'Exorcist' author sues Georgetown for not being Catholic enough

William Peter Blatty, Academy Award-winning author of "The Exorcist," is suing his alma mater, Georgetown University, for not being Catholic enough to be called Catholic.

Blatty, who graduated in 1950, and other alumni and parents have signed a canon law petition, asking Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, to remove the school's "Catholic" status and label, citing "rampant abuses of Catholic identity" and growing secularism.

In 1990, Pope John Paul II put forth the Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), which required Catholic universities receive their local bishop's approval to call themselves Catholic, and requiring all professors of theology to sign a "mandatum" promising to uphold Church teachings.

Writing on behalf of the Father King Society, Blatty has published an open letter, inviting other concerned Catholics to join him in signing the petition.

"It grieves me deeply that my beloved alma mater is failing so scandalously in its debt both to the Church and to the militant Jesuits still buried there who gave it their everything; who made it so special for so long. It grieves me that Georgetown University today almost seems to take pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful."

Blatty has, with the help of a public affairs strategist, finished writing the complaint -- 198 pages including 476 footnotes, 91 appendices and 124 witness statements documenting 23 years of "scandals and dissidence."

The litany of complaints complaints included showing of "The Vagina Monologues" on campus, student Sandra Fluke's call for birth control coverage, and speaking engagements given to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy Pelosi.