After causing all sorts of hand-wringing and teeth-grinding over inviting an “womanpriest” to speak, the St. Thomas More Society of San Diego has had second thoughts:

Just days before her scheduled appearance before the St. Thomas More Society of San Diego, the group’s board of directors has voted to disinvite “womanpriest” Jane Via.

At a hastily called special meeting on July 30, the society’s board of directors voted to cancel Via’s speaking engagement. She was scheduled to speak today.

Sources on the board told California Catholic Daily that some members had threatened to resign from the society if Via’s speech went forward. They said that the invitation was taken on the initiative of one member of the group, without authorization from the board or the knowledge of other members of the society.

The decision marks the second time Via has been invited, then uninvited, by the St. Thomas More Society of San Diego. In 1985, while teaching at the University of San Diego, a “Catholic” institution, Via signed a statement challenging Church teaching on abortion that was published in the New York Times, which prompted then Bishop of San Diego Leo Maher to place her under interdict. The Thomas More Society had scheduled a speech by Via, but, after the bishop’s interdict, decided to cancel.

Via says she was ordained a “womanpriest” aboard a boat on the St. Lawrence River on July 24, 2006. That same month she met with Bishop Robert Brom, who, after Via refused to back down, placed her under interdict. At the time of the most recent St. Thomas More Society invitation, Via was under interdict for openly defying Bishop Brom.

Last summer, Bishop Brom forwarded her case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome for further action, possibly a formal declaration of excommunication.