Letters to the Editor: Faculty members continue to address the current climate on campus from all angles

Many of us on campus were deeply disturbed by the email from Mr. Paul Murano to the college community on April 2 in which he cited two Catholic bishops on voting on human life issues, while inviting people to attend a meeting of Assumption Advocates for Life. We were concerned about this email on several levels:
First, the email seemed like a call for political action rather than an invitation to intellectual exploration of complex moral and political issues. As such, it would seem to violate college policy on the use of campus-wide emails. In a message of some 180 words, we found three direct references to voting. If Mr. Murano wishes to speak with members of Advocates for Life about voting issues, he has every right to do so, but we do not believe he has the right to send a mass email to the entire campus advocating a political position.
Second, the message of the email seems to us profoundly inappropriate for a college campus. It is not an invitation to reflection and discussion, but an exhortation to believe and act on a particular ideology, one about which many Catholics in this country and elsewhere are deeply divided. The effect of its harsh language ("intrinsically evil;" "borders on scandal") was to close off discussion rather than to open it up. The memo seems less like calling people to a conversation about the relationship between faith and citizenship, than telling them what they should think. It is our sense that no one who did not already believe the views Mr. Murano cites would feel welcome to attend this meeting or explore the issues of the intersection between Catholic faith and American citizenship. Thus we do not believe the email was appropriate for a faculty member to send to the entire community.
Third, and perhaps most important, a statement that refers to gay marriage as "intrinsically evil" is provocative and inappropriate. It is deeply hurtful to our colleagues and friends who are gay or lesbian or who have family and friends who are gay and lesbian. Statements such as this can create an unsafe campus environment, inspiring disrespect and distrust on the part of some and concern for personal safety in others. As a community, we need to provide an atmosphere of caring support for all of our members. The memo does not fit with the behavior idealized by the college motto, "Until Christ be formed in you." The Biblical account of Christ encourages tolerance rather than condemnation. Indeed, the words of Christ in the Bible remind us that only those without sin can cast the first stone, and call us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, not to condemn colleagues and friends.
Furthermore, the wording of the memo is potentially misleading, suggesting that the statements quoted represent the Catholic Church's official position on voting, and that voting for particular candidates and political parties in the 2008 presidential election is the only option acceptable in the eyes of the Church. However, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops' statement "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" (2007, para. 7, available at www.usccb.org) says: "We bishops do not intend to tell Catholics for whom or against whom to vote. Our purpose is to help Catholics form their consciences in accordance with God's truth." The email from Mr. Murano thus did not reflect the position of the Church on these issues. We strongly defend all people's right to express their views, even views with which we strongly disagree; such expression is critical to the maintenance of an open intellectual community that pursues the truth. But we must all strive to be honest in our statements. To present opinions as carrying the stamp of approval of the Church when that is not the case is a violation of the trust that we place in each other in this academic enterprise.
And finally, the email offers a surprisingly partial and inaccurate reflection of the Catholic Church's position on war. Mr. Murano cites Bishop Burke as saying that war, like capital punishment, is less "intrinsically evil" than stem cell research, abortion, or gay marriage because it does not include "the direct intention of killing innocent human beings." Leaving aside the obvious fact that same-sex marriage does not involve the killing of innocent human beings, we must note that many acts of war - the bombing of London and Dresden and Hiroshima, and the "Shock and Awe" campaign against Baghdad - did involve the killing of innocent human beings. The Church's doctrine of Just War is far more complex than this email suggests, and it requires members to consider each war individually and to assess whether or not it is "just." Thus war is certainly as crucial to the considerations of Catholic voters as stem cell research or reproductive rights or same-sex marriage. Ann Murphy
Linda Ammons
Tom Begley
Leslie Choquette
Becky DiBiasio
Regina Edmonds
Amy Gazin-Schwartz
Arlene Guerrero-Watanabe
Deborah Kisatsky
David Thoreen
Charles Stuart
Lucia Knoles