It seems innocent enough. The bishop of Memphis, Terry Steib, announces a cooperative effort with Christian Brothers University on a Master of Arts in Catholic Studies program. Steib gives the usual effusive PR praise:
“I am thrilled about what’s happening,” Bishop Steib said at the signing. “It has been a longtime dream of mine to partner with CBU. It is a gift for the university to develop a program that incorporates the charism of the Lasallian brothers and to do what is right for the spiritual growth and education of God’s people in the diocese.”
And what is the “charism of the Lasallian brothers” that the bishop so esteems?
I’m not sure, but we might ask whether it is being adequately expressed in the work of an English professor at the university, one Michael Shiefelbein, who is a former seminarian, a practicing and un-closeted homosexual, a Congregational minister, and author of novels about gay vampires. Yeah.
I wonder if Schiefelbein’s courses will be part of the MA program. Or perhaps I should say that if Schiefelbein is an example of the type of faculty member they have at Christian Brothers University, what will the quality of the MA program be?
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