Greetings in Christ President Towey,
Please know our highest regard, gratitude, support, and prayer for you as head of Ave Maria University.
Accordingly, in our shared, earnest desire for the advancement of Ave's mission, and all those entrusted to her care, we hope and pray you receive our respectful candor: We have strong concerns about the appropriateness of your/Ave Maria University's representation of the current crisis (https://www.avemaria.edu/riftstatement/).
At the outset, your tone and many of the terms you use ("rift" "smarting" "choreographed" "seemed to") could be taken as personal angst, of a charged political nature. You appropriate the popular, misguided, political narrative in application to matters church. Ecclesial matters cannot be reduced to matters "conservative" or "liberal," which presuppose human-centered purpose and power. Our consideration is the God-centered and revealed purpose and power, and how we respond accordingly. This is about responding faithfully (orthodoxy) or not (heterodoxy).
Accordingly, we wholeheartedly agree with your statement: "Ave Maria University is rightly known for our unqualified fidelity to the Church."
And we regard how Pope Francis directs our response:
"Everyone is guilty for the good he could have done and did not do… If we do not oppose evil, we tacitly feed it. We need to intervene where evil is spreading; for evil spreads where daring Christians who oppose evil with good are lacking." (August 12, 2018)
Such principals do not derive their value because of who said them, but because they are objectively true. We can not determine them; they determine us. Accordingly, based upon those objective principals that measure every man, we appeal that you do not readily dismiss the absence of Pope Francis' reply to the persistent, important, respectful inquiries made by many orthodox Catholic theologians, Cardinals and bishops; acting well within canon law, the precise purpose is for the Holy Father to demonstrate his "unqualified fidelity to the Church." It is disconcerting the Pope has yet to reply, and many remain in confusion.
The same is true in the present matter. Ex-nuncio Archbishop Viganò, whose integrity is held in great esteem by innumerable bishops, made important allegations of the Pope’s shielding McCarrick, and even engaging him as counsel. How can we do anything other than seek the transparency demanded by the pope himself?
Acting not "politically" but within Catholic orthodoxy, USCCB head Cardinal DiNardo called for a prompt investigation. The Holy Father had an opportunity to directly respond and dispel these claims. He not only failed to do so, he declared he would “not say a word….” How is this consistent with his call for transparency? How does it not perpetuate the very clerical culture that allowed horrendous abuse to occur? By definition, this is "dissimulation," an affront to the Eighth Commandment:
"Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy." (CCC, 2468)
While we strongly agree with you that we should not be calling for resignation, we must share the church's appropriate and just call for an investigation. Such a call is not defiance, it is becoming of faith; failure to do so, in the words of Pope Francis, makes us complicit in tacitly feeding evil.
Accordingly, we must believe, hope and pray this response of faith is shared by other faith-filled, thoughtful, orthodox Catholics who teach and attend Ave Maria University ("Contrary to the popular narrative, most conservative Catholics are not following suit and embracing their defiance, and certainly not on our campus.")
Over the past weeks we have endeavored to address these matters on our weekly radio program, IGNITE Radio Live. We've been blessed by wonderful guests, including Peter Herbeck, Eric Sammons and Jeff Barefoot. Our approach: "Seeds of Revival." We are inviting all to look in the mirror and strive after the heart of the Father.
During these difficult times, please know that we remain united with you in fasting and praying for the revival we know our Father so earnestly desires.
Greg Schlueter
Proud Parent of an Ave Maria University student
