Professor Leonard Swidler
September 4, 2007
215-477-1080
dialogue@temple.edu

 PRESS RELEASE (For release not before Wed. Sept. 5, 2007)

ARCC's Letter to John P. Schlegel, S.J., President
Creighton University

John P. Schlegel, S.J., President
Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha NE 68178

Dear President Schlegel,

The Board of Directors of ARCC and I want you to know how strongly we support your efforts to defend the integrity of Creighton as a Catholic University. To be both "Catholic" and "University" is often misunderstood and always difficult to achieve, but it is an essential and time-honored function of the Church ever since the first European universities evolved from cathedral schools some seven centuries ago and scholars, such as Abelard and Thomas Aquinas, dared challenge received opinions while defending the God-given human ability to think.

The Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church encourages you to continue to defend with all your strength what you know to be the very foundation of Creighton -- to teach in the Catholic and liberal arts tradition without any fear of examining and exploring all kinds of ideas and discoveries. To do otherwise is an abandonment of both the Catholic spirit and the very meaning of University.

No one can deny the Catholicity* of Creighton, no matter what your bishop might say or threaten. But many will doubt its right to call itself a University should you consistently deny your students the right to discuss a broad spectrum of ideas and the reasons to accept or reject them. Catholicity has nothing to fear from what some might consider even the most repugnant notions, even though some fearful Catholics (especially in high places) may think so.

"The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear"-- see Mk 5:40. Have faith and fear not.

Leonard Swidler, President
Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church
215-477-1080