Wheeling Jesuit Alum story gets legs

Other mediums are picking up on the Wheeling Jesuit Alum story, first reported here.  PhillyBurbs.com has this nice summary:

Charleston lobbyist Steve Haid says he’s withdrawing a planned gift of $650,000 in money and property to Wheeling Jesuit University, his alma mater.

Haid says he’s upset with the abrupt departure of the school’s former president, the Rev. Julio Giuletti, earlier this year.

Haid served as an unpaid assistant helping to generate donations to the university under Giuletti. Haid believes the Jesuit was forced out in a power struggle involving Bishop Michael Bransfield.

Bryan Minor, a spokesman for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, says the bishop had nothing to do with Giuletti’s [sic] selection or departure from the university.

The university has temporarily halted its search for a new president. For the first time, the university is considering candidates who aren’t Jesuit priests.

That’s based on the Charleston Gazette, which adds this:

“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Haid takes this position on withdrawing his estate gift,” [interim President J. Davitt] McAteer said in a prepared statement. “We have not seen any decline in our fundraising numbers and donations. We are moving forward and working on the business of running a university in a positive manner.

“We regret that Mr. Haid cannot join us.”

The Gazette continues, giving an expanded account of the August firing (its first) and quoting a Giulietti supporter, Charleston attorney Rudolph DiTrapano:

“I was outraged. That’s why I resigned [as a director],” DiTrapano said of the vote. “I thought Giulietti was very gifted. He was a very unusually bright priest.”

DiTrapano also is discontinuing his funding of a Wheeling Jesuit scholarship, the Gazette reports.

Haid is also quoted.

“As the letter indicates, there has been a hostile takeover of the university by factions controlled by the bishop and other elements that I don’t think are supportive of the mission of the university or its rich history or commitment to quality education,” Haid said Wednesday.

Ditto the bishop, through Bryan Minor, a spokesman for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

“Bishop Bransfield has repeatedly indicated that he did not have a role in the selection of Father Julio Giulietti . . . and he has not had a role in [his] departure . . . ” Minor said Wednesday.

The university “does not fall under the umbrella of the Diocese . . .  We do share a common ministry to the young men and women of West Virginia, and the diocese and the university do continue to collaborate because Wheeling Jesuit is the only Catholic institution of higher education in West Virginia,” Minor said.

The Gazette notes that an Aug. 6 press release gave no reason for Giulietti’s removal, but said he was leaving to “continue pursuit of his ministry,” with focus on spirituality, faith, personal development and international outreach.

Haid called that no more than “an attempt to sugarcoat a bitter pill.”

As for the recent suspending of the search for a new president, Haid:

“The truth of the matter is nobody wants to go there,” he said. “They had a great president and they ran him out of town and consequently they can’t find anyone worthy of the job.”

Not so, replied the university:

“University presidents come from a highly competitive field of professionals and it’s not unusual for a search to take longer than planned and to twist and turn along the way. It has absolutely nothing to do with the August departure of our previous president,” Margaret “Mimie” Helm, chairwoman of the Presidential Search Committee and vice chairwoman of the board of directors, said in a prepared statement.

“This is also the first time that the position is open to lay persons and not just Jesuit priests, which also changes the search from our past experience.”

Meanwhile, apart from the Gazette story (its first extended treatment of the Giulietti firing), the Jesuit provincial (Maryland province) with responsibility for Wheeling Jesuit is due on campus Nov. 16 to celebrate the noon Liturgy with fellow Jesuits in honor of the feast of St. Joseph Pignatelli, the university’s patron saint.

A graduate who is close to the scene comments to Blithe Spirit:

He’s not crossing the Alleghenies to do a liturgy.  He’s going to announce something.  I don’t know what, but it will be interesting.

Finally, Joseph Pignatelli, S.J., who, having entered the Jesuits in 1753, was on hand for their suppression in 1773 and is credited with regaining papal accreditation in 1814, though he died three years before that.  He was canonized in 1954, the year Wheeling Jesuit (then Wheeling College) was founded.

It’s not too late to start a novena to him, is it?