Welcome

It is with great sorrow that we come together today with the departure of our president and dear friend, Fr. Julio Giulietti, S.J. We have all come here to seek the truth, and to know and understand what has happened within the university walls and what has become of the reputation of WJU. In this light, please invite anyone to read the blog and feel free to comment as you wish.

Any posts with profanity are not welcome, otherwise, please speak your mind. You are a part of this university and we want to hear your voice!

Monday, July 19, 2010

A Hot Summer it is for All

I live in hot baking Washington, DC.  My neighbor's daughter was a sophomore student at Wheeling [Jesuit University] until a few weeks ago.  She is transferring to Mount St Mary's in Emmitsburg.  When her parents asked her why, she responded that Wheeling [Jesuit University] was not the same school she went to two years ago as a freshman.  During the last year the environment totally changed. There was little joy on campus, more people than usual were leaving on the weekends, faculty members and other workers seemed to feel down and lost enthusiasm for students.  Many feared for their jobs. She blamed this on the unjust and despicable sacking of Fr. Julio.

She told her parents that 40+ new freshmen students left Wheeling [Jesuit University] at the end of their first semester. That was after four months on campus!  It was not the school they signed up for.   I recently heard from an alumnus and friend of a board member that the attrition rate over the summer will reflect what happened at the end of the fall semester.  That is a great loss of student population.  We already know that the entering class is significantly lower than is needed to keep the college viable.

So what do we have now?  A bishop, eager to move to Philadelphia, got what he wanted, the Sisters’ property at Mt. DeChantal.  He got what he wanted only by pressing to rid himself of a smart, friendly and fearless Jesuit.  The Sisters of the Visitation, loved and admired for 160 years, have left a depressed area where they were one of the few Catholic institutions that people could admire.  And there is a college without a soul that is fast getting to the point of seeking a buyer for abandoned property.

One writer to his blog said that Fr. Giulietti might still return to Wheeling [Jesuit University].  He must be kidding!  Even a generous man like Fr. Julio would not be so foolish as to buy deck chairs for the Titanic.

As for Fr. Felix, he is not a Jesuit so the Jesuits will not pay off anyone to get him free.  He will have to deal with his own destroyed life.  Fr. Thomas Gleeson, however, is free to remain on the Wheeling [Jesuit University] board.  A double pity.

- Larry Catraro

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Another Sexual Predator on WJU Campus

Still another sexual predator on WJU campus: The Rev. Felix Owino, a faculty member in the philosophy department of Wheeling Jesuit University, was arrested on July 8 in Fairfax, Va. for aggravated sexual battery of an eleven-year-old girl. He is being jailed without bond until a 9/2/10 hearing. See the breaking story and photo posted this morning in the Washington Post!