Photo via Warner Bros.

Photo via Warner Bros.

Georgetown University—the oldest Jesuit and Catholic University in the U.S.—isn’t Catholic enough. At least that’s what William Peter Blatty—author of the novel The Exorcist, of which the classic 1973 horror film is adapted from—thinks.

Last summer, he started a petition, which he claimed to represent “more than 1,200 alumni, students, parents, teachers, and other laity from around the world,” that the university doesn’t comply with the “Ex corde Ecclesiae, the Apostolic Constitution that lays out the standard behavior and practices for Catholic universities. After sending his petition to Georgetown administrators, he sent it to the Vatican, in hopes of getting them to take action.

And, after a while, the Vatican responded. The National Catholic Register reports that Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, the secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, sent a letter to Batty’s group, “The Father King Society to Make Georgetown Honest, Catholic, and Better,” which he started over a year ago, and said the Vatican is “taking the issue seriously.”

“Your communications to this Dicastery in the matter of Georgetown University … constitute a well-founded complaint,” Archbishop Zani wrote in a letter dated April 4. “Our Congregation is taking the issue seriously, and is cooperating with the Society of Jesus in this regard.”

Batty’s original petition asserted that the university had lost its Catholic identity through things like safe sex advocacy, hosting student performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” a decline of Jesuits on campus and on staff, and hosting openly gay speakers and supporters of abortion rights on campus.

After it was reported that Blatty would be sending the petition to the Vatican, Georgetown University responded. Rachel Pugh, Director of Communications for Georgetown, defended the school, saying that “Catholic and Jesuit identity on campus has never been stronger. Academically, we remain committed to the Catholic intellectual tradition.”