Posted on 03/27/2007 8:19:59 AM PDT by NYer
An Ave Maria University dean who spoke out last week about the firing of the school’s provost has been reassigned to a new position in Michigan.
However, the Rev. J. Michael Beers, 57, dean of the pre-theologate program at Ave Maria, said his reassignment has been in the works since last year.
Beers will become the founding director of a seminary in Bay City, Mich., under the Diocese of Saginaw, Mich.
Last week, Beers told the Daily News that he was shocked by the dismissal of Ave Maria Provost Joseph Fessio, who has since been reassigned to another position at the university.
“All of this was in the works three weeks before Father Fessio’s firing, then reassignment,” Beers said this afternoon.
Beers said he visited Saginaw last summer and has met with the Rev. Robert Carlson, bishop of the Saginaw diocese, about the move.
“Bishop Carlson first discussed it with me last August and we both felt I needed to continue here one more year to provide continuity and time to have a smooth transition with a new dean,” Beers said.
He was outspoken last week after Fessio’s dismissal, saying: “People don’t get asked to resign; they get fired.”
Beers has helped to oversee Ave Maria’s pre-theologate program, an undergraduate program that helps prepare men for direct entrance into a seminary, since October 2003 when it had six students. It’s expected to grow to 60 students next year.
Beers, also a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, said he expects to remain at Ave Maria until the end of July. No one has hired to succeed him, Beers said.
Alrighty then.
This place is a mess and a scandal. Catholics who practice the tenets of thier faith really should not be treating each other like uncivilized memebers of some business enterprise.
The headline is ridiculous. Fr. Beers' reassignment is the deceision of his Bishop, not Tom Monagahan's or anyone else at Ave Maria and has been in the works for months. He's not being kicked out, he's been appointed as the founding Rector of a new diosecan seminary.
I understand, but his comment about the mess at Ave Maria, although true, is scandalous and low class as are the actions of the rest of the infighters there.
Well.
This has been in the works for awhile, but he is not going to a new seminary.
"Rumors of a new seminary are false." Replied the Bishop when asked about the validity of the Naples News.com story. "Fr. Beers will be helping with a house that will be especially for younger guys if they haven't had any college education and need to take a course or two at Saginaw Valley State University. It will also be for those seminarians who are E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) and need time to become comfortable with the language. It will be a chance for some spiritual formation during those times."
That does it. I'm pulling my monthly donations immediately. I waited a bit to see what the fallout would be, and now I'm done.
Hmmm, I guess all those FReepers who were falling all over themselves to praise Monahan back when he proposed his "City of God" may have to rethink their praise.
Lesson: No man can create or even approximate a "City of God." Period.
Gee . . . this Fr. Beers seems to be moving around quite a bit. First at Ave Maria, now at a new house of formation in Saginaw, Michigan. Where was he before then? How can a priest just go from place to place like that? Isn't he a diocesan priest--which diocese?
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