Of course, Marquette was represented.Details at Marquette Warrior
This is not the first time Marquette has sent representatives to a gay higher education conference. It happened back in 2005 when David Borgealt (Office of Student Development) and Fr. Patrick Dorsey (University Ministry), attended a conference called “Out There: The First National Conference of Scholars and Student Affairs Professionals Involved in LGBTQ Issues on Catholic Campuses.”
Marquette’s recent rush to embrace each and every element of the gay campus agenda is not really a response to the outrage of the campus gay lobby over Marquette’s failure to hire lesbian dean candidate Jodi O’Brien.
A fundamentally secular and politically correct administration has simply done what it has long wanted to do. The Jodi O’Brien affair was merely a pretext, an excuse.
And here we see another even more stunning development.
Marquette Tribune: No Right of Conscience for Pharmacists
An editorial in the April 14 Tribune addresses the issue of laws that force pharmacists to supply “emergency contraception.” A recent court ruling in Illinois found that such laws violate the rights of pharmacists. But the Tribune did not agree.Details
Simply put, it is not the pharmacist’s choice. Imposing personal moral judgments on another individual’s life choices in the medical field is unprofessional and intrusive.The Tribune doesn’t believe medical personnel should have any choice to avoid dispensing medicines they think are immoral. The editorial doesn’t address this issue, but the exact same logic would say that doctors and nurses should be forced to perform abortions, or drummed out of the medical profession.
The Jesuit problem. Bishops cannot just go in and revoke the universities "Catholic" label without indicting the entire Society of Jesus. Either a bishop has to go it alone or they are looking to the Holy See to make some formal declaration on the matter. What is clear is that not only is Marquette unrecoverable, it is more of a threat to young minds of Wisconsin than the most liberal secular institutions.
7 comments:
What Marquette has to realize is that there is a certain point at which they are going to create an environment in which (orthodox) Catholic students will not be comfortable attending that school.
Just as I am sure the school would never want to create an environment in which students of any other sort of group, Muslim students, commuter students, Hispanic students, older-students, disabled students, etc. would feel alienated they need to be concious of how Catholics students are going to feel.
I think a lot of Catholic institutions are so terrified of the possibility of "forcing" any aspect of Catholicism on people that they instead push back against any dynamic and affirmative expressions of Catholicism.
I'm sorry but when UW-Madison turns out to be a better place for the Catholic faith than a Jesuit university it is time to start asking some questions.
We have a few Catholic schools in this country that embrace their Catholic identity. Most however (esp. the Jesuit schools) seem to prefer to compartmentalize it, to put it in a neat and small little box. Catholic identity being limited to alumni outreach/fundraising efforts, a bland benediction at graduation, a few slogans, and a campus ministry wing that patronizes students with efforts to recruit them into an style of church that hasn't appealed to a person under 30 since 1973.
Ok, whatever, no one is saying that all freshmen students need to take a year long class on the Baltimore Catechism and attend a May crowning. Then again, I am sure students at Marquette do have to take some kind of required theology class still. Maybe this should be geared towards practical Catholicism, something like an introduction to the 7 sacraments, or the Gospels, rather than speculative stuff about Gnostics or whatever. I see nothing wrong in a class that begins with the preface "you do not have to agree with everything you learn in this class, but by the time it is done you will know what the Catholic Church teaches and why."
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Back when I was in undergrad I found learning things about what Islam or Hinduism taught to be worth-while and I never felt any of that was imposed on me, the same would probably go for Catholicism.
More importantly though, Catholic colleges which choose to compartmentalize should AT LEAST make sure the Catholic compartment is an authentic one. Part of this means getting the bureaucrats out of the way and just letting the Holy Spirit work.
As we are contently seeing among the younger generation, there is an increased secularism (and/or new-age-ism) among a large portion of that group, and an increased sense of devotion to religion among a smaller portion of the group. The baby-boom generation is full of people who go to Church on Christmas and Easter only, I suspect that the current generation of young people is going to consist of those who go to church weekly, or those that go never.
Right now most Catholic colleges seem to operate on the notion that it is their duty to totally protect the larger secular group from ever having to encounter any expression of Christian orthodoxy while at the same time trying to impose a stuck in the 1970s spirituality on the small flock of the faithful.
It is not easy being a faithful Catholic esp. for young people who constantly are put in the position of having to defend their faith to peers, some just curious, some confused, and some totally hostile. When their own Catholic universities fail to educate the wider-culture about the faith, and fail even to provide at least a small oasis for the faithful to renew their strength on the spiritual pilgrimage of life, the failure is terrible indeed. Young people don’t want to be “Eucharistic ministers,” they want Eucharistic adoration; they don’t want guitar strumming Marty Haugen ditties, they want the hauntingly transcendent Gregorian chants they have only heard in movies and video games up to this point.
If a school wants to be a progressive, liberal, diverse place, fine, but in that diversity please let the Catholics authentically celebrate their own faith and identity, take the training wheels off, they are only slowing it down.
Wow, that is absolutely spot on! I literally couldn't have said it better myself.
What Marquette has to realize is that there is a certain point at which they are going to create an environment in which (orthodox) Catholic students will not be comfortable attending that school.
Very nice sentiment, but you don't get it.
Marquette University is run by the Jesuits. So far as the Jesuits are concerned, they will change their ways when the CASHFLOW forces them to do so. Not before, and not for any other reason, period.
Bishops cannot just go in and revoke the universities "Catholic" label without indicting the entire Society of Jesus.
Could you cite a source for that comment?
A Bishop may require Marquette (or any other place) to stop using the term "Catholic" at any time. Doesn't require Roman agreement (although any prudent Bishop would certainly have checked with Rome...)
Dad29, Re: "Catholic" label, I only mean to speak practically. Of course, any bishop could do as they want in this regard, but have you seen any universities lose their "Catholic" label? Nobody wants to tackle it. So when I say he has to "go it alone" I mean he has to swim against the current pacifism culture of the USCCB. It would make sense for a body like the USCCB to speak to this matter and back it up with consequences(not sure of SJ can spell that word) since it is not just a Marquette problem. I think a bishop should reprimand this kind of BS but no bishop is doing it and no bishop wants to name names.
You are right on the other hand that Marquette will change if it is financially profitable to them, and only then.
Dad29,
With all due respect, you are correct to an extent (money does talk), however there are a few things to recall. How many people working at university, even a private one, are plugged in to the realities of the market? I don't think your average professor in the Gender studies department, or liturgist in the campus ministry, loses much sleep worrying about university finances.
Likewise when MU sponsers events like the author of "Heather has 2 mommies" (comming next week) I don't see the financily lucrative aspect of that. Same goes for outreach the university would do for any other small group. Further, providing marriage bennifts to live-in partners is not going to make the university any $$$ (healthcare costs and higher education costs seem to be in a battle for which one can be considered most over-inflated sector of the market.)
However, I do think you are correct, money does play a role, what would you suggest concerned alums do? I guess every time they solicit money from alums one can write a nice big check out to the Insitute of Christ the King or Priests for Life or some such group, make a copy of it, and mail MU the copy and hope they get the message if enough people start doing that?
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