Anonymous Sacred Heart Seminary faculty member requests due process for 3 fired professors

An anonymous member of Sacred Heart Seminary’s faculty has written an open letter to the seminary’s board of trustees detailing how Archbishop Edward Weisenburger’s sudden firings of three longtime professors violated the school’s faculty handbook.

“These dismissals directly violate several provisions of the Faculty Handbook (attached), the document adopted by the Board of Trustees to govern the relationship between the seminary and its faculty, which functions as part of each faculty member’s contract,” the Aug. 26 letter, first reported by The Pillar co-founder J.D. Flynn via X, said.

Professors Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverria, and Edward Peters were all fired in late July, as CatholicVote previously reported. The Aug. 26 letter alleges that Archbishop Weisenburger met with them personally to tell them their services were no longer needed and gave each of them an offer for a year’s severance pay on the condition of signing a non-disclosure agreement.

“When my colleagues asked why, the Archbishop said that the reason for their dismissals was theological perspectives different from his own, which the Archbishop declined to elaborate,” the letter states.

The letter details three ways that the firings allegedly deviated from the faculty handbook’s rules.

The handbook states that a faculty member may be fired if found, “after due process,” to be in violation of contract or the handbook. According to the letter, no such violations have been documented.

Senior faculty members are also protected by the handbook’s section of academic freedom, which states that “differing theological perspectives” are welcome so long as they do not teach anything contrary to the Magisterium. No examples of teaching contrary to the Magisterium have been produced as proof against any of the three fired professors, according to the letter.

Finally, the letter detailed how the handbook states that senior professors must be given at least 13 months notice before being terminated.

The author of the letter acknowledges that the Archbishop is the seminary’s governing authority but says that “that authority must be exercised in a manner consistent with the seminary’s governing documents and faculty contracts in order to keep faith with the SHMS faculty.”

The letter goes on to describe the “chilling effect” the firings have had on the remaining faculty members’ senses of “morale, job security, and academic freedom.” It also cites the negative press coverage of the seminary the firings have caused, saying this could hurt reputation, enrollment and income for the seminary.

The anonymous faculty member closes by requesting that the archbishop and Board of Trustees “do what justice requires.” This means either reinstating the three professors or, if there is provable cause, terminating them through the proper channels.

>> Crisis Magazine: 3 fired Sacred Heart Professors had created ‘culture of faithful orthodoxy at the seminary’ <<

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