Northwestern University is withdrawing its offer of an honorary degree to Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, according to news reports.

Mr. Obama denounced Mr. Wright earlier this week after the retired pastor made controversial remarks about such things as his beliefs that the federal government may have intentionally inflicted the AIDS epidemic on black people and that the United States brought the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on itself.

Earlier this year, before Mr. Wright became a divisive figure in the presidential campaign, faculty committees at Northwestern had recommended that the former paster of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago be invited to receive an honorary degree at the university this June, according to a university statement cited in today’s Chicago Sun-Times.

The university withdrew that invitation because it did not want the controversy overshadowing graduation ceremonies, a Northwestern spokesman was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

“Commencement at Northwestern is a time of celebration of the accomplishments of Northwestern’s graduating students and their families,” the spokesman’s statement read, according to the article. “In light of the controversy around Dr. Wright and to ensure that the celebratory character of commencement not be affected, the university has withdrawn its invitation to Dr. Wright.”