Relatives embrace as they take part in a brief reunification meeting May 2 on the border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. (CNS/Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez)
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Unsurprisingly, the Catholic University of America's Board of Trustees did not pause in the face of an on-campus revolt, but endorsed the plan of "academic renewal" put forward by Provost Andrew Abela and President John Garvey. And the school has appointed a new dean of the School of Music, which now also includes art and drama: Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the wife of Michael Warsaw, EWTN's CEO. And all this time, I thought the Catholic University business school was opposed to crony capitalism! New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan dusted off his pompoms to give CUA a boost. That should fix everything.
Speaking of business schools, the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame helped organize the meeting between the Holy Father and oil executives last week. Pope Francis' speech was magnificent. My question: Do the business schools at our universities teach what the pope teaches? I can't imagine our friends at the Acton Institute were happy with what the pope had to say, nor those like Abela whom they have honored for their commitment to libertarian economics.
Why is fighting Gay Pride a fool's errand? Because now even Target and Walmart have recognized that there is money to be made promoting the monthlong festivals nationwide. More importantly, while we Christians should always be willing to be "fools for Christ," there is nothing in the catechism, and certainly nothing in the Gospels, that prevents us from celebrating the fact that gay men and women no longer need to hide in the shadows of society.
From The Boston Globe, the new "Trail of Tears" along our nation's southern border as the Trump administration plays games with people's lives and destroys families in the process. Where is the outrage from our bishops' conference? Isn't the president of the conference from Texas? And the vice president of the conference a Mexican immigrant? Maybe Msgr. Brian Bransfield, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, can find a copy of the Scriptures where the teachings about welcoming the stranger could not be more explicit.
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Former President Barack Obama is reportedly meeting with Democratic 2020 hopefuls. I hope they ask him how to win an election, but I hope they do not look to him for advice on how to govern. Obama's economic policies were, like those of mainstream Republicans, what occasioned the resentment Trump exploited, and the Dems will never offset that by pursing a culture war from the left, as Obama was only too willing to do.
As always, the clarion sound of sanity comes from the RNS columns of my colleague Mark Silk, this time on the subject of the Masterpiece Cakeshop case the Supreme Court ruled on last week. Time for the left to stop putting the words religious liberty in scare quotes and time for the right to stop using religious liberty as a thinly veiled guise to dis gay people.
[Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR.]
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