have inconvenienced or offended by making this decision on such questionable theological grounds. Respectfully,

Orlando O. Espn, Th.D., Professor of Theology Russell Fuller, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Studies Gerard Mannion, Ph.D., Professor of Theology K. Lekshe Tsomo, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies Mary C. Doak, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology Bahar Davary, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religious Studies Louis Komjathy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Karen Teel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology Aaron S. Gross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Susan P. Babka, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology Emily Reimer-Barry, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology Sarah Azaransky, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology David Moseley, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology