The Father King Society: Blatty's Georgetown Petition Goes to Pope Francis
Washington Archdiocese Guides Petition to Rome
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Canon Law petition of more than 2,000 Catholics represented by Academy Award winner William Peter Blatty- whose best-selling book and blockbuster film The Exorcist were situated at his alma mater Georgetown University - has now been submitted to the supreme pontiff with the guidance and green light of the Archdiocese of Washington.
The petition asks the Catholic Church to require that Georgetown implement Ex corde Ecclesiae, a papal constitution governing Catholic colleges, and, only as a last possible measure, the removal or suspension of top-ranked Georgetown's right to call itself Catholic and Jesuit in any of its representations. As head of the Argentine bishops' conference and as chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, then Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis), successfully implemented Ex corde Ecclesiae, and he also approved of Pope Benedict's 2012 decree removing consent from the University of Peru to call itself "Catholic." The petition submitted to Rome cites this case because of its strong similarity to the Georgetown matter.
"The very first remedy that we asked of His Eminence, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, was: If the Holy Spirit leads you to it and your conscience will allow it, to declare publicly that Georgetown University is compliant with Ex corde Ecclesiae, orients its institutional initiatives according to standards that are consistent with the norms and morality of the Church, and lives up to the title 'Catholic,'" explained Blatty. "His Eminence opted not to do that."
In 2012, D.C.'s Archdiocesan newspaper wrote in an editorial that at Georgetown University: "leadership and faculty find their inspiration in sources other than the Gospel and Catholic teaching," and that "the vision guiding university choices does not clearly reflect the light of the Gospel and authentic Catholic teaching."
"The petition submitted to Pope Francis," said Manuel A. Miranda, who serves as Mr. Blatty's counsel, "is more than 200 pages and contains more than 480 footnotes, 99 appendices, 124 witness statements, and a commissioned 120-page institutional audit of Georgetown. We have documented 23 years of scandals and dissidence, more than 100 scandals in the most recent years alone."
For more information, please go to www.fatherkingsociety.org.
SOURCE The Father King Society
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