The Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., a pro-life chamion, plans to step down from the presidency of Gonzaga University in Spokane, ending his very succesful decade at the helm, says SeattlePI.com.
Spitzer, 55, will return to study, teaching and writing in the ethics field. He is a prominent scholar-critic of the movement to legalize assisted suicide, and a leading Catholic spokesman on the right to life.
Spitzer, who is legally blind, has overseen a turnaround on the Spokane campus since taking over Gonzaga’s presidency in 1998. Enrollments at the Jesuit university have risen from 4,500 to 6,900, and a higher volume of applications has allowed Gonzaga wider leeway in who it accepts.
Spitzer has also presided over his share of campus controversies.
The priest-president refused to allow a Planned Parenthood representative to speak on campus, and vetoes hosting a performance of “The Vagina Monologues.”
Now, sadly compare this with Notre Dame where a conference of Catholic bishops was recently moved off the University of Notre Dame campus after they allowed “The Vagina Monologues” to be performed.
In his tenure at Gonzaga, Spitzer has:
1) Shut down an attempt by the women’s center to have Planned Parenthood speak on campus
2) Gathered student, parent, staff, administration, and partial faculty support for Ex Corde Ecclesiae in the first couple of years he was there
3) Hired Fr. Bill Watson as Vice President of Mission to bring authentic Ignatian Spiritual retreats and devout Masses to campus
4) Transformed the 70s “sit-on-the-floor” style student Admin building chapel into a magnificent work of traditional Catholic art, contemplation, and prayer, where Mass will be said appropriately.
5) Doubled student attendance at campus Masses since becoming President
6) Added a Sunday night 10 PM devout Mass which he regularly presides over, and which regularly brings in over 600 students – triple from when it started
7) Founded the Gonzaga Institute of Ethics to bring authentic Catholic ethics to community businesses and organizations.
8) Founded the Institute of Faith and Reason to answer the Pope’s call to bring Catholic theology, sciences, and philosophy together. (H/T Mark Shea.)
Fr. Spitzer seems like an excellent Jesuit and I for one am sad to see him go.
March 18, 2008 at 4:00 am
Everything I have read about him over the years he is certainly is pro life. But a lot of other nonsense goes on at such as HERO: (Helping Educate Regarding Orientation: A Gay/Straight Alliance) being an “integral part” of the university.
Though I am sure he had a difficult time there with the faculty and did a pretty fine job considering.
March 18, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Iv’e seen some of his presentations on Natural Law/Ethics on EWTN. Great stuff.
Amazing just how broad a spectrum can be found in the Society of Jesus.
March 18, 2008 at 4:15 pm
When I went there in ’83, there was a homosexual undercurrent in the student population.
On the Admin building chapel, is that the room on the top floor? My parents used to take me to a paryer meeting there on Friday nights! I had no idea it was supposed to be a chapel. Looked nothing like one.
March 18, 2008 at 6:57 pm
a “homosexual undercurrent” is better than most Catholic schools where it’s openly embraced and promulgated. 😉
March 18, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Overall Fr. Spitzer’s tenure at Gonzaga has been a huge plus. Rumor has it that he was forced out by politically correct forces above him. According to the local paper he wants to remain in Spokane after leaving Gonzaga? He was right to enforce a Catholic atmosphere at a Catholic University and his preaching is superb. Down side? I’m an athlete but I still believe that basketball mania has left an already intellectually mediocre student body even more so. Foley library needs more funding and more students to hang out in the stacks for the joy it, as you see at Cornell, Stanford etc. The half time shows at the basketball games feature Las Vegas style dancers doing bumps and grinds. Kids have to witness this?