Breaking: St. Thomas Reverses Its Decision to Disallow Tutu

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University of St. Thomas president the Rev. Dennis Dease said the decision to bar Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at its campus was wrong, and that he will take measures to invite him.

“I have wrestled with what is the right thing to do in this situation, and I have concluded that I made the wrong decision earlier this year not to invite the archbishop. Although well-intentioned, I did not have all of the facts and points of view, but now I do,” Dease wrote in a letter to faculty, staff and students.

The university came under fire and received some unwanted publicity for its decision.

Until two days ago, Dease insisted that Tutu’s remarks in a 2002 speech in Boston were “hurtful” to Jews, and that based on the concerns of people he values in the community, he will not invite him.

No one knows whether PeaceJam International, the Colorado-based youth group that invited Tutu in the first place would switch the location of the spring conference from Metropolitan State University to St. Thomas. Dease left that to PeaceJam.

But he said he’s inviting Tutu for another forum on the Mideast conflict, in which the Jewish Community Relations Council, the organization that voiced concerns about Tutu in the first place, agreed to co-sponsor.

Ivan Suvanjieff, the president of PeaceJam, said he would leave the decision to relocate the April 2008 conference back to St. Thomas PeaceJam’s local affiliate, but he welcomed Dease’s decision.

“This is a tremendous victory for all of us who believe in the inalienable rights of individuals to express themselves,” he said. “I take my hat off to…Father Dease who has the moral courage to admit that he made a mistake.”

What Dease didn’t address in his letter is whether Dr. Cris Toffolo, an associate professor who was demoted from her post as the director of the Justice and Peace program will be reinstated. Some faculty and students are circulating a petition on her behalf.