{"id":1855,"date":"2018-04-17T22:19:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T02:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2018-04-17T22:19:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T02:19:50","slug":"providence-college-catholic-politically-correct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/04\/providence-college-catholic-politically-correct.html","title":{"rendered":"Providence College: Catholic or Politically Correct?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an essay<\/a> of mine from last week, I brought to readers\u2019 attention the painful fact\u2014particularly painful from this Catholic\u2019s perspective\u2014that even traditionally religious institutions of higher learning have succumbed to the leftist, Politically Correct ideology that dominates much of the Western academic world.<\/p>\n

I mentioned the case of Michael Smalanskas, a Providence College senior and Resident Advisor who, while acting within his job description, created an exhibit on a dormitory bulletin board affirming the Church\u2019s teaching that marriage is inherently heterosexual and monogamous: \u201cMarriage\u2026As God Intended It: One Man, One Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme of the display was buttressed by select Biblical quotations as well as quotations from Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that Smalanskas constructed his display approximately a month after<\/em> other students created a display celebrating \u201cgay marriage.\u201d\u00a0 Yet while the latter\u2014at this Catholic college\u2014encountered zero unpleasant consequences of any kind for their advocacy of a stance radically at odds with that of the Catholic vision that is the mission of their school to further, Smalanskas was subjected to harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence, including rape.\u00a0 Things got so bad that at one point security had to move him from his residence on campus to an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n

When Smalanskas and his faculty advisor met with the college\u2019s administration and asked for them to publically reaffirm Providence\u2019s Catholic identity, publically underscore that Smalanskas\u2019 perspective on marriage is<\/em> the Catholic perspective, and publically and unequivocally disavow the treatment to which Smalanskas had been subjected, administrators\u2014including, most tellingly, the school\u2019s president, Father Brian Shanley\u2014refused. <\/em><\/p>\n

Smalanskas\u2019 parents attempted to arrange a meeting with Providence administrators, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

Smalanskas then went to Catholic media.\u00a0 Consequently, thousands of indignant people flooded Father Shanley\u2019s inbox and Providence College\u2019s phone lines demanding that action be taken to address the indignities suffered by one of his Catholic students for affirming Catholic teaching.<\/p>\n

A month or so after the harassment of Smalanskas began, Providence College\u2019s president finally responded.\u00a0 And while Father Shanley did indeed condemn the treatment that Smalanskas was made to endure, and while he did note that Smalanskas\u2019 position on marriage is that of the Catholic Church (and, thus, of Providence College), Shanley\u2019s statement actually further supports the charge, made forcefully by former Providence faculty member Anthony Esolen, that Providence has essentially abandoned their Catholic mission in favor of a PC \u201ctotalitarian diversity cult<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

First of all, Father Shanley didn\u2019t issue a public <\/em>statement at all.\u00a0 He sent out a campus-wide email.<\/p>\n

Second, that Shanley makes it a point in the second sentence to explicitly note that it is mainly \u201cconservative social media sites\u201d that are responsible for \u201cmuch\u201d of the \u201cdiscussion and negative publicity\u201d that \u201cthe College\u201d has garnered is telling.\u00a0 In framing the issue in these terms, one could be forgiven for suspecting that Shanley is adopting a political strategy designed to knock out two birds with one stone:<\/p>\n

In subtly shifting the blame from his own inaction onto a bunch of \u201cconservatives\u201d with a political ax to grind, Shanley can give the impression that the controversy under discussion is in effect contrived by a bunch of trouble-making right-wingers. And at the same time, he can just as subtly signal to the leftists that threatened Smalanskas that Shanley is not one of those \u201cconservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

That he follows up by expressly saying that \u201cmuch\u201d of what is reported in media accounts \u201cis not accurate,\u201d and that the phone calls and emails that he\u2019s received have been \u201cangry, accusatory, and ironically uncharitable,\u201d renders this reading of Father Shanley\u2019s objective all but certain.<\/p>\n

Third, it isn\u2019t until the third paragraph of his email that Shanley expresses how \u201cdistressed\u201d he\u2019s been \u201cby the way Michael Smalanskas has been vilified and ostracized by many of his peers.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s in this paragraph that Shanley condemns the rape threat against Smalanskas as \u201codious and reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet while this sounds good on its face, what Shanley gives with one hand he takes with another, for his defense of Smalanskas is qualified by what are obviously concessions to the leftists who mistreated the beleaguered student.<\/p>\n

For instance, immediately after expressing his \u201cdistress\u201d over the injustice that Smalanskas suffered, Shanley adds: \u201cWhile some might not agree with how he tried to express Church teaching, he is entitled to the same respect, charity, and protection that is due any student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice, Father Shanley suggests in this sentence that disgruntled students could have grounds for taking issue with the manner<\/em> in which Smalanskas, a student at a Catholic college, stated the Catholic Church\u2019s position on marriage\u2014as if there is anything objectionable about using a bulletin board to promote marriage.<\/p>\n

He also implies, in claiming that Smalanskas deserves the same \u201crespect, charity, and protection\u201d as any other student, that it is Smalanskas\u2019 <\/em>view on marriage that is a minority or exotic perspective.<\/p>\n

In other words, Father Shanley\u2019s defense of Smalanskas and his institution\u2019s Catholic identity is anything but robust.<\/p>\n

Fourth, to further elaborate upon this last point, in both the introduction and conclusion to Shanley\u2019s email he identifies as the premiere challenge confronting Providence\u2014as well as \u201cevery Catholic campus and\u2026the Church as a whole\u201d\u2014the balancing act of retaining a Catholic identity while simultaneously being \u201cinclusive<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is revealing, for \u201cCatholic\u201d means universal.\u00a0 It is inherently inclusive of a great variety of practices and ideas.\u00a0 In characterizing the relationship between Catholicism and inclusiveness as one of tension, Shanley endorses the same concept of \u201cinclusiveness\u201d shared by those who labored indefatigably for over a month tormenting a Catholic student at a Catholic college who affirmed the Catholic position on marriage.<\/p>\n

Referring specifically to those Providence students who are members of \u201cthe LGBTQ+ community,\u201d Shanley writes: \u201cWhat I hear\u2026is not that they expect us to disavow the Church\u2019s teaching, but rather to find a way to help them feel included in light of our Catholic identity and in a way that recognizes their inherent dignity as created in the image and likeness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur collective challenge,\u201d he insists, \u201cis to find a way to be faithful to our Catholic identity and <\/em>to be inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some reason, I doubt that Shanley is especially concerned about being inclusive of traditionalist Catholics who reject the Vatican II, Southern students who express pride in their Southern heritage, NRA members, etc.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a final point.\u00a0 Father Shanley\u2019s remarks concerning the LGBTQ+ community at Providence imply that its members who were irate over Smalanskas\u2019 marriage display had a grievance after all!\u00a0 Providence, so Shanley evidently thinks, has failed to make homosexual and other students who reject the Catholicism of Providence feel welcome. It has failed to recognize \u201ctheir inherent dignity as created in the image and likeness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presumably, Michael Smalanskas contributed to this exclusionary environment when he championed marriage via a bulletin board.\u00a0 This is the message that is all too plausibly conveyed when one reads between the lines of Father Shanley\u2019s email.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Providence College\u2019s commitment to its traditional Catholic identity is even more<\/em> in question now that its president has spoken to the victimization of a Catholic student than when he was silent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an essay of mine from last week, I brought to readers\u2019 attention the painful fact\u2014particularly painful from this Catholic\u2019s perspective\u2014that even traditionally religious institutions of higher learning have succumbed to the leftist, Politically Correct ideology that dominates much of the Western academic world. 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