SLU Students Invite Controversial "Theologian" to Speak

The question is "Will Bishop Carlson stop it"?

The Post Dispatch states that:

Students at St. Louis University have invited....Todd Salzman, chairman of the theology department at Creighton University in Omaha, to give the keynote speech at its 6th annual Undergraduate Marriage and Dating Conference in April.

The problem is that Salzman has espoused views in his book, "The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology," which are contrary to the teaching of the Church. The book was co-authored by Creighton emeritus theology professor Michael Lawler, and published by Georgetown University Press in 2008.

Of course, it appears that every dissenting "Catholic" praised the book and we only need to imagine why.

The Post continues:

After "The Sexual Person" was published, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee on doctrine began examining the Creighton professors' conclusions.

In September [of 2010], the committee of nine bishops issued a 24-page statement on the "Inadequacies in the Theological Methodology and Conclusions" of "The Sexual Person." The authors, it said, "reach erroneous conclusions on a whole range of issues, including the morality of pre-marital sex, contraception and artificial insemination."

There we have it! It really is a no brainer these days.

But let's look a bit closer at what the bishops discovered. From the 'Conclusion' of the 24 page report (PDF found here), we read [all bolding mine]:

Professors Lawler and Salzman present their book as a quaestio disputata, as an examination of a disputed question in the way of the medieval universities(4). The scholarly disputations of the Middle Ages, however, took place in a framework provided by Catholic faith, requiring a recognition of the authority of Sacred Scriptures and authoritative Church teaching and a knowledge and appreciation for the Catholic theological tradition. The authors of The Sexual Person, by contrast, base their arguments on a methodology that marks a radical departure from the Catholic theological tradition.

Consequently, it is not surprising that they reach a whole range of conclusions that are contrary to Catholic teaching. The Committee on Doctrine wishes to make it clear that neither the methodology of The Sexual Person nor the conclusions that depart from authoritative Church teaching constitute authentic expressions of Catholic theology. Moreover, such conclusions, clearly in contradiction to the authentic teaching of the Church, cannot provide a true norm for moral action and in fact are harmful to one's moral and spiritual life...

That such people as this "theologian" be invited to speak at a presumably Catholic institution of learning is a scandal.

The invitation should be withdrawn, saving SLU the embarassment of having Bishop Carlson nix the whole affair.

Post-Dispatch link here