“Rosica resigns from Salt and Light after plagiarism scandal” & related articles

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Catholic News Agency

18 June 2019

Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB. Credit: Chris Adamczyk/Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation via Wikimedia CC BY SA 4.0

Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB. Credit: Chris Adamczyk/Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation via Wikimedia CC BY SA 4.0

.- Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, has resigned as CEO of the Salt and Light Media Foundation, four months after reports emerged that the priest had plagiarized sections of texts in lectures, op-eds, scholarly articles, and other writings.

“After 16 years as the founding Chief Executive Officer, I have submitted my resignation to the Board of Directors of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation effective today,” Rosica said in a June 17 statement. The priest, who led the Salt and Light network since it launched in 2003, was placed on leave from the non-profit in March.

Rosica also apologized for his acts of plagiarism.

“I ask forgiveness for errors in not properly acknowledging individuals and attributing sources in my writings,” he said.

In a separate statement released June 17, the Salt and Light Foundation’s board said that “Fr. Rosica played a critical role in the founding and growth of this network over the past 16 years. The involvement of many young women and men on our various media platforms has made a positive difference in the lives of many people around the world. We are grateful to Fr. Rosica for his leadership.”

Rosica was first reported by Life Site News Feb. 15 to have plagiarized sections of text in lectures and op-eds from a variety of writers, among them priests, theologians, journalists, and at least two cardinals.

Subsequent reports found pervasive plagiarism in academic articles, essays, speeches, and op-eds by Rosica, dating back more than a decade. Rosica has served as a Vatican press aide and was a central figure in the planning of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.

The priest was reported in March to have misrepresented his academic credentials, claiming falsely in his official biography to have earned an advanced degree from École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem.

“I realize that I was not prudent nor vigilant with several of the texts that have surfaced and I will be very vigilant with future texts and compositions,” Rosica told The Catholic Register Feb. 18.

“I take full responsibility for my lack of oversight and do not place the blame on anyone else but myself.”

Rosica told the National Post Feb. 22 that “What I’ve done is wrong, and I am sorry about that. I don’t know how else to say it.”

Rosica also told the National Post his plagiarism was inadvertent and not malicious. He explained that “it could have been cut and paste,” apparently meaning that he had mistakenly included passages of text written by others in his texts without remembering to attribute them.

In April, it was discovered that one of Rosica’s most controversial publications, a July 2018 blog post, had been plagiarized from a 2014 blog post by by Richard Bennett, a former member of Dominican Order and an apparently laicized priest, who is now active in a fundamentalist Protestant organization which says it “places particular emphasis on the evangelization and conversion of Roman Catholics.”

In his July post, Rosica copied Bennett’s passage saying that Pope Francis “breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’ Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

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America :  The Jesuit Review
June 18, 2019

Basilian Father Thomas Rosica speaks at a Vatican press briefing in 2015. (CNS/Paul Haring)Basilian Father Thomas Rosica speaks at a Vatican press briefing in 2015. (CNS/Paul Haring)

TORONTO (CNS) — Basilian Father Thomas Rosica has resigned as CEO of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, the latest chapter in a scandal that has embroiled him since February.

Rosica, the founding CEO of the Canadian Catholic television network Salt and Light TV and a former Vatican media liaison, has faced allegations of plagiarizing the written work of several authors in his lectures, blog posts and newspaper articles dating back several years. He has admitted that he failed to properly credit sources in some of his writings and apologized for his mistakes.

He has been on sabbatical since March for “several months of rest and renewal.”

“After 16 years as the founding Chief Executive Officer, I have submitted my resignation to the board of directors of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation effective today,” Rosica said in a June 17 statement. “It has been a great privilege to work closely with our founder, Gaetano Gagliano, his family and a dedicated board of directors on this media project. I am grateful for the young adults working with us who helped realize Gaetano’s vision for Catholic television and media.”

He went on to again apologize for claiming others’ work as his own.

“I ask forgiveness for errors in not properly acknowledging individuals and attributing sources in my writings,” he said.

When the scandal broke, Father Rosica said he never willfully plagiarized others and that he often relies on volunteers and colleagues to send him ideas that would become part of his lectures. He said he did not do the necessary checking into sources and took full responsibility for that oversight.

Tony Gagliano, chair of Salt and Light’s board and son of Gaetano, thanked Father Rosica for his leadership since the network was born out of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of which Father Rosica was national director. He said Salt and Light has been “a great gift” to the Catholic Church in Canada and beyond and will continue under the interim leadership of Alex Du, its chief operating officer.

“The involvement of many young women and men on our various media platforms has made a positive difference in the lives of many people around the world,” said Gagliano. “We are grateful to Father Rosica for his leadership.”

Salt and Light TV has grown beyond being a television network over its 16 years. It now offers services as a production house, has expanded into satellite radio, publishes a seasonal magazine and has launched a number of social media initiatives.

Father Rosica has held a number of high-profile positions with the Catholic Church and its entities, including English-language liaison at the Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse in February and English-language media attache of the Holy See press office. When the scandal broke in February, Father Rosica tendered his resignation to a number of these entities, including the collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and the boards of the University of St. Thomas in Houston and St. John Fisher College in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

The Jesuits of Canada also withdrew an invitation for Father Rosica to receive its Magis Award for service to the church.

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BREAKING: Fr. Rosica resigns from Salt and Light after plagiarism scandal

LifeSite

18 June 2019

TORONTO, Canada, June 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Former Vatican spokesman Fr. Thomas Rosica, who was discovered to have plagiarized dozens of his writings, has resigned as CEO of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation almost four months after his misuse of the work of others became public knowledge.

According to the Toronto Catholic Register, Rosica, 60, made a statement yesterday announcing his resignation.

“After 16 years as the founding Chief Executive Officer, I have submitted my resignation to the Board of Directors of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation effective today,” he said. “It has been a great privilege to work closely with our founder, [the late] Gaetano Gagliano, his family and a dedicated board of directors on this media project. I am grateful for the young adults working with us who helped realize Gaetano’s vision for Catholic television and media.”

Rosica alluded in his statement to the scandal that made his name a Twitter byword for cut-and-paste internet plagiarism.

“I ask forgiveness for errors in not properly acknowledging individuals and attributing sources in my writings,” he stated.

Yesterday Tony Gagliano, the Chair of the Board of Salt and Light, also issued a statement regarding Rosica’s resignation.

“The Board of Directors of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation has accepted today Fr. Thomas Rosica’s resignation as its founding Chief Executive Officer,” he wrote.

“Together with our founder [my father], Gaetano Gagliano, Fr. Rosica played a critical role in the founding and growth of this network over the past 16 years. The involvement of many young women and men on our various media platforms has made a positive difference in the lives of many people around the world. We are grateful to Fr. Rosica for his leadership,” he continued.

Salt and Light is now actively searching for a new CEO. Alex Du, the Chief Operating Officer, will serve as the interim CEO.

Professor John Rist, whose description of Fr. Rosica’s address at Cambridge University this February led to the priest’s downfall, suggested to LifeSiteNews that justice had been served.

“It is good to know that occasionally plagiarists and [slanderers] are called to account even in the Church,” he said via email.

Professor Joshua Hochschild of Mount St. Mary’s University, who was one of the researchers active in discovering examples of Rosica’s misuse of others’ published writings, was even more laconic in his response to the news of the priest’s resignation.

“It was inevitable,” said Hochschild via social media.

David Mulroney, both a former Canadian ambassador to China and a recent president of the University of St. Michael’s College, with which Fr. Rosica is associated, told LifeSiteNews that Salt and Light has done the “right thing.”

“This is the right thing to do,” Mulroney said through social media. “It would be impossible for Fr. Rosica to remain at the helm of a major Catholic media organization given what has been revealed about his plagiarism.”

Mathew Adam Block, who wrote an op-ed in Canada’s National Post about the scandal shortly after LifeSiteNews broke the story, praised Rosica for having taken responsibility. “I am grateful to see Fr. Rosica take responsibility for his past misdeeds and step down from leadership with Salt and Light. I pray that God would grant him forgiveness and comfort in what must be a very difficult time.”

When the scandal first broke in February, Rosica seemed both to apologize for copying the work of others and to blame interns and others for sending him the quotes without proper attribution. However, as the weeks wore on, it became clear that several of Rosica’s works, including newspaper columns, speeches, and books, were “patch written,” combining passages from several writers, sometimes with words omitted or moved around, which made detection more difficult. Some plagiarism dates back over 30 years, long before the founding of Salt and Light TV.

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Basilian Father Thomas Rosica. CNS/Paul Haring

Rosica resigns from Salt and Light in wake of plagiarism revelations

The Catholic Register

18 June 2019

By 

Fr. Thomas Rosica is stepping down as CEO of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, the latest chapter in a plagiarism scandal that has embroiled the Basilian priest since early this year.

Rosica, the founding CEO of the Canadian Catholic television network Salt + Light TV, was found to have plagiarized others’ work — including Cardinals Edward O’Brien and Walter Kasper, theologian Gregory Hillis and John Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter — in lectures, blog posts and newspaper articles. Rosica has owned up to the charges first levelled by LifeSiteNews in February, and apologized for his mistakes.

He has been on sabbatical since March for “several months of rest and renewal.”

“After 16 years as the founding Chief Executive Officer, I have submitted my resignation to the Board of Directors of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation effective today,” Rosica said in a June 17 statement. “It has been a great privilege to work closely with our founder, Gaetano Gagliano, his family and a dedicated Board of Directors on this media project. I am grateful for the young adults working with us who helped realize Gaetano’s vision for Catholic television and media.”

He went on to again apologize for claiming others’ work as his own.

“I ask forgiveness for errors in not properly acknowledging individuals and attributing sources in my writings,” he said.

When the scandal broke, Rosica said he never wilfully plagiarized others and that he often relies on volunteers and colleagues to send him ideas that would become part of his lectures. He said he didn’t do the necessary checking into sources and took full responsibility for that oversight.

Tony Gagliano, chair of Salt and Light’s board and son of Gaetano, thanked Rosica for his leadership since the network was born out of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of which Rosica was national director. He said Salt and Light has been “a great gift” to the Catholic Church in Canada and beyond and will continue under the interim leadership of Alex Du, its chief operating officer.

“The involvement of many young women and men on our various media platforms has made a positive difference in the lives of many people around the world,” said Gagliano. “We are grateful to Fr. Rosica for his leadership.”

Salt and Light TV has grown beyond being a television network over its 16 years. It now offers services as a production house, expanded into satellite radio, publishes a seasonal magazine and has launched a number of social media initiatives.

Rosica has held a number of high-profile positions with the Catholic Church and its entities, including English-language liaison at the Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse in February and English-language media attaché of the Holy See press office. When the scandal broke in February, Rosica tendered his resignation to a number of these entities, including the collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and the boards of the University of St. Thomas in Houston and St. John Fisher College in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

The Jesuits of Canada also withdrew an invitation for Rosica to receive its Magis Award for service to the Church at its annual provincial’s dinner in April.

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