We read her so you don't have to

Katherine Kersten uses her space in the Star Tribune today to fret over the purported waning of Catholic influence at the University of St. Thomas. The proof? Some guy who hates gays and wears funny outfits will no longer be chairman of the university's board of trustees. "In future years, the trustees can elect as chair whomever they wish: a layperson, technically even a Buddhist," Kersten writes. A Buddhist!

But what's this? Just a few pages deeper into the metro section? A story about former St. Thomas instructor Ashley Sovereign, who filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights charging that she'd been discriminated against for her views on abortion. (Beth Hawkins wrote about Sovereign's case in a cover story about St. Thomas last year.) Just yesterday the state agency ruled that probable cause existed that Sovereign was improperly denied a permanent post at the university. Her sin? Having once worked for Planned Parenthood.

Perhaps Kersten meant that the pro-choice Catholics are losing influence at St. Thomas.