Reconciliation: Admitting our Past Mistakes to Help Us Move Forward for a Better Future

          In his January letter to alumni and the campus community Wheeling College’s most recent president, Richard Beyer, alights on the enthusiasm and energy he sees on campus.  This news is meant to stir up alumni enthusiasm and commitment to their school.   Doesn’t anyone tell Mr. Beyer that Wheeling College has never been on its alumni radar screen for significant giving since its inception?  Do not “seasoned” board members tell him that alumni who gave $10 ten years ago still give $10 now, if they give at all?
          Mr. Beyer seems not to know that the past history is never dead.  It is either reconciled or it lurks in the memory or under the skin.  It’s especially true when history is not dealt with in a civil manner and, not to belabor the point, a Christian manner.  Mr. Beyer does not yet recognize the effect of the college’s painful history over the last two years: the dark “assassination” of a good man, Fr. Giulietti.  I use the term “assassination” because of its specific historical meaning.  It refers to the unjust killing of a human being without and due process or public discourse about crimes allegedly committed.  Even Roman law, which dealt quickly and efficiently with criminals, respected the tradition of due process.  In the college’s history, the “assassination” was emotional: the spirit of the school, the alumni and the city itself was “killed”.  Men and women of good character do not forget such history.
          As a “jesuit” school one would expect justice and truth to be at the core of what it is about.  The mistake the school’s “leadership” made, and continues to make, is the decision to “assassinate” a good man without any chance of self-defense, or even to know the reason for his demise.  History again: dysfunctional board members who tried to “kill” him could not even pull the trigger on their own.  The jesuit Trustees – itself an outdated form of control and manipulation - needed the silence of the darkness of night to do so.  And two of the three have already been publicly disgraced.  What about the bishop and the provincial?
         What a helpful step it would be if Mr. Beyer courageously invited Fr. Giulietti to campus (or at least off campus) to start a dialogue of reconciliation that would lead to forgiveness.  (I do not mean Fr. Giulietti’s forgiveness.  Knowing him, that was done long ago.)  I refer to the forgiveness still needed by alumni and many staff.   Only then could honest and successful fundraising be possible.  What would Mr. Beyer’s jesuit counselors say about that?
          Fr. Giulietti could talk with alumni about the truth of the college’s financial situation and inspire them to want to help build a sustaining base of safety and hope.  Now without alumni reconciliation and forgiveness, there is no hope.  With no hope, UPMC, we are all yours!

-Larry Catraro