A canonical suit asking the Vatican to restore the Catholic identity of Georgetown University is “a well-founded complaint,” a Vatican official has said.

In a letter to novelist William Peter Blatty, who collected over 2,000 signatures on the petition filed with the Vatican last year, Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, the secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, said: “Our congregation is taking the issue seriously and is cooperating with the Society of Jesus in this regard.”

Archbishop Zani indicated that the Vatican would not answer the petitioners’ call for a formal determination on whether Georgetown is in compliance with the Vatican guidelines established in Ex Corde Ecclesiae for Catholic institutions of higher education. But Blatty—whose most famous work is The Exorcist--told the National Catholic Register that he believes that the Vatican response is a positive step in a campaign to revive the Jesuit institution's commitment to the faith. There is still more work to be done,” he said, but he vowed to supporters that “we will persevere.”

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