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

Crisis Magazine has published two op-eds this week calling attention to the recent firings of three high-profile professors at Sacred Heart Seminary, who, in the words of one of the writers, “have each provided more than twenty years of exemplary service at the seminary.”

News broke last week that Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit had fired Eduardo Echeverria, professor of philosophy and systematic theology, and Ralph Martin, professor of theology and director of graduate programs in the new evangelization, as CatholicVote previously reported. On Friday of that week, prominent canon lawyer Ed Peters, professor and Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair of Faculty Development, revealed that he had also been relieved of duties.

In “Sadness and Loss at Sacred Heart Major Seminary,” Crisis’ July 30 article, Anne Hendershott, professor of sociology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, argues that the firings have done damage to the American Church and to morale on Catholic campuses.  Hendershott is also the director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan. 

“Those of us who are blessed to work on faithful Catholic college campuses were shocked and saddened to hear about the Detroit archbishop’s decision to abruptly fire three of the most prominent professors at Sacred Heart Major Seminary,” Hendershott wrote. 

She particularly lamented the archbishop’s failure to provide any justification for the firings. This “left a void that has unfortunately been filled with online speculation that has impugned their character and damaged their reputations,” according to Hendershott. She cited the coverage of the issue by Mike Lewis in Where Peter Is, which claimed that the professors were “outspoken critics of Pope Francis and openly challenged the orthodoxy of his magisterial teachings” as an example of this.

According to Hendershott, the professors “played a role in creating a culture of faithful orthodoxy at the seminary.” They were not critics of Pope Francis’ papacy, she argued, but instead they “simply asked for more clarification of some of Pope Francis’ more ambiguous and confusing statements and documents.”

The three fired professors are exemplary Catholics who have worked tirelessly in service of the Church’s mission, Hendershott argued.

Catholic author and speaker Greg Schlueter penned a second Crisis op-ed also published July 30 focusing on the legacy of one of the fired professors, Ralph Martin. In his article Schlueter argues that the Church has a dire need for clear moral teachers like Martin and that too many ecclesial authorities compromise on the truth in favor of “unity” or “prudence.”

“If Ralph Martin’s Gospel proclamation — thoroughly grounded in Scripture, magisterial teaching, and lived fruitfulness — can be dismissed with a bureaucratic shrug, we are not witnessing prudence,” Schlueter wrote. “We are witnessing fear — and worse: clericalism dressed as discernment.”

However, Schlueter cautions readers against looking at this issue purely in terms of worldly success. Martin’s teaching, he says, has helped many souls grow closer to Christ.

“The legacy of Ralph Martin will not be etched in faculty minutes or episcopal press releases,” Schlueter wrote. “It will live in the souls who heard him and found Christ. It will live in those who were not affirmed in confusion but restored in truth — those who were not made comfortable but made whole.”

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