Tonight, another well known dissident makes a return appearance in Rochester. Roger Haight, SJ, the author of the Vatican censured book, Jesus Symbol of God, will be speaking at St. John Fisher College as a guest of the Department of Religious Studies. His book was censured for, among other things, Haight’s profound teaching errors regarding the Divinity of Christ, the Resurrection, the Trinity and the universal and salvific nature of Jesus and the Church.

Here is an excerpt from the St. John Fisher announcement of Haight’s speaking engagement:

Dr. Haight’s attention to fundamental issues in doctrinal theology is reflected in his books on: the nature of theology as a discipline, christology, ecclesiology, grace, liberation theology. He recently published The Future of Christology (2005), which won an award for the best book in theology, 2005, third place, from The Catholic Press Association in May, 2006. He also recently published a two volume work entitled Christian Community in History (2004-2005). He is currently working on a systematic ecclesiology.

Dr. Haight was the recipient of the “Alumnus of the Year, 2005″ award from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in April, 2006. His community service at Union has included participating in the Ministerial and Spiritual Formation Resource Team and serving as a moderator for student sessions of SpiriTalk, a forum for discussing topics related to prayer, spirituality, and vocation. In addition, he has presided at an on-campus weekly Sunday evening Catholic eucharist(sic) service. His current area of research is directed towards more open methods of studying and portraying the Christian church in constructions of transdenominational ecclesiology.

Notice how they left out any mention of the notorious Jesus Symbol of God. If it weren’t for that book, very few people would have ever heard of him.

Although St. John Fisher is no longer an officially Catholic institution, the Department of Religious Studies is headed by a Roman Catholic priest, Father William Graf. Doesn’t Father Graf have a duty to protect and defend the teachings of the Catholic Church?