Aquinas Institute Drops Phan Lecture

After consultation with St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, the Aquinas Institute of Theology has canceled its annual Aquinas Lecture for 2008.

The Rev. Peter Phan, a Georgetown University professor and former president of the Theological Society of America, was scheduled to give the prestigious lecture in about three weeks.

Phan's 2004 book, "Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue," is being investigated by the Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. and by the Vatican....

Responding to questions from the Post-Dispatch, Burke said in a statement last month that after reading the document from the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine, Phan's book "presents central tenets of the Catholic faith in a manner which is confusing and misleading," and concluded that "Father Phan is not a reliable teacher of the Catholic faith...."