Wheeling Jesuit U., unable to fill its open presidency with a Jesuit, has company. Gonzaga U., in Spokane WA, for one, which has promoted its acting president, a 44-year-old layman, to president, suspending its bylaws to do so.

For another, Creighton U., in Omaha NE, is finding “a good Jesuit hard to find.” Its search committee

might bump into a 21st century reality that’s increasingly pushing other Jesuit universities to hire non-priests as presidents.

Nobody wants to see the day (of a non-Jesuit president) come, but it might come. We have to deal with that, said Bill Fitzgerald, the chairman of Creighton’s board of directors

The day has already come for nine of the 28 Jesuit universities in the U.S., each with a permanent or interim president who is not a Jesuit priest, Rev. Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, told the World-Herald.

We used to assume that (the president’s job) could only be done by a Jesuit, but we’ve learned over the years that it isn’t true, Currie said. It’s not something we should be fearful of. . . . . There’s clearly value in having a Jesuit, but if that person is not available, you have to move in other directions.

Be that as it may, Currie, who was Wheeling Jesuit’s president 1972-82, was an early (and repeated) defender of Wheeling Jesuit’s surprise ouster of its Jesuit president last August after only two years. In the stormy aftermath of the firing, Currie cited “confidentiality” requirements, inadvertently encouraging suspicion by alumni and others of scandal — which was never either alleged or demonstrated. Three Jesuits acting as Wheeling Jesuit trustees, effected the firing. One of the three was himself later replaced by a layman as president of University of Detroit-Mercy.

Wheeling Jesuit suspended its own search in late October, by which time no Jesuit had applied for the position. Last February the university hired a nun, Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill, as new interim president.