Alumnus responds to “Hide your condoms, kids” from the Oct. 26 issue of The Hawk

Written by Joe Donahue ’15

Dear Editor,
If an institution calls itself Catholic, while espousing values that directly contradict Catholic teaching, can it really call itself Catholic?
That’s exactly the thought that was running through my head when I was reading Ashley Cappetta’s article, “Hide your condoms, kids.”  The article makes a decent point (that the Catholic Church does not have the right to dictate the beliefs of nonbelievers), but overlooks a fatal flaw: Just because an institution with a Catholic identity preaches that all faiths are welcome does not excuse it from upholding the beliefs of the Catholic Church.
Take, for example, Catholic hospitals.  Catholic hospitals do great work in medical fields, and the Catholic Church is the largest private operator of hospitals in this country.  Millions of people seek treatment at Catholic hospitals because of the uniquely compassionate and personal care that patients receive there, and nobody is turned away from the hospital because of faith reasons, reinforcing that all faiths are welcome.  There are, however, treatments you cannot receive at Catholic hospitals; notably, abortions.  No doctor at a Catholic hospital may administer a direct abortion, regardless of the beliefs of the patient or the doctor.  (There’s a bit of semantics there—indirect abortions can be performed under certain circumstances. Google that on your own time.)  If a Catholic hospital does perform one, as St. Joseph’s Hospital in Arizona did, it risks losing its status as a Catholic institution, as that hospital did.  By rule, an institution may not call itself “Catholic” unless it receives the overt permission of the local bishop, which can be revoked if that institution is not upholding Catholic teaching.  (We have a secular term for that: brand control.)
Saint Joseph’s University can’t say it hasn’t seen this in the past.  We once had a campus-wide event called “Rainbow Week” until then-Archbishop Rigali complained that it celebrated gay marriage.  (In a 2004 issue, The Hawk published a letter to the editor penned by Bishop Joseph McFadden, ’69, who was responsible for the archdiocese’s Catholic educational institutions at the time, expressing those views.) It was later restructured to today’s “Unity Week.” Later, in February 2012, my freshman year at St. Joe’s, the Alumni Association ran a Valentine’s Day contest; Hawk Mates submitted their stories and a picture and Facebook users voted for the ones they liked best (the winner got a $100 gift certificate to a restaurant of their choice).  All was well and good until, inevitably, a lesbian couple submitted their story, which was rejected by the Alumni Association because, according to a Facebook post by the couple, “the Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex marriage.”  (The Alumni Association later retracted its original decision and posted the picture and story, and that couple wound up winning.)  The same questions about where our Catholic identity trumps our desire for inclusivity circled each time.
Premarital sex is not licit under Catholic teaching.  Neither are abortions and same-sex marriage.  I maintain, though, that having a Catholic identity, upholding Catholic teaching, and welcoming people of all faiths are not mutually exclusive.  Sure, Hawk Hosts and admissions counselors endlessly repeating “all faiths are welcome” may lull you into thinking that institutional identity can be taken cavalierly, but ask anyone who’s ever gone through an identity crisis about theirs, and you’ll understand that identity is essential to the fabric of one’s being.  Saint Joseph’s identity is one of a Catholic and Jesuit institution, and that identity permeates through everything it does. I, and the many thousands of Hawk alumni who came from all walks of life to Hawk Hill, couldn’t be prouder of it.