St.
Joseph’s Affirms Offer to Santorum
Despite faculty and student opposition, the university
did not rescind an invitation to the senator to speak at graduation.
Philadelphia
Inquirer, April 26, 2003
P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
By James M. O’Neill, Inquirer Staff Writer
LOWER MERION—St. Joseph’s
University trustees yesterday reaffirmed an invitation to embattled Sen. Rick
Santorum to speak at commencement next month, despite opposition from faculty
and a rare campus protest by students.
About 125 students, along with several priests and
faculty, protested silently on campus yesterday, holding signs that said
“Not @ my graduation” and “Senator Santorum does not represent the best
in us,” as the trustees’ executive committee discussed the invitation
issued back in January and an honorary degree the school plans to bestow on
the senator.
Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate,
engendered controversy this week when he equated gay sex with polygamy, incest
and adultery and called homosexuality “antithetical to a healthy, stable,
traditional family.”
Santorum is Catholic, and his controversial comments
seemed to follow Catholic teaching. The church teaches that gays should be
treated with respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically
disordered” and morally wrong. In his controversial remarks, Santorum said,
“I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual
acts.”
Still, the protesters at St. Joseph’s, a Catholic
institution, said Santorum’s comments offended. “He does not seem to
represent the values of our university,” said junior Kera Walter.
Many students at the Jesuit university on City Avenue
said class discussion is routinely woven with lessons about the importance of
social justice and of making the campus welcoming to all people, no matter
their ethnicity or sexual orientation. They said Santorum’s comments did not
reflect that call to openness.
Senior Guy Palumbo said that while a college campus is
meant to foster an open exchange of conflicting viewpoints, commencement is
different. “Having an extremist from the left or the right speak and
politicize commencement is inappropriate,” he said.
The Rev. H. Cornell Bradley, a Jesuit and campus
minister, stood in solidarity with the students. “Graduation is a
celebration for the students, and to have a controversial speaker interferes
with that,” he said. “The attention would be taken away from the
students’ achievement.”
St. Joseph’s spokesman Joseph Lunardi emerged from the
trustees’ two-hour meeting, acknowledging the controversy but saying the
trustees chose not to rescind Santorum’s invitation.
Lunardi said the trustees thought they should remain
consistent with the school’s commitment to openness. “We’re trying to
send a message that all views are welcome here, regardless of their
popularity,” Lunardi said.
“This many not be a popular path, but if we stand for
tolerance, we can’t be intolerant of anyone, and we hope all involved will
keep that in mind.”
The trustees also suggested in a statement that an
academic forum, rather than commencement, is the more appropriate setting for
public-policy debate.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said that
Santorum was on a “private schedule” for the weekend, and that she could
not comment on the St. Joseph’s decision.
Top administrators at St. Joseph’s generated a list of
possible graduation speakers earlier this year, and a director of student life
then polled some students about the list. An Irish tenor outpolled Santorum,
but when the singer was unavailable for the May 18 graduation, the invitation
was offered to the senator.
Santorum’s invitation generated opposition even before
his comments about gays. Earlier this semester, some faculty expressed their
displeasure, arguing that Santorum’s support for capital punishment and for
the Iraq war clashed with Catholic teaching and Pope John Paul II’s
statements on both issues.
Commencement speakers frequently become lightning rods
for protest. In 1999, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen withdrew
as commencement speaker at Villanova University because of objections to her
support of abortion rights. Quindlen said she did not want to “ruin the day
or cast a shadow” on the graduation ceremony.
This spring, Holy Cross College in Massachusetts is under
fire from some key alumni and benefactors for its decision to grant an
honorary degree to Philadelphia native and television commentator Chris
Matthews because of Matthews’ support for abortion rights, which counters
Catholic teaching.
Shame on St. Joseph’s
Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 2, 2003
P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
Letters
As a graduate of St. Joseph’s University (Class of
1980) who gave the commencement address and now a psychotherapist, I am
outraged that my alma mater has chosen to honor a man whose remarks last week
make him akin to a bully in a suit.
Inviting U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum to receive an honorary
degree is as repulsive as awarding George Wallace a degree at the height of
civil unrest and riots in the 1960s.
I am appalled that the institution I love, which prides
itself on its commitment to social and economic justice, has chosen to confer
a degree on a man who uses his status and office to bash gay people.
Yes, disinviting Sen. Santorum would incur criticism and
perhaps some negative publicity, but if Jesus had based his actions on what
other people would think, there would not be a university on City Avenue that
professes to be Christian. Shame on you!
—Greg Rossi, Yardley
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