SAN FRANCISCO — The controversy that rocked the University of San Francisco's St. Ignatius Institute last year took a new turn Feb. 28. That's when Ignatius Press announced the foundating of Campion College — a new Catholic college in the mold of the former St. Ignatius Institute.

The new college has already received high praise. Vienna, Austria's, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, said Campion “will be a beautiful enrichment for the vast field of Catholic education. It will provide an excellent formation in the best tradition of Christian humanism. Campion College is truly full of promise.”

Even before it opens its doors and begins the accreditation process, Campion has already reached agreements with three universities to accept its credits: Ave Maria University in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and the pontifical International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria.

The creation of a new Catholic college in San Francisco is the latest turn in a story that began in January 2001.

That's when Jesuit Father Stephen Privett ended his first semester as Univeristy of San Francisco president by firing longtime St. Ignatius Institute Director John Galten and Assistant Director John Hamlon, announcing that the Institute would be reorganized to “integrate it more fully into the university.” Father Privett described the Institute, which offered students of the larger university a four-year study of the Great Books to supplement their regular course of studies, as “too isolationist.”

In protest, the Institute's six core faculty members resigned, claiming that Father Privett's actions would radically change the program, which taught approximately 150 students and was known for its loyalty to the magisterium of the Church.

According to the Web site for Campion College, the Institute's staff created the new college because of their dissatisfaction with the university's remake of the St. Ignatius Institute.

But the idea was older than that, said fired Institute Director John Galten. “I first discussed the idea of a new, independent college a year or two ago,” Galten told the Register. “At that time the Institute was still going strong, but I posed the question to get people thinking.”

Galten last fall shared a stage with Cardinal Avery Dulles as winners of Cardinal Newman Society awards for preserving Catholic identity in higher education. Galten was honored for the 20 years he devoted to the St. Ignatius Institute before being fired. Cardinal Dulles, a Jesuit, was honored for his work at Fordham University.

At the time of his award, Campion's advisers had already spent months visiting potential sites for the new college, said Galten.

Galten stressed that Campion is not a copycat of the St. Ignatius Institute, but “represents something new.”

“We will have the ability to do our own recruiting and will have control over our own destiny,” Galten said.

Campion's faculty will draw from former St. Ignatius Institute faculty, said Father Joseph Fessio, who is Campion's key planner.

“They know the most about the curriculum,” he said, “and will be given first choice.” Five of the names mentioned in association with Campion were formerly with the Institute — director John Galten and professors Raymond Dennehy, Dr. Michael Torre, Kim Summerhays and Father Fessio himself.

The news of Campion's creation follows a February declaration of victory by the University of San Francisco. In a University of San Francisco press release, the university says that the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education rejected an appeal to preserve the St. Ignatius Institute.

The 2001 appeal by Institute supporters had proposed having Father Privett work with the Jesuit superior general, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, “to achieve a peaceful resolution, in which the university would allow true diversity and the institution could exist in its integrity,” Father Fessio told the Register last year.

Cardinal Schönborn supported the appeal. “I would regret very much if the Ignatius Institute should succumb to the mainstream,” he said last summer in the San Francisco Chronicle. “It would be a deep loss to the Church and to the academic community.”

The University of San Francisco has not released the text of the Feb. 11, 2002, letter from the Vatican's Education Congregation. The university claims that the letter expresses Vatican approval of the university's decisions to reconstitute the Institute's curriculum and replace its director.

In a March 1 press release, the University of San Francisco quotes the Vatican letter as saying, “We are asking all the parties involved in the tension to seek to collaborate in providing the best education possible to the young people who come both to the University of San Francisco and to the St. Ignatius Institute.”

The release states that the university is “disappointed that the leaders of the newly formed Campion College have chosen to disregard the Congregation's directive.”

“We have to say that they have won and that we just have to do it on our own,” said Raymond Dennehy, philosophy professor at the University of San Francisco and a former Ignatius faculty member. “Once we're free from any religious order, we cannot be held in thrall.”

Says the University of San Francisco statement: “The University will not support a program that duplicates its own.”

It adds, “parents and students must clearly understand that Campion is not accredited,” and it says that “students may be disappointed to find that Campion lacks the myriad benefits a full University can offer — including a fully stocked library, state of the art computer labs, the ability to join an ethnic club, play on an intramural team, participate in Third World immersion experience, or join student government.”

Answered Dennehy: “They're going to view us the way the lion sees a leopard — as unnecessary competition.”

Institute graduate Steve Ambuul added that “Every college starts small and has to be accredited. The University of San Francisco went through the same thing after its founding. The fact that one week after the concept was born, three universities are willing to accept their credits is proof of the potential of Campion.”

Ambuul, class of 2000, said he and other Institute graduates have high hopes in Campion College to reproduce the kind of education they once received at the Institute.

“The university has no idea what Campion can become, yet they are attacking it,” he said. “After the events of last year, it appears as if God closed a window and opened a door.”

Campion's Courage

The college is named for St. Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest who smuggled himself back into England after the Catholic faith had been banned there. After saying Mass clandestinely until, he was executed in 1581.

Campion professors see their work as akin to Campion's. Professor Dennehy says the St. Ignatius Institute has changed dramatically after its core faculty left. He describes the current program as a “Potemkin village,” in an allusion to the Russian general who built phony villages to impress Catherine the Great.

“The name is there, but its commitment to the teachings of the Vatican is no longer there,” said Dennehy.

Current St. Ignatius Institute student April Visperas said that she has seen noticeable differences in the program since last year. “Some of the classes that we were supposed to have taken have been waived because they couldn't find professors to teach them, such as modern philosophy. The only reason I've stayed at USF is the Institute,” said Visperas, who is a junior. “When we first learned of the changes at the Institute last year the deadlines to transfer elsewhere had already passed.”

“I think Campion is a good idea. Many of the classes that they will be teaching, and the ideals and values that the Institute held are going to be continued through Campion,” added Visperas.

The University of San Francisco said it was the Institute — not the university — which was ignoring Vatican directives.

Campion College is described as a two-year college with an integrated Catholic liberal arts, Great Books curriculum designed to prepare students to transfer into a four-year university of their choice. It will offer a single degree — associate of humanities.

Situated a half-block away from the University of San Francisco, administrative offices will be co-located with Ignatius Press, while classrooms, a library, and student lodging is available in or near the neighborhood.

“The program,” explained Galten, “will embody both the spirit and the curriculum of the original St. Ignatius Institute, free from the constraints of a larger university that does not share its goals.”

Although the college is getting a late start, Father Fessio feels confident that they will be able to start next fall. The college plans to limit its first class to 15 students.

“We will be offering full scholarships to every student who is admitted,” said Father Fessio. “We are looking for some pioneers.”

Information

Campion College of San Francisco 2515 McAllister St.

San Francisco, CA 94118

(415)-387-2324 www.ignatius.com/campio