Milking Scandal

THE BOSTON GLOBE, April 21 — College courses relating to Catholicism are taking a new direction “in light of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis that has rocked Catholicism the past year,” the Boston daily reported.

Professors on both Catholic and secular campuses are writing books, offering new courses and hosting conferences that bring a certain “edge" to the study of the Catholic religion, the newspaper said.

In a reference to “Catholicism in Crisis,” a course at Tufts University, the opening paragraph of the Globe story offers an insight about what this “edge" might entail:

“The new syllabus says it all: ‘Sexual abuse. Women's ordination. Authority and dissent in the Church. Homosexuality and priesthood.’"

Lineup Change

KANSAS CITY STAR , April 29 — St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan will replace former American Airlines chairman and chief executive Donald Carty as commencement speaker at the Jesuits’ St. Louis University.

Carty agreed to pull out of the ceremony following his resignation after American had approved bonuses and pension payments for executives that would be protected even in bankruptcy. This occurred simultaneous to the airlines’ asking rank-and-file workers to accept $1.8 billion in annual pay cuts.

In his Post-Dispatch column of April 27, McClellan wrote that Carty would have been a great speaker because disgrace “is a wonderful teacher.”

Busy in Michigan

CHRONICLE.COM, May 2 — St. Mary's College of Ave Maria University, a suburban Detroit institution that was formed as a result of a merger in 2000, will become part of nearby Madonna University on July 1.

In a separate development, the Associated Press reported that Rusty Hills, a former state Republican Party chairman, would spearhead the founding of a new four-year college, Sweetest Heart of Mary College, in the Lansing area.

Hills said the college would be “faithful to the teachings of the Church and the Pope" and concentrate on such issues as abortion, euthanasia, cloning and doctor-assisted suicide.

St. Mary's, which grew from a seminary that was founded in 1885, was struggling financially before it became part of Ave Maria University. The merger with Madonna will not involve the seminary or St. Mary's Prep School.

New President

UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON, April 29 — Jesuit Father Scott Pilarz, interim university chaplain and assistant professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., has been named the 24th president of the University of Scranton, Pa. When he takes office July 1, he will succeed Jesuit Father Joseph McShane, the new president of Fordham University in New York.

Father Pilarz, 43, holds a doctorate in English. He was responsible for leading campus-ministry efforts on George-town's main, medical and law campuses.

Marianists

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, April 28 — Marianist Brother Raymond Fitz, a past president of the university, has been named executive director of the newly formed Association of Marianist Universities.

The new association will support cooperation among the three universities operated by the order of priests and brothers.

In addition to Dayton, the other two Marianist universities are St. Mary's University in San Antonio; and Chaminade University in Honolulu.