For quite some time now, Saint Louis University has striven to
become the “Georgetown of the Midwest.” It is only logical that SLU
would strive to attain a similar status to Georgetown’s but that
aspiration has to change and it must do so quickly.

Over the years, Georgetown has often strayed from the Catholic
principles that should guide every Jesuit university, but I am
going to focus on one in particular.

With the upcoming graduation festivities looming, a pressing
question on the mind of many seniors concerns who their
commencement speaker will be. After the unnecessary debacle that
surrounded last year’s commencement speaker at SLU (first it was
the then-American Airlines CEO Donald Carty, and after a winding
trail it turned out to be St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill
McClellan), the University must redeem itself this year.

However, no matter how obscure or controversial the speaker, one
great thing that will not be overlooked is that no matter what, the
SLU student body, administration and community will never be able
to reach the depths of the pathetic display that Georgetown did in
last year’s commencement exercises.

For those of you who don’t know, Georgetown had former President
Jimmy Carter lined up to give their commencement speech. At the
last minute, Carter canceled and Georgetown scrambled and obtained
the oratorical services of Cardinal Francis Arinze, from Nigeria.
Along with heading the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship
and Discipline of the Sacraments and being one of the world’s
foremost authorities on inter-religious dialogue, he is also one of
the men considered most likely to replace current pontiff John Paul
II when the time comes.

Arinze graciously agreed to come speak to the graduating
seniors. The administration assumed that the topic of the talk
would be something about interfaith dialogues, but that was never
talked about beforehand, and no assurances were made.

So, when Arinze started offering moral guidance and addressed
the Church’s social teachings, specifically about sexual ethics, he
did not figure his remarks would fall on deaf ears. In fact, being
at a Jesuit school he probably figured, as most anyone in his
position would have, that his talk would be pretty much just like
preaching to the choir.

He was wrong. His politically incorrect comments were met with
much disdain and, in fact, caused more than a few people to get up
and leave, including one theology professor sitting on the stage. A
theologian walked out on a speech given by a fellow theologian.
Agree or disagree with the Cardinal’s remarks, one would think that
she would have at least had the decency to respect his right to say
them. And the worst part of all is that the students and faculty
walking out on his speech wasn’t the end.

After the commencement exercises were over, there was such an
upheaval about the Cardinal’s remarks within the Georgetown
community (the remarks which were directly in line with Catholic
social teaching) that the administration publicly apologized for
what he said and more than 70 faculty members signed a letter
stating that Arinze’s remarks were inappropriate.

It gets worse. Days later, the dean of Georgetown College, Jane
McAuliffe, sent an e-mail to all students apologizing for anything
offensive Arinze said and offering counseling for any student who
suffered “psychological trauma” as a result of his speech.

Can you imagine if Yasser Arafat had given a commencement speech
that assaulted Jews or if the United Nation’s High Commissioner for
Human Rights gave a commencement speech that labeled every
executive of a multi-national corporation a human rights
oppressor?

There might be a few dissenting opinions in the crowd, and
probably a lot of uneasiness. But no one would have gotten up and
left.

So why didn’t this happen at Georgetown? Who knows. Maybe
Catholic social doctrine hadn’t reached the classrooms of this
particular Jesuit institution yet.

To be fair, the Catholic teaching on many social issues,
including issues that Arinze touched on, are not mainstream
beliefs. For instance, he said that divorce and the practice of
homosexuality were dividing the institution of marriage.

However, these and other teachings are nothing new for this
religion. To think Arinze’s comments were out of line is
preposterous; and it is this type of thinking that has brought
Georgetown to its present status as a solid academic institution
that is badly misguided.

We’re better than that. After this year’s commencement exercises
start and the speaker is announced, SLU will show why it is a
community made up of smart, thoughtful and open individuals who are
receptive to many different viewpoints, whether they agree with
them or not, and which continually set us apart from almost every
other college or university out there.

Even Georgetown.

Jack Smedile is a junior studying marketing and political
science.