Skip to main contentThe longtime head of the local Catholic archdiocese's Office of Justice and Peace, who was fired last month for his anti-war activism, has also lost a teaching post at the University of Portland.
Frank Fromherz, 49, says that in mid-April, just days after being ousted by the archdiocese, the university barred him from teaching in the school's graduate theology program, which prepares students to work as lay ministers in various settings--including the archdiocese.
Fromherz says he thinks the loss of the graduate-program job was an attempt by administrators "to underscore the legitimacy of the Diocesan decision."
UP spokesman John Furey, however, says Fromherz resigned.
Emerging from the ivory tower after 10 years at UP, Fromherz is still keeping regular office hours at home. Every morning he works--writing in longhand-- on a book about the "theocracy of empire." He describes it as a critique of "the abuse of religion and the language and garments of theology as a cover for the power elite."
The nonfiction manuscript will likely include thoughts on his experience at the Archdiocese of Portland, Fromherz says.
"What I'm doing is what I frankly was doing before I was silenced," he says. "I determined the best thing I could do was not stay silent."
WWeek 2015