Gregorian University fires famous Latin teacher

December 10, 2006, 9:33 pm

Fr. Reginald Foster, one of the most renowned Latinists in the world, was fired last week from the Gregorian University by the Society of Jesus, stating that too many students were taking Fr. Foster’s classes without paying tuition. - from the Catholic News Agency

It looks like Gregorian University once again (if Bacchiocchi is right about what they said about his thesis) acts tactlessly, perhaps for political reasons.

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Posted by Jared Olar
on December 11, 2006, 4:15 am

I don't think the Gregorian's dismissal of Father Foster was tactless or political. It was as reported, that Father Foster didn't like going through the process of registering students and charging them tuition. Frankly, Father Foster never liked the idea of charging tuition anyway. After tolerating Father Foster's, um, idiosyncrasies for many years, they finally decided it was best to have Father Foster use a different venue for his valuable Latin classes. Those who wish to receive Latin instruction from him may still do so, only now it won't be an unofficially free service offered by the Gregorian.

I'm not aware of any connection between Father Foster's dismissal and the allegations the Gregorian's former General Secretary made against Dr. Bacchiocchi two years ago.

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Posted by stephen
on December 11, 2006, 8:02 am

I think they could have dealt with Fr Foster in a better way ... maybe helping him establish his institution before getting rid of him.

The Bacchiocchi link: I was unclear on that. I meant the original praise he got ... if he got it. It always sounded more like an excessive attempt to pander to the anti-Catholic side of Christianity in the name of ecumenism. In that world, "an interesting perspective" etc. is just a euphemism for "unorthodox theology". Jesuits have a name for that sort of thing, though.

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Posted by Jared Olar
on December 12, 2006, 6:29 am

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, maybe they could have handle Fr. Foster differently.

"An excessive attempt to pander to the anti-Catholic side of Christianity in the name of ecumenism." Yes, that's a good way to phrase things. In retrospect, though it was kind of the Gregorian to let Dr. Bacchiocchi study there, it was a bad decision to let an anti-Catholic ideologue pursue a degree with them. He has since made it clear that he went there not out of any noble scholarly motives, but in order to find evidence to support his a priori opinion that Catholicism is false and Adventism is true. Dr. Bacchiocchi may be correct that in the early 1980s when Professor Monachino would no longer receive him, it was because he was under obedience to do so, and to me it seems that may have been belated discipline for his mishandling of the admission of Dr. Bacchiocchi in the first place, as well as the publication, printing, and improper transfer of the imprimatur from one book to a different book. Well, that's how it looks right now, but these impressions could easily change if more facts come out after Bishop Murray and the Gregorian do a formal investigation.

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