Stephen Lewis, the Franciscan University of Steubenville professor at the center of the recent controversy over his assignment of a "pornographic" and "blasphemous" French novel that included sexually graphic musings, some involving the Virgin Mary, has just been removed as the chair of the English Department.
The department description, above, listing Dr. Lewis as Chair, was I believe still up yesterday (the cache itself is from January 8th). But a new description, without the Chair designation, has now replaced it.
This follows an initial defense of Lewis's actions by Steubenville's Public Relations Manager, Tom Sofio. However, after pressure from other faculty members, donors and alumni, the President of Steubenville, Father Sean Sheridan, quickly backtracked and issued an apology.
According to Christina Niles at Church Militant, which initially broke the story, Stephen Lewis himself remained "defiant".
Lewis has been a controversial figure for some time. Among other things he had backed Rebecca Bratten Weiss, the self-proclaimed "leftist feminist" that Steubenville had decided not to re-hire in 2017. His wife, Suzanne M. Lewis still edits the journal Convivium with Weiss and the two worked together on the Revolution of Tenderness festival in Pittsburgh.
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| Suzanne M. Lewis and Rebecca Bratten Weiss |
Obviously, you can still view most of the pages by choosing the "cache" option in your Google search.
The incident has been an embarrassment to Steubenville and perhaps a minor tragedy for its students. But I hope I will be forgiven for thinking it also has its comic elements. The Lewis-Weiss axis seems to have an obsession with juvenile vulgarity, whether it is assigning French "erotic" novels to upper-level students or making political comments on Twitter.
Bratten Weiss spent much of yesterday defending Stephen Lewis in the twittersphere. "We're basically open-minded and unprudish Catholics. Why is Steubenville being so fascist?" was the general if predictable gist. But her last tweet was on an unrelated subject:
What a lovely young lady. Definitely Steubenville English Department material.
How did Franciscan University of Stubenville descend so quickly. What a stunning descent. Just a few years ago they were considered a bastion of orthodoxy, and now I wouldn't send my child there for free. Boy that slide into the bin comes quick, once you open the door to Modernism, it's pretty much a short hop to disaster and moral degeneracy. I was offended by what was in that pornographic reading that pervert recommended. For God's sake, I can't even repeat it, but it is hard to understand what holds back God's arm at this point, for that blasphemy alone.
ReplyDeleteUnless FSU wants to go under, they better do some housecleaning and throw out the Modernist trash. They made a nice, political move here. Toss out the white guy and replace him with the ethnic female. I don't know who she is, hopefully she likes Catholicism.
I agree with most of your statement, but not the ethnic part. I am a Black Hispanic and am tired of people making ethnic advancement as part of the determination because it is politically correct. I myself wouldn't like it. We should climb up the ladder due to our talents and only for our talents. Being a certain race isn't a talent. Being a true Catholic is needed as you said. God Bless
DeleteWho decided to hire these parasitic intruders in the first place?
ReplyDeleteSomehow none of this inspires confidence in the administration that appears to have sought its inspiration from Pope Francis. Are there any Orthodox Catholic colleges remaining? Seems to be a waning business.
ReplyDeleteThomas Aquinas College, Sta. Paula CA, completely Catholic and thus totally classical. I was chaplain there for seven years, and can attest that it offers a superb preparation for this world and the next. Donate even if you do not have a child there. Fr. Bart de la Torre, O.P.
DeleteIt’s Rebecca, not Rachel, Bratten Weiss
ReplyDeleteThank you. I knew that. Corrected.
DeleteKathleen1031, The descent is explained by: Follow The Money; both the rise within the Steu. admn. hierarchy of perverts and pronographers, and the fall. Had there not been the very real threat of diminished donations, these porno peddlers and perversion propagandists would still be ensconced there, and thriving. They must do a toxic cleanse, not simply take away chairs, but fire them and rid their faculty of all such disease. Guy Mcclung, Texas
ReplyDeleteHow do they go down so quickly? Easy. This Lewd professor has been there for a while, doing his mischief ever more boldly, and attempting to hire others (Bratty Becky) to do the same. Oh, and as for BB's parting Tweet posted above - REMEMBER, YOU SAID IT NOT ME. This bunch needs an exorcist. Tancred is Correct - find out who hired these creeps and FIRE THEM TOO, along with the PR guy Sofio and Fr. Sheridan, because his "sorry / not sorry" letter just doesn't cut it, it merely shows whose side he's on - and it ain't the Church's.
ReplyDeleteRBW is an extremely fine writer, and I would guess a truly fine professor. I’ve not experienced her class, but I know some of her work. The condemnations bring to mind the Zen notion:
ReplyDelete“Sooner or later, your mind will conform to the Truth”.
"Extremely fine writer"? If the essay about dying on a hill is any indication, she's a self-indulgent, purple-prose-addicted, self-referential word-soup chef. Oh, and her ideas are loopy and repellent. Otherwise, her writing is so-so.
DeleteI thought her kind likes Fascists! Why is she using the term in such a derogatory sense!?! 😉
ReplyDeleteOn the serious side, Nora’s right! FSU needs to get rid of those people... They need to rid the school & the whole campus of all of the modernists/socialists/fascists/commies, especially, the wolves in sheep’s clothing & the wolves in shepherd’s clothing.
Open minded ....the technical term for apostate
ReplyDeleteBeing afraid of a “self-proclaimed leftist feminist” does not say much about how well a system of belief can withstand questioning. Those of you who to see RBW as a threat never left the Dark Ages.
ReplyDeleteA Catholic university is not a place to test your faith, but to strengthen it, including by teaching how to defend the faith and its morals against its contraries, not teach the contraries and present them in an attractive and therefore deceptive way. Note that your referenece to the "Dark Ages" betrays a lack of awareness of current scholarship debunking that Protestant propagandist myth.
DeleteBratten-Weiss is a Jew I wonder if that Lewis guy is a Jew as well. Hey, let's hire Jews at our Catholic University, what could possibly go wrong?
ReplyDeleteThe only commonality among Jews is rejection of Christ. It is no surprise if they teach values contrary to His. That a Catholic university should hire a Jew already betrays its lack of love of the true faith.
DeleteYou can hire Jews, Muslims and Protestants for other subjects like math and science. I agree not for teaching our Catholic Faith.
DeleteProfessor Lewis should leave Steubenville. It's appalling that the college administration does not act on his case. He and RBW should go defecate in some other place.
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to this foul-mouthed, foul-minded "professor." He no doubt got his degrading attitude in the cesspool that English Departments have become. My granddaughter just graduated from Franciscan and had a great experience there. Hopefully, this episode has been a learning experience for the university and they will repent and rethink.
ReplyDeleteWe have been providing Franciscan University with financial support for many, many years, even though we have never had any children attending the University. We supp0rted the University, because we believed it to be an excellent Catholic Orthodox university. Until Fr. Sheridan and Stephen Lewis are no longer at the University, the University
ReplyDeletewill no longer have our support. Dr. & Mrs Alexander Manning.