Breezing into the St. Louis Room on Tuesday, April 1, I was able to provide a momentary digression for Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., during the wrapping up of the “Evening with the Administration.”
He recognized me (more or less) from my picture with St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke in last week’s edition of The University News. He asked, “How can we make you happy?”
I resisted the urge to ask for free parking next year and mentioned that the archbishop had nothing but good things to say when he came to SLU last week. Biondi responded, “And I have nothing but good things to say about the archbishop.”
Would that I could regale you with a juicier story than that. Is it not a case of “the bishop vs. the businessman” or “the cleric vs. the capitalist”? (I would go on, but alliteration quickly loses its charm after the sixth or seventh set.)
Personally, I do not put a lot of stock in stories about the two of them disliking each other. Certainly, great minds do not always think alike, and we all love a good bit of scandal and outrage. Although entertaining, such tales too often distract or obscure from stories worth praising, or at least mentioning.
Perhaps this is the reason why, as Shakespeare wrote, “The evil that men do lives after them / The good is oft interred with their bones.”
Or, alternatively, why the smallest thread of (often-exaggerated) scandal often eclipses a story of incredible good the length of France’s Bayeux Tapestry.
Here is one story worth telling: This semester, I fell into a leadership role for SLU’s chapter of the Knights of Columbus. For six weeks, this group of young Catholic men gave up several hours each Friday (indeed, some gave up the entire day) to labor away preparing and selling fish and chips for hungry SLU students, faculty and guests. Not only did this provide a tasty Lenten alternative to whatever Chartwells classifies as food, but it also provided a means of raising money.
My primary reason for being in the Busch Student Center on Tuesday had to do with delivering the bulk of the fish fry revenue to Students for Life, to assist with the startup of a scholarship they have just had endowed that will provide financial assistance to any SLU student facing an unexpected pregnancy.
It gave me great pride to hand over a check for $2,545.61-slightly more than one-tenth what the group needs to raise; the rest will be gathered on April 12 at an event called “Run for Their Lives.”
While spreading the word about the fish fry throughout Lent, I was always sure to bring up these efforts. This was met with the enthusiastic support of at least three student groups: Daughters of Isabella, the Irish Student Guild and Una. The first two groups even volunteered workers at the fish fry. Campus Ministry was very supportive. During his visit to SLU, even Burke expressed his enthusiastic support.
And that’s where these threads of interaction meet: where many student groups work together, finding real solutions for real issues that everyone can cooperate on. They meet in a new scholarship, another running-related charity event, in young men and women living lives of charity and in devotion to helping others-a bold and powerful expression of the pro-life mission here at SLU.
How many stories are wrapped up into this one? How many fates tied together? How many lives changed? Yet there was not enough space in the public dialogue for this story. There was no room for “good news.”
So, I might as well conclude with a bit of scandal (at least for those who wear blue and are celebrating a certain centennial this year): I also asked Biondi if, being from Chicago, he was a Cubs fan. He replied, “I used to be, but now I’m a Cardinals fan.”
What more need I say?
Tim Wright is a second-year student in the Saint Louis University School of Law.
