Dear Friend:

I write this short narrative to explain why I am no longer teaching at the University of
Illinois and am not employed by the Diocese of Peoria as of 30 June 2010. First, a little
background.

I came to Champaign-Urbana in August of 1998 to be employed by the St. John’s

Catholic Newman Center as a teacher in the courses of the Catholic faith that were then
taught through the Center. For seven years I enjoyed a working relationship with
Monsignor Stuart W. Swetland, the Director of the Center, who taught alongside me in
that program. In 2000, Monsignor Swetland negotiated an agreement with the
Department of Religion in which he and I would be adjunct professors in the department
and would teach courses on Catholicism. We simultaneously established the Institute of
Catholic Thought of which I became the Director and Senior Fellow. The purpose of the
Institute was to promote the intellectual heritage of the western world in which
Catholicism played such an integral role.

Since the Fall of 2001, I have been regularly teaching two courses in the Department of
Religion. Since Monsignor Swetland’s departure in May of 2006, I have taught the
equivalent of a full-time professor every semester, sometimes even more. This past
semester (Spring 2010) something occurred which changed an otherwise idyllic academic
life. One of the courses I have taught since 2001 has been “Introduction to Catholicism.”
I think that it is fair to say that many students at the University of Illinois have benefited
greatly from this and other teaching I have done. Every semester in that “Introduction”
class, I gave two lectures dealing with Catholic Moral positions. One was an explanation
of Natural Moral Law as affirmed by the Church. The second was designed as an
application of Natural Law Theory to a disputed issue in our society. Most of those
semesters, my chosen topic was the moral status of homosexual acts. I would happy to
explain more fully the Catholic Church’s position on this matter but, for the sake of
brevity, I can summarize it as follows. A homosexual orientation is not morally wrong
just as no moral guilt can be assigned to any inclination that a person has. However,
based on natural moral law, the Church believes that homosexual acts are contrary to
human nature and therefore morally wrong. This is what I taught in my class.

This past semester was unusual. In previous years, I had students who might have
disagreed with the Church’s position but they did so respectfully and without incident.
This semester (Spring 2010) I noticed the most vociferous reaction that I have ever had. It
seemed out of proportion to all that I had known thus far. To help students understand
better how this issue might be decided within competing moral systems, I sent them an
email contrasting utilitarianism (in the populist sense) and natural moral law. If we take
utilitarianism to be a kind of cost-benefit analysis, I tried to show them that under
utilitarianism, homosexual acts would not be considered immoral whereas under natural
moral law they would. This is because natural moral law, unlike utilitarianism, judges
morality on the basis of the acts themselves.
After the semester was over, I was called into the office of Robert McKim, the chairman
of the Department of Religion, who was in possession of this email. I was told that
someone (I presume one of my students) sent this email to the Office of Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transgendered Concerns at the University. It was apparently sent to
administrators in the University of Illinois and then forwarded on to Professor McKim. I
was told that I would no longer be able to teach in the Department of Religion.

Professor McKim and I discussed the contents of the email and he was quite insistent that
my days of teaching in the department were over. I offered that it would be more just to
ask me not to address the subject of homosexuality in my class. In fact, the other class I
regularly taught (Modern Catholic Thought) never dealt with that subject at all. I also
avered that to dismiss me for teaching the Catholic position in a class on Catholicism was
a violation of academic freedom and my first amendment rights of free speech. This
made no difference. After that conversation and a couple of emails, Professor McKim
insisted that this decision to dismiss me stood firm.

I then consulted with our Diocesan lawyer, Mrs. Patricia Gibson, to see if the St. John’s
Newman Center could sue the university for breach of contract. Mrs. Gibson, kind in
spirit and articulate as regards the law, told me that unfortunately the university had made
very careful provisions to protect itself and so would not be liable in a law suit. I am still
consulting with other lawyers about possible legal action on the grounds of the first
amendment.

Then Monsignor Gregory Ketcham, the current Director of the St. John’s Catholic
Newman Center and my superior, informed me that the Center would not be able to
continue employing me since there was no longer any teaching for me to do. I then
reiterated what I had mentioned to him the day before. I suggested that we work together
to have courses on Catholicism taught at the Newman Center that could be accredited by
a Catholic university and that could be transferred into the University of Illinois for
credit. In this way, the students whom we had been called to serve could continue to be
instructed in the Catholic Faith. I told him in fact that I had once had conversations with
professors in Catholic universities who were willing to make such arrangements.
Monsignor Ketcham said that he had no interest in such a plan.

Thus, after more than sixty years, students at the University of Illinois will have no
classes on Catholicism available to them. If the Department of Religion continues to offer
the courses I taught, I have no idea how accurately Catholicism will be represented. I
know this subject well enough to say it can be easily distorted. I have tried in this
document to portray in a straightforward manner what happened. I also am preparing
another document giving my own interpretation of all these events. If you are interested
in that, or you just want to be informed as things progress, please contact me by email:
kenneth.howell1952@gmail.com

I look back at the twelve years I have spent in this position with memories of wonderful
times with my students and friends with whom I have labored. It has been a time of great
growth and joy. I thank God from the bottom of my heart. I don’t know what the future
holds but I do know Him who holds it. He is faithful and can be trusted.

Sincerely,

Kenneth J. Howell