William Peter Blatty, whose 1971 novel “The Exorcist” became a box office-smashing film and a cult classic, plans to sue Georgetown University for watering down the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion.
Blatty, 85, said his alma mater has consistently invited pro-abortion speakers to address Georgetown audiences while declining to follow suit with pro-life advocates. He also said the university refused to comply with the late Pope John Paul II’s orders on health- and life-related subjects.
The Roman Catholic Church is unapologetically opposed to abortion and artificial birth control. At least 43 Catholic institutions signed on to lawsuits last week that challenge the Obama administration’s effort to force birth control-related health services into health care insurance plans offered to employees of Catholic schools, hospitals and other institutions.
This month, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathlees Sebelius delivered the university’s annual commencement address. Sebelius is in charge of the federal government’s health care policy.
Fox News reported on Friday that on a website named “The Father King Society” — named after the late Jesuit priest Father Thomas M. King — Blatty explained that for 21 years, Georgetown University “has refused to comply with … [Church] canon law. And, it seems as if every month GU gives another scandal to the faithful! The most recent is Georgetown’s obtuse invitation to Secretary Sebelius to be a commencement speaker.”
Father King was a Jesuit priest who engaged often on matters where Georgetown, he argued, strayed from Catholic Church teaching.
“Georgetown is being dishonest,” Blatty wrote this month on his website. “Together, we need to end that!”
“In very recent years, Georgetown has even created the impression that its Jesuit tradition can stand apart from its Catholic identity. I am told that in on-campus debates, students will divide over favoring either Jesuit or Catholic! After eight years of Jesuit education — when Jesuits and their reputation were one and the same — I shudder at this deception.”
The website is collecting signatures from Catholics affiliated with Georgetown. Signers are asked to designate Blatty as their representative in future lawsuits aimed at seeking “a declaration by the appropriate ecclesiastical authority that Georgetown University is no longer entitled to call itself a Catholic or Jesuit university.”