As I respond to the Feb. 1st viewpoint "Students Upset by Gandhi," I think it is important to remember the atmosphere we find ourselves in here at Marquette. Marquette University is a Jesuit institute, striving to live up to the tenets of faith, leadership, excellence and service in order to provide students with a broad base from which to tackle the diverse facets of life we confront daily.
Mission Week is an opportunity to learn about and express our respective faiths and how they relate to those basic tenets of our Jesuit education at Marquette. Dr. Arun Gandhi speaking at Marquette in no way legitimizes his own point of view or his past actions. It is an opportunity to think critically and spur discussion about why we as Catholics believe what we believe. How we react to challenges to our faith is key to what defines us as Catholics. We should not throw the first stone in judgment before even hearing what Gandhi has to say.
Looking at the Catholic Church as it has progressed and changed throughout history, it seems Gandhi is following the example of Catholic predecessors by bringing forward issues the Catholic Church should debate. One of the essential aspects of the Catholic faith is the fact that the Church doctrines are flexible and dynamic. Basic tenets such as the Nicene Creed were arrived at through councils bringing together the faithful from all over the early Church. These councils played an important role in deciding the future path the Church took, and in large part, helped unify and standardize Catholic teachings. The most recent of these occurred in the mid-twentieth century with the creation of the Vatican Councils I and II, which both dramatically changed the way Catholics practice their faith.
The ideas of many successful Church and Lay reformers were not initially accepted, nor did they necessarily leave the Church because the perceived injustice within its teachings. Since we attend a Jesuit institution, the Jesuit order is instructional. Here were a group of soldiers for Christ who took God's message to pagans throughout China, Latin America and the rest of the world. They were not popular among the colonial powers, or even the Church, especially in Latin America as the film The Mission demonstrates. In fact, Spain, stalwart of Catholic faith and home of the Inquisition, even expelled the Jesuits from its New World territories. Did the Jesuits leave the Catholic Church? Did they stop fighting for social justice within the Church? No.
These students bring up the issue of practicing Catholics who are also practicing homosexuals. They are right. The Church doctrine does stipulate practicing homosexuals should not receive the Eucharist. Is this a 'core' teaching? It may be, but so was believing the Earth was the center of our solar system for the pre-Renaissance Church. If there is something everyone should learn from the history of the Church, it is that the Church is susceptible to human error. An example of this was the excommunication of Galileo for bravely defending the heliocentric scientific fact. Is the Church wrong to deny homosexuals this integral sacrament? I don't know and I don't think even the Pope can say with absolute confidence what Jesus would say. What better place, however, than a Jesuit university to debate this social justice issue? Mission Week should spur discussion about why we believe what we believe and how we live it daily in the world. To not continually challenge and struggle with our own faith through careful examination would be regrettable. Gandhi may bring attention to several important issues dividing the Catholic Church in its mission, but his words are not something to fear. Through active faith struggle and examination we can start acting like the Catholic school we are and always have been.
Ryan McKean is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 8 2005.