A utility player is taking over the “interim president” job at Wheeling Jesuit U.

Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill has been named as interim president of Wheeling Jesuit University.

Thrailkill replaces J. Davitt McAteer, who has served as interim president since former President Julio Giulietti was fired on Aug. 6.

Wheeling Jesuit said Thursday that Thrailkill will serve as interim president for about 18 months. She will be the university’s first female leader.

Meanwhile, the U. apparently remains in a state of suspension as to a replacement for the (who knows?) irreplaceable Giulietti:

The school suspended its search for a permanent president in October, saying it needed more time to find the right leader.

No disrespect intended to say “utility,” as above.

Thrailkill had served as president of the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati from 1987 to 2008, and as interim president of Chatfield College in Cincinnati from 2008 to 2009.

Nor journeyman (or woman), for that matter.  Did Nick Swisher drive in 82 last year for the World champion Yankees?  Yes, hitting .249 in 150 games.  Had a bad Series but got a key hit in the last game, as I recall.  His third time in six MLB seasons (his second in two).  Don’t diss the traveler.

As for Thralkill, she took over at Mt. St. Joseph a year after it went coed, admitting male students, and put in a very good 20 years:

Under her leadership, the Mount has almost doubled the size of its campus to 92 acres and steadily increased its student population to 2,300. On her watch, the college kept its track record of balancing the budget for 29 consecutive years. 

The endowment grew from $3 million in 1987 to over $22 million in 2007.  Sister Thrailkill oversaw two capital campaigns, the “Vision 2000” Campaign and the “Building Excitement” Campaign, which combined raised over $24 million for new academic programs, student scholarships and facilities.

In fact, in 2008 she was declared a Great Living Cincinnatian by the Chamber of Commerce.

If she can (figuratively) take Wheeling Jesuit to the World Series, it would go a long way to helping people forget the exceedingly strange goings-on over the past five months.

The bishops have been had?  May be a case of culpable ignorance?

“The closer we look at the Bishops Conference [staff and programs], the more we find a systemic pattern of cooperation with evil,” said Michael Hichborn, American Life League’s lead researcher into the USCCB scandal. “The CCC has lodged itself into the highest places of power in the USCCB while working to promote abortion and homosexuality.”

It’s partly about:

John Carr . .. USCCB executive director of the Department of Justice Peace and Human Development which oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) . . . employed by the USCCB since 1987,

who since 1983 has been in deep with the Center for Community Change, “serving in leadership roles from 1999 to 2006 – including as chairman of the board,” reports Reform CCHD Now, a

lay Catholic watchdog group comprised of some of the top Catholic pro-life organizations in the country including American Life League, Human Life International and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry.

The Center for Community you-know-what has among its core causes abortion, “reproductive rights” and homosexuality, says Reform etc. as reported by Life Site News.

The Center describes its mission: 

to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change their communities and public policies for the better.

Further, it

strengthens, connects and mobilizes grassroots groups to enhance their leadership, voice and power. 

And believes

that vibrant community-based organizations, led by the people most affected by social and economic injustice, are key to putting an end to the failed “on your own” mentality of the right and building a new politics based on community values.

Hear ye, hear ye.  (We hear ya.)  Not only:

Founded in 1968 to honor the life and values of Robert F. Kennedy, the Center is one of the longest-standing champions for low-income people and communities of color.  Together, our expert staff and dynamic partners confront the vital issues of today and build the social movements of tomorrow.

Yes!  We believe! 

They target the “’on your own’ mentality of the right.” As for abortion, it turns up once on its site, in a reprint of a 12/13/08 National Journal article  by Corine Hegland “on the new role of grassroots community organizers under Obama.”

For nearly 30 years, Republicans have kept their multifaceted campaign networks alive through churches, religious groups, the National Rifle Association, and anti-abortion groups. Democrats have had no comparable infrastructure, except perhaps the shrinking labor movement.

Hegland won the

2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism . . . granted by Hunter College . . . [for her] series of articles on the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

Etc.  More to the point for Life Site News et al. is this in its “resource library” about a “Reproductive Justice Briefing Book”:

Need a one-stop shop for information on reproductive justice? Well, SisterSong has got the right tool for you. This series of articles documents the struggle for reproductive justice and bridges this struggle with other issues within the social justice movement such as immigration and queer rights. Additionally, the series touches upon the future of the women’s movement in relation to reproductive justice.

SisterSong (colorful title) bills itself as a “women of color reproductive health collective,” which is quite a mouthful.  Their statement:

We mobilize women of color around our lived experiences by:

    *
      bringing women of color together
    *
      encouraging our collective sustainability through mentoring and self-help
    *
      providing a framework that resonates with our lived experience
    *
      organizing and mobilizing to affect change

click here to learn more…

One could go on for a long time, but the strands are typical.  Where is Dorothy Day when we need her?  In heaven, of course; but where the disciples?  Someone to cut through this highly inexact terminology and get us to the heart of the matter?