The following excerpt is form Life Site News:
The University of St. Thomas, a Catholic college in Minnesota, is coming under fire for canceling a planned speech by respected African-American pro-life advocate Star Parker. Parker was slated to appear at the college on April 21, but UST officials have censored the appearance. Katie Kieffer, a 2005 alumna of St. Thomas and the founder of a student newspaper with a pro-life perspective there, says she booked Parker’s speech. But UST Vice President of Student Affairs Jane Canney apparently nixed the idea citing “concerns” that the lecture was sponsored by Young America’s Foundation, national group for conservative college students that frequently sponsors pro-life and conservative speakers at colleges nationwide. The UST administrator denied a request from the student newspaper and the campus pro-life group Students for Human Life to reserve a room for the Parker lecture. “Our Catholic university has hosted two decidedly liberal speakers in the past year,” Kieffer said. “For a person in charge of Campus Life on a Catholic campus, she is closed to our efforts to present conservative and Catholic pro-life values.”
When I read this I remembered a couple of years ago that the commencement speaker at their 2006 graduation, Ben Kessler, was razzed during his talk for encouraging his fellow graduates to lead lives of purity, honesty, and generosity. It was the purity part that irked them, even bringing on catcalls, boos, and obscenities. What a number of the students and faculty to walk out of his speech were these words, spoken in order to highlight how ungenerous the vast majority of Catholics really are: “Birth control is not good for the female, the male, nor the long-term health of the relationship; birth control is selfish.”
Two days later, the president of the college, Father Dennis Dease issued a statement of apology for Kessler’s address. This courageous young man, an ESPN Academic All American football player, was planning on entering the seminary. I hope he is still on that road. We’ve had enough of the likes of Father Dease (who must have had something to do with Star Parker’s cancellation.) Pray for Ben Kessler. Satan goes after such souls with his full arsenal.
There was another All American football player from Doug Flutie’s 1986 Boston College Cotton Bowl champions. Lineman Mike Ruth. He, too, planned on entering the seminary after graduation. But he never made it, choosing instead to marry. Poor Mr. Ruth needs prayers for a different reason. He has hit rock bottom in every way, hardly able to survive an ongoing messy divorce. Mike played two years for the Patriots. Now he has lost everything. He still has a strong Catholic faith and wears the Miraculous Medal. May Our Lady see him through and put him back on his feet.
