The recent viewpoint "University administration not upholding Catholic values" on Feb. 3 by Daniel Suhr was really a call for "Catholic Correctness." This demand demonstrates an ignorance of the lofty traditions of a Jesuit university, which encourages secular learning and scholarship.

Suhr is perturbed by the idea of Marquette University having speakers such as Dr. Arun Gandhi, who disagrees with some "Catholic" opinions. Pragmatically speaking, Marquette cannot offer the general public a university that teaches nothing but Catholic theology. Knowledge of how others view the world is not just useful, it is necessary if students are to gain a deeper understanding of how ideas have exerted a powerful force in the world. We can not hope to understand others unless we actively seek to understand them. We cannot just bask in our dogmatic ignorance.

Indeed, the idea of an education is to help us define our sense of what is possible, what is desirable, what is good, and what is bad. If Suhr wants to enclose Marquette University in a bubble, it will prevent us from developing as persons. Should Marquette cease to teach evolution because it goes against Catholic beliefs? Should we burn books which go against Catholic beliefs?

The value of discourse with those who have different ideas is a healthy exercise in aligning one's own religious dogma with how reality may be perceived by others. Of course, the discussion itself does not mean one supports other ideas, but shows respect for different opinions and their own. Remember St. Ignatius's dictum: always go in their door and bring them out yours.

The evil of the demand for "Catholic correctness" is the fact it devalues the very tenant of the values which Suhr professes. A fundamental tenant of religion is the uniqueness of each human person. In 1968 the Archbishop of Carcow, Karol Wojtyla, wrote to Father de Lubac, "I devote my very rare free moments to a work … on the mystery of the person. The evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverizations, of the fundamental uniqueness of each person." I would also like to remind Suhr that not all of us are Christians, as he so stated in the beginning of his article.

Nathan Zimmermann is a sophomore political science major.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 8 2005.