Released: Names of the 61 "dissenting" USD faculty & staff

Amidst all the headlines about House Speaker Pelosi, I don't want an important, developing story to get lost in the mix...

Brian McDaniel recently undertook the herculean effort of examining, line-by-line, the 2,158 signers of the pro-Rosemary Radford Reuther petition.

Some of his ensuing observations:

• The petition supporting Dr. Ruether contained about 100 duplicates and 50 anonymous signatures. The vast majority of signatures (75%) were female.
• Even with tenure, the faculty was smart enough to keep their mouths shut and not fill in comments. A few did, but didn’t say anything that others already said.So many members of the Theology and Religious Studies Department signed the petition that we decided that their unofficial motto would be “Where Academic Freedom is God.” Read through the petition comments and you’ll understand.
• There are no priests or Catholic religious in the USD Theology and Religious Studies Department. They have a few adjunct professors, but no faculty.
• We encountered a sad number of religious among the pro-Ruether signatures—Franciscans, Benedictines, Piarists, Dominicans, Jesuits, and other Orders. The number probably is between 75-100.
• Somewhere, there has to be an indulgence for checking 2,158 signatures in one weekend.

I'm sure of it.

Remember, our counter-petition is going strong at almost 1,500 signatures. Let's break 2,000!