Archbishop Desmond Tutu is slated to be the keynote speaker at Gonzaga University's Senior Commencement on May 13. That has upset some pious Catholic Gonzaga alumni who have started a petition to have the Nobel Laureate banned. The Cardinal Newman Society has its vestments in a twist as well and complains that "Gonzaga University is celebrating 125 years as a Catholic college by honoring a pro-abortion rights pro-contraception Anglican archbishop."I checked out some of the remarks on the petition and I was impressed with this one.
This is unconscionable! We are to accept that his work on apartheid trumps all the other stances against the Church. Is he only going to speak on apartheid? Look at how outspoken he is on other faith matters!
Throw them stones! No doubt this person lead one of the many uprisings suffered by Catholic Churches all around the globe as predator priests and the Catholic leaders who protected them were unmasked one by one. Oh...wait...that never happened. Regardless, we wouldn't want to let the actions of pedophile priests trump all other stances of the Church, would we?
There's also a petition for those who support the archbishop and the university. Out of the comments posted there I found this gem.
I have been teaching nonviolence in a Catholic high school for 40 years. Please remind the Cardinal Newman Society that Jesus taught "Love your enemy", not "Ban your enemy".
And it looks like a lot of other people agree with him. The number of petition signers as of this writing stands at 8533 who love their neighbor and 707 stone throwers.
1 comment:
Jesus didn't see words as stones. He saw stones as stones. He himself had moralizing words for the adulterous woman he saved from stoning.
Jesus often lashed out with words. He even lashed out with lashes, though that's another story.
Jesus' harshest words were saved for the high and mighty, the wealthy, the pompous. I don't think he'd choose a side between the over-dressed clerical hierarchies of the Catholic and Episcopalian churches. Render onto Pope/Cesar etc, but hang with headless John.
It's true that Jesus saw the struggle (the jihad?) as within ourselves, removing that damn log in our eyes, though not in exclusion of an outward struggle. We still must remove the mote in our brother's eye.
Also, remember that Jesus' own favorite verse was from Psalms 4:20,
And lo, I would not feel so all alone
Truly, truly: everyone must get stoned
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