By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK
“Jumping the Shark” is a figure of speech used to denote a moment when an individual or institution — a television program, musical performer, politician, or advertising campaign, for example — does something so over-the-top that it signals a fatal weakness or loss of purpose that prevents people from taking the person or group seriously ever again.
The idiom has its origins in a scene from the old television sitcom Happy Days, when the character Fonzie, in a ridiculous scenario, jumps over a shark while on water skis. You could tell the show’s writers were getting desperate. The show left the air not long afterward.
I would argue that the “progressive” activists among the faculty and student body at the Jesuits’ Le Moyne College, just outside of Syracuse, jumped the shark a few weeks ago.
The Cardinal Newman Society reports that the activists protested the school’s decision to name New York City Timothy Cardinal Dolan as this year’s commencement speaker. Several hundred students and faculty members charged that Dolan has been guilty of “homophobic comments” and that he “does not represent the ideals we have come to know Le Moyne to represent.” The petition specifically states that “the graduating class of 2015 and the graduates, along with staff and other students, do not approve of this choice.”
The irony is stark and discouraging. Dolan has been attacked frequently by conservative groups in New York City for what they called his excessive willingness to compromise on the participation of homosexual groups in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Whether that charge is unfair or not, the fact remains that his “homophobia” amounts to nothing more than his defense of the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage.
Fortunately, the administration at Le Moyne did not back down; at least not entirely. More on that in due course. For the moment, let us note that Le Moyne President Linda De Mura, as reported by the Newman Society, “told Fox News that she had met with protesters and believes their concerns are centered on Cardinal Dolan’s response to sex abuse claims involving priests when Dolan was archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009. She said that she told the protesters to ‘do their homework’ before launching a protest, implying that their facts are wrong about Dolan.” Dolan gave his speech.
It would be wise, however, to hold off on praising De Mura too enthusiastically. Early in May, when reports of the petition against the choice of Dolan first surfaced, De Mura told reporters that she was “proud” of the protest. ”In reality I see it as a great call for celebration,” she said. “Our students are questioning decisions we’ve made. They want to understand the rationale at a deeper level. I think Cardinal Dolan will take some joy in the fact that our students are well educated and want more questions answered.”
De Mura went on to state, “As an institution of higher learning that encourages critical thinking, we have a responsibility to consider views from all perspectives. As a Jesuit institution, Le Moyne encourages intellectual debate on matters of importance in society, and that includes religious issues. We welcome Cardinal Dolan as a representative of the Church, and as an influential voice in the conversation.”
I am sure you feel the pebble in your shoe. “A voice in the conversation?” Egads. Consider the implications. We have a Catholic college designating a Catholic cardinal as a “voice in the conversation.” We can get an idea of what De Mura means by considering something else discovered by the Cardinal Newman Society: at the same commencement ceremony that honored Cardinal Dolan, the college also honored Lois Whitman, described by Le Moyne College as “a human rights activist and founder and director from 1994 to 2012 of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division.” She received an honorary degree alongside Dolan.
What did Whitman do to deserve those words of praise? She serves on the board of directors of the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization that describes itself as a group of “reproductive rights attorneys and activists” who fight for abortion rights and contraception. The center lists among its goals: “bringing to light dangerous new anti-choice strategies to overturn Roe v. Wade.” She is on the board of directors of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization which opposes restrictions on U.S. aid to groups that promote abortion, and also works at Human Rights Watch (HRW) — which holds the position that “equitable access to safe abortion services is first and foremost a human right.”
In other words, Le Moyne President De Mura’s defense is not that a Catholic college should not be taken to task for honoring a member of the hierarchy who defends the teachings of the Church, but that it is balancing the honor given to Dolan by also honoring an individual who dissents from the Church’s teachings on the rights of the unborn. It is not a stretch to say that, by De Mura’s logic, a historically black college would be acting high-mindedly if it granted an honorary degree to onetime Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke at the same ceremony it awarded an honorary degree to a black pastor working among impoverished youth in the inner city.
But don’t we want a college to “give a fair hearing” to both sides in a controversy? Wouldn’t we be pleased to hear that a private or state college awarded an honorary degree to a pro-life attorney, along with an honorary degree to an attorney working for the ACLU? We would. But a private or state college has no religious sense of mission. A Catholic college does; or should. A Catholic college is not supposed to be open-minded and balanced — agnostic, if you will — when it comes to those who oppose the basic premises of the Church.
It can be argued that there would be nothing wrong with inviting Whitman to participate in a symposium at Le Moyne on legalized abortion, along with, say, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a group that frequently defends pro-life causes. Le Moyne’s students would profit from the lively and informative exchange of ideas that would take place in such a setting. But an honorary degree is different. It is an honor.
Twenty years ago an observer might think it a clumsy attempt at satire, if he heard of reports that a Catholic college was giving honorary degrees to both a cardinal and a pro-abortion activist — and that there were protests over the cardinal being honored. The observer might think that he was looking at some college newspaper columnist trying too hard to be clever in an attempt to illustrate a flawed form of moral equivalence.
In any event, I can’t think of a better example of political correctness run amok at our modern Catholic colleges, of a “jumping the shark” moment. But there is nothing funny about what took place at Le Moyne this spring.
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Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about this and other educational issues. The e-mail address for First Teachers is fitzpatrijames@sbcglobal.net, and the mailing address is P.O. Box 15, Wallingford, CT 06492.
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