The Nation - News from April 7, 1988

The board of trustees of Catholic University of America in Washington overruled a faculty committee and recommended dissident priest Charles E. Curran’s status as an official Roman Catholic theologian be withdrawn, it was announced. At the same time, a District of Columbia Superior Court judge refused to dismiss Curran’s breach of contract suit against the university, saying the priest is entitled to a resolution of his dispute with the school by the civil courts. In the summer of 1986, the Vatican said Curran was ineligible to teach theology because of his dissent from church teaching on such issues as birth control, homosexuality and abortion. Final action on the disciplinary process is expected at a board meeting Tuesday.