On May 6, Jesuit, Catholic Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., rescinded a job offer to (Jesuit) Seattle University professor Dr. Jodi O’Brien to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences because of her record of “strongly negative statements about marriage and family.”

“It is heartening to see such a bold stance in defense of Marquette’s Catholic identity,” said Patrick J. Reilly, Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) President.  “Although the media and certain elements within Marquette are critical of this decision, at the same time The Cardinal Newman Society and hundreds of thousands of faithful Catholic families around the nation are grateful, and we welcome opportunities to state that publicly.”

Reilly sent a letter of support to Marquette’s President Fr. Robert Wild, S.J. on behalf of CNS members.

Jodi O’Brien, who is openly a lesbian, is currently chair of the sociology department at Seattle University, another Jesuit, Catholic institution.  According to her biography, O'Brien's key works include “Complicating Homophobia,” “Queer Tensions: The Cultural Politics of Belonging and Exclusion in Same Gender Marriage Debates,” and “How Big is Your God? Queer Christian Social Movements”.

Marquette had offered the position to O’Brien after a two-year vetting process, but Father Wild intervened.  According to The New York Times, Marquette said that O’Brien lacked “the ability to represent the Marquette mission and identity.”  Fr. Wild told the Times that after he and other University leaders read O'Brien's academic writings, “we found some strongly negative statements about marriage and family.”

According to The Warrior, an independent paper at Marquette, a small minority of 100 students marched on the Marquette Alumni Memorial Union last Thursday to protest the University’s decision to revoke the job offer.  The same day, philosophy professor Nancy Snow circulated an e-mail encouraging students to express their disappointment with the decision, also stating that she is “a proud out lesbian.”