Free Republic

William Peter Blatty, best-selling author and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Exorcist, died Thursday at the age of 89 after battling a form of blood cancer. But his final work is still underway: a petition to the Vatican, seeking the enforcement of canon law to reform Georgetown University’s Catholic identity, is still in front of the Church’s highest court. Although Bill Blatty is appreciated widely for his writing talent, great humor and one of the scariest movies ever made, we should also remember him as a faithful Catholic and a passionate advocate for Catholic education. In many of his works, Blatty...

In an interview with EWTN's "The World Over's" Raymond Arroyo, The Exorcist author and 1950 graduate, William Blatty spoke about the reasons for the canon law petition on Georgetown University that has been submitted to the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.'s Cardinal Donald Wuerl. The petition compiled by Blatty and The Cardinal Newman Society addresses numerous scandals at the University and whether it can continue to describe itself as Catholic. -

“With all of the people struggling so hard to preserve freedom of religion, and with all that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said in defense of this important value, Georgetown's choice of the architect of the radical challenge of such freedom for special recognition can only be seen as a statement of where the university stands - certainly not with the Catholic bishops.” Blatty said that the university’s stubborn support for Sebelius was “the last straw” for him. “Commencement speakers generally give advice to graduates on how to live their lives,” Blatty said. “[Georgetown] wants advice on...

The author who turned Georgetown University into a horror scene in “The Exorcist” plans to sue the school in church court, charging that his alma mater has strayed so far from church doctrine that it should no longer call itself Catholic. William Peter Blatty, who graduated from Georgetown in 1950, says the “last straw” was the university’s speaking invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius, who addressed graduating public policy students on Friday (May 18), has been criticized by conservative Catholics for approving a mandate that requires many religious institutions to cover employees’ birth control costs. The...

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - William Peter Blatty knows a thing or two about what happens when a hostile presence infiltrates Catholic bodies. Blatty, author of both novel and film versions of the horror classic “The Exorcist,” is getting ready to launch a canonical suit against alma mater Georgetown University, calling U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance as commencement speaker “the last straw” in the school’s relinquishing of Catholic identity. A frame from the movie "The Exorcist" with a slight adjustment. “The scandals that Georgetown has given to the faithful are too many to count and...