Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Thomas F. Mulledy

Thomas F. Mulledy

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/September 14, 2019 by Wehwalt (talk) 05:47, 21 August 2019 (UTC)



Thomas F. Mulledy (1794–1860) was a Catholic priest from Virginia and a prominent leader of the American Jesuits. He twice served as President of Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., where he undertook a significant building campaign. After his first presidency, he was appointed provincial superior of the Jesuit Maryland province in 1837. The following year, Mulledy executed the sale of 272 slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits in order to relieve the province's mounting debts. After an outcry from his fellow Jesuits over the immorality of the sale, church authorities in Rome exiled him to Nice for several years, for insubordination and promoting scandal. Following his return to the United States in 1843, he became the first President of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where he oversaw the construction of the college's first building. In his later years, he engaged in preaching and pastoral work, and assisted Holy Cross during investigations by the Know Nothing Party.
 * Most recent similar article(s): William Matthews (priest) on 28 March 2019
 * Main editors: Ergo Sum
 * Promoted: June 26, 2019
 * Reasons for nomination: September 14 will be the 190th anniversary of Mulledy's appointment as President of Georgetown University
 * Support as nominator.  Ergo Sum  02:01, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Okay, several problems there: 1. 1137 characters, way over the 1025 limit. 2. There's some debate these days about when to use the word "slaves". 3. "exiled" is too easily misunderstood to mean "forcibly removed". 4. The lead says "Mulledy ... was educated for the priesthood in Rome, before completing his education in the United States."; this blurb seems to say something different. All of these problems were dealt with at the blurb review stage. See if you can get it under 1025. - Dank (push to talk) 02:39, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I've tweak the text, so that it's now 1015 characters. I've removed the bit about his education because it's not a terribly important part of his life. I know of a small subset of people use phrases like "enslaved persons", but I'm quite confident that "slave" is still the standard and far more common term; also, I think it would raise concerns of MOS:EUP. As far as "exile" is concerned, it's an accurate description of what happened, even if not as dramatic as some exiles can be.  Ergo Sum  03:03, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Blurb length is good, and it looks good to go. About "slaves", I just want people to be aware of the debate; I don't have a position, but I do look for ways to use an adjective instead of a noun when I can. We can deal with "exiled" if people argue about the dictionary definitions here or at ERRORS. (It's not clear-cut.) - Dank (push to talk) 03:37, 30 July 2019 (UTC)