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A recent post over at the Marquette Warrior shows another Catholic parent deciding that their children just don’t belong at Marquette.

Such parents are basing these choices on unacceptable actions of our administration and faculty, ranging anywhere from claiming that Catholicism oppresses women all the way to promoting obscene performances on campus.

Just a few weeks ago, a couple from the Milwaukee area wrote a letter to the Catholic Herald identifying Daniel Maguire’s presence at Marquette as a reason that they would not send their seven kids–or their money–Marquette’s way. To add to the letter’s weight, it ran just below an editorial criticizing the presentation of Marquette’s Distinguished Alumna Award to Gwen Moore.

I feel very strongly that this attitude is not a solution to the issue at hand and in fact is making things worse, enough to have written a response letter (below) in the Herald. Given the email Dr. McAdams received, I’d like to reiterate these points.

In response to Kenneth and Mary Anne Urlakis’s letter printed on April 19, I would like to ask the Urlakis’s and others eliminating Marquette from their children’s college options to please reconsider.

The Marquette administration has made decisions that put the university at odds with church teaching and is to be reprimanded for such actions. However, there are many students, faculty members, and even administrators who show the same vigor and passion as the Urlakis’s in objecting to these counter-Catholic policies.

Where do these students come from? It’s no secret that many, if not most, are raised by concerned Catholics just like the Urlakis’s. Reducing the number of these truth-promoting Catholics in the student body at Marquette exacerbates the problem rather than addressing it.

Marquette is by no means void of a Catholic voice. Unfortunately, with each family that decides that Marquette is not “Catholic enough” for their children, this voice grows weaker and weaker.

Remember that we are called to live out our values in an environment that challenges and even scorns them. Please, to protect the future of our incredibly vital Catholic education system, reconsider responding to that call.

Interestingly, the Herald ran the letter under the title, “Do Not Withhold Donations from MU.” I have never suggested anything to that effect and am not necessarily against that course of action.

But I really do believe that it is the students who put the Catholic in the university, as much as the university puts the Catholic in the students. There are others that play a role, but without Catholic students there are no Catholic parents or alumni, and no need for a Catholic staff. If all Catholics send their children to the Dallases and Steubenvilles of the world, we’ll have no truly Catholic universities left beyond those two.

Besides that, the publicized examples of un-Catholic happenings at Marquette give a distorted picture of our Catholic pulse. Catholics at Marquette will be faced with challenges. However, they will still find opportunities for prayer, Mass, confession, and service. This does not justify the areas where we are lacking, yet it does offer a ray of hope.

While the Vagina Monologues, Dan Maguire, and Gwen Moore are all disappointing, they embarrass us more than they define us. As such, they should call us to action more than they damage our faith.

• Marquette Must Prosecute - Fully and Publicly - March 5th, 2008
• ¿Por qué no te callas?: Hugo Chavez Still Won´t Shut It - November 18th, 2007
• Tribune Preoccupation Wows Me - September 19th, 2007
• "Clout" Proves Easy to Come by at Black Journalists' Convention - August 12th, 2007
• License Plate Splicer on Campus - July 18th, 2007