The news that Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit terminated the employment of three professors at the archdiocesan Sacred Heart Major Seminary is creating a lot of buzz in church circles. The removals are long overdue and kudos to Weisenburger, who was installed as archbishop on March 18, for doing it.
The three men terminated are Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverria and Edward Peters. All three had cast aspersions on Pope Francis, even questioning his orthodoxy. They did not restrict their criticism to scholarly articles in theological journals; they did so on blogs and in magazine interviews. Whether they intended it or not, and it is difficult to see how they did not intend it, their criticisms contributed to a hostility to Francis that is widespread in certain powerful sectors of the Catholic Church in the United States.
Peter Feuerherd’s excellent 2019 story about Sacred Heart being a hotbed of anti-Francis sentiment revealed the extent and the obnoxiousness of that sentiment. I had previously tangled with Peters over the years, for example, when he criticized something I had written about threats to marriage.
There is certainly room in academic circles for criticism of papal teaching, but the criticisms should always be rendered respectfully. I was in seminary when the Vatican took steps to remove Fr. Charles Curran. He was my professor for Moral Theology 101 and he certainly differed from the magisterium on several hot-button issues, but his critique was thoughtful and respectful. Curran was as persuasive when he presented magisterial teaching as he was when he explained his differences. He certainly never claimed that his teaching represented the authentic magisterium and not the pope’s.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
