Gormally Responds To AveWatch
Fri, Aug31, 2007 - Category: School of
Law
[Earlier today, AveWatch received the following from
moral philosopher Luke Gormally concerning this
AW post.]
Subject: Your posting about my signing the Petition
Dear AveWatch,
I have to tell you that it did not require particular courage on my part to sign the petition for reinstatement of Professors Safranek, Lyons and Pucillo. I was for 20 years Director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, but I resigned that position at the end of 2000. Between 2001 and 2006 I was a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre and simultaneously held a Research Professorship at Ave Maria School of Law. It was in virtue of holding the latter position, along with the funding provided by the Law School, that I was enabled to continue to work for the Linacre Centre. This arrangement was secured by the kind offices of Dean Dobranski. During my annual visits to the Law School I had ample opportunity to come to know and admire the calibre of its excellent faculty. I have gradually become aware of the strength of the case for saying that Professor Safranek in particular is the victim of a serious injustice. I felt that the least I could do was to signal my solidarity with those who have petitioned for restoration of the employment of Professors Safranek, Lyons and Pucillo. My original impressions of the intellectual and Catholic vitality of Ave Maria School of Law are intimately connected with the character and commitment of those men and their colleagues. I deplore what has happened to them and the consequent damage to the original ethos of the Law School. But I must emphasise that it does not require particular courage on my part to say this. I am now 68, retired from paid employment, and nowadays holding a merely honorary position at The Linacre Centre. Even if I were in paid employment I would not anticipate that the Governing Body of The Linacre Centre would take punitive action against me. I have long had good reason for trusting in the soundness of their corporate judgment.
Yours faithfully,
Luke Gormally.
Subject: Your posting about my signing the Petition
Dear AveWatch,
I have to tell you that it did not require particular courage on my part to sign the petition for reinstatement of Professors Safranek, Lyons and Pucillo. I was for 20 years Director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, but I resigned that position at the end of 2000. Between 2001 and 2006 I was a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre and simultaneously held a Research Professorship at Ave Maria School of Law. It was in virtue of holding the latter position, along with the funding provided by the Law School, that I was enabled to continue to work for the Linacre Centre. This arrangement was secured by the kind offices of Dean Dobranski. During my annual visits to the Law School I had ample opportunity to come to know and admire the calibre of its excellent faculty. I have gradually become aware of the strength of the case for saying that Professor Safranek in particular is the victim of a serious injustice. I felt that the least I could do was to signal my solidarity with those who have petitioned for restoration of the employment of Professors Safranek, Lyons and Pucillo. My original impressions of the intellectual and Catholic vitality of Ave Maria School of Law are intimately connected with the character and commitment of those men and their colleagues. I deplore what has happened to them and the consequent damage to the original ethos of the Law School. But I must emphasise that it does not require particular courage on my part to say this. I am now 68, retired from paid employment, and nowadays holding a merely honorary position at The Linacre Centre. Even if I were in paid employment I would not anticipate that the Governing Body of The Linacre Centre would take punitive action against me. I have long had good reason for trusting in the soundness of their corporate judgment.
Yours faithfully,
Luke Gormally.