Father Fessio dismissed, then given new duties at Florida university

Published: 2007-03-23

NAPLES, Fla. (CNS) -- A day after he was asked to resign his post as provost and leave the campus March 21, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio agreed to continue to have a role at Ave Maria University, including teaching and serving as a theologian in residence. A statement sent the evening of March 22 by the university's public relations firm said Father Fessio accepted the school's offer that he continue his relationship with Ave Maria in a nonadministrative capacity. The university's March 21 announcement that Father Fessio had been asked to resign as provost cited "irreconcilable differences over administrative policies and practices." Father Fessio, 66, had served as chancellor or provost of the Catholic university in Florida since its founding was announced in 2002. He also has continued to serve as editor of Ignatius Press, a San Francisco-based Catholic publishing company he founded in 1978. The March 22 press release repeated that "the separation of Father Fessio from the university's administration had nothing to do with our shared commitment to our mission as a Catholic university 'ex corde ecclesiae.'"

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