Conservative Student News

photo credit stthomas.edu

I was embarrassed. I sat there in my cap and gown, a 22-year-old college senior, among hundreds of other 22-year-old seniors, having just completed a four-year immersion in humane sentiment and liberal learning. We were now graduating from one of the most respected private universities in the state of Minnesota with a top-notch emphasis on tolerance and respect in our community of learning.

And now, my fellow graduates were screaming. We were not watching “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” mind you. Nor were we facing Soviet tanks during a student protest. We were listening (relatively speaking) to a commencement address being delivered by our fellow senior and honors student Benjamin Kessler.

Kessler had begun his speech by referring to a time when he, himself, had been embarrassed by the behavior of his Tommie classmates. Apparently, the illustrious progress of our class had been darkened for an hour by a rather juvenile food fight. Now, Kessler urged us to leave our immaturity behind and to become selfless members of society by refusing to adopt homosexual partners, abort our children, and use birth control.

Lest these particular acts of selfishness seem a bit random, one should keep in mind both the recent campus controversies and the fact that Kessler is a Catholic seminarian. The University of St. Thomas is a Catholic institution and Kessler’s remarks were essentially an exhortation to live by Catholic morality. Most of my fellow graduates realized at some point that these three facts were related and they were not screaming.

Others in the audience did not, however, seem to make the connection. Judging from the volume of the heckling, several people appeared to be surprised and offended at Kessler’s comments. The Star Tribune described the incident later (based on second-hand information) as a chastisement that nearly provoked a riot. Even radio stations like AM 1280 The Patriot concluded that Kessler’s speech was inappropriate because one does not expect to hear Catholic doctrine presented at commencement ceremonies.

Perhaps at most commencement ceremonies one does not expect to confront Catholicism. On the other hand, perhaps a Catholic university is one of the places where one should expect it.

Before I progress further with my musings on Kessler’s speech, I should mention that I am not a Catholic. I have no particular quibble with using birth control and after considering the Thomistic arguments against homosexuality, I think they are inadequate and unsound.

My non-Catholicism, however, does not prevent me from recognizing two very important realities. The first reality is that, when Kessler was delivering his remarks on homosexuality and birth control, he was not voicing his private opinions. Kessler was speaking as a mouthpiece of a very public institution—the same institution, in fact, that is responsible for the existence of the university from which we all were graduating. Kessler’s speech was recognizably, justifiably, and officially Catholic.

I, a non-Catholic, had no trouble recognizing this. However, both my fellow students and (inexplicably) the administration appear to have quite overlooked this fact. The second reality is that my non-Catholicism is not a license for me to object to the expression of Catholicism. When I chose to come to St. Thomas, I knew I would encounter beliefs that I thought were erroneous. I also knew that part of becoming a mature and thoughtful student was learning to respect people who held these beliefs. Beyond this, I knew when I enrolled at St. Thomas that I was technically a privileged guest in someone else’s house.

The founders and supporters of the school were Catholics. Its principles were Catholic and a large percentage of the student body was Catholic. I determined inwardly to respect whatever expressions of Catholicism this might entail.

With this in mind, I would like to suggest, contrary to the Star Tribune and AM 1280 The Patriot, that a Catholic exhortation to live by Catholic morals is entirely appropriate to a Catholic commencement. Moreover, it is exactly what I and my fellow graduates implicitly agreed to tolerate when we chose a Catholic institution as our alma mater. I emphasize this because our own administration has apparently underestimated the ability of students, like myself, to tolerate the expression of Catholic views. I fear that I am a member of the non-Catholic student body that the administration wished to appease by persuading Kessler to apologize.

On the behalf of students, like myself, who have learned something about tolerance from St. Thomas, I would like to insist that no apology is necessary. Kessler’s speech constituted no breach of decorum. Instead, I would like to urge my class and the administration to abide publicly by our acclaimed principles of respect. Let us obliterate the record of juvenile screams and demands for apology, and instead let us award Kessler a more fitting place in our regard for his courageous presentation of Catholicism at our most memorably Catholic commencement.