They Are Judged By the Company They Keep

In the spring of 2003, Georgetown University made a decision they have regretted ever since: they invited the incomparable Cardinal Francis Arinze to be the keynote speaker at their commencement. Those of you who know of Cardinal Arinze know him to be a very eloquent, highly intelligent, and unabashedly orthodox defender of the faith; and the Church is very blessed to name him among her princes. The organizers of the Georgetown commencement had no idea what they were in for. The typical keynote speaker in American Catholic institutions (by this I mean that such schools have a Catholic charter. Whether or not they actually honor their Catholic identity is another matter entirely) usually speaks in rosy platitudes that in no way, shape, or form challenge graduates to live an authentic Catholic life. Perhaps this is what the Georgetown commencement organizers were hoping for.

We will likely never know in this life when it finally dawned on these organizers that Cardinal Arinze was not going to respect politically correct sensibilities. The final straw apparently came when he dared to condemn adultery, fornication, and sodomy - among other things - as assaults on marriage and the family (and, by extension, an assault on society). This prompted one member of the faculty to get up and walk off the stage in protest. It also prompted one of the most disgraceful actions ever taken by educators at a Catholic institution of higher learning (again I refer you to the above definition), when dozens of members of the theology department issued a joint statement formally apologizing for the Cardinal's "un-Christian" remarks.

You'll notice that in my links section on the side of this blog I have a small list of links to Catholic universities. I will only include links to universities that I am satisfied are committed to the authentic Catholic formation of their students and who have promised to abide by the norms of Pope John Paul II's 1990 Apostolic Constitution on the nature and mission of Catholic universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Needless to say, Georgetown University is not on that list, and is not likely to make the list within my lifetime. I may eventually expand the list to include over a dozen schools; but given the fact that there are nearly 230 Catholic institutions in this country, that relatively small number should be an indication of the massive scandal that is being perpetrated by schools with Catholic charters.

One of the biggest scandals occurring in Catholic schools - and the actual reason for this blog post - is the habitual invitation of commencement keynote speakers whose views are contrary to Catholic belief and nothing short of scandalous to the faithful. A list of recent speakers who fit this description - and the universities who invited them - can be found here, courtesy of the Cardinal Newman Society website. Rather sad that these speakers get unwarranted praise while the Cardinal Arinzes of the world get condemned for standing up for the true teachings of the faith.

Kind of a roundabout way of getting to the point, but there you have it. I pray this message finds you well. God bless!


In Jesus and Mary,
Gerald