The Jesuits of Boston College are putting crucifixes back in the classrooms. Why did they ever take them out? Now they are getting flack from poor, sensitive, lay faculty members who are uncomfortable with the Christian symbol. When Notre Dame was Catholic, the school’s great coach, Knute Rockne, a Protestant, was so impressed with the visible expressions of the true Faith on campus, and his football players’ attendance at daily Mass, that he started going to Mass with them. In no time he was received into the Church. How times have changed. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out up on Chestnut Hill.
Some Boston College professors and students are raising a holy ruckus over the Catholic school’s return to its religious roots by hanging crucifixes in all its classrooms, calling the move “offensive” and a break from the Jesuit tradition of tolerance.
“There is no choice if you don’t think it’s appropriate. You can’t turn it around,” said biology professor Dan Kirschner, faculty adviser for BC’s chapter of Hillel, a Jewish student group. “I think it is being insensitive to the people of other faith traditions here.”
