Marquette University’s decision to withdraw an offer to Jodi O’Brien, a self-described “sexuality scholar” to become Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the Jesuit-led institution continues to divide the faculty. Although Ms. O’Brien reached a settlement with the University last week, her supporters maintain that she is the victim of homophobia. Teachers who criticized the initial job offer say that Ms. O’Brien’s sexual orientation is not what disqualifies her, but rather the fact that her publications disparage Catholic moral teachings on marriage, sexuality and the family.
In a post-settlement letter sent June 9th to the Marquette community, University President Father Robert A. Wild wrote, “[W]e have apologized to Dr. O’Brien for the way in which this was handled and for the upset and unwanted attention that we have caused to this outstanding teacher and scholar.” Yet Fr. Wild also added that he stands by his decision to rescind the employment offer, a decision “made in the context of Marquette’s commitment to its mission and identity.”
The specific nature of the job at issue””as dean Ms. O’Brien would have been charged with helping to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II’s 1990 apostolic constitution intended to revitalize Catholic higher education””may have driven Marquette to back off this particular appointment. But the real story here is that in the upside-down world of Catholic higher education, there is more status in hiring a sexuality scholar who denigrates Catholic teachings on sexuality and marriage than in choosing a serious scholar who might actually support Catholic teachings.
Simple Question: “What was Marquette’s Mistake?”
Easy answer: Ever offering the job to O’Brien in the first place.
Harder Question: Why do supposedly Catholic (and especially Jesuit) universities end up often redefining themselves as merely standing “in the Catholic/Jesuit tradition” (as a matter of PAST identity)?
No easy answer there. I suppose multiple factors have probably contributed to such a crazy, “upside down” world where Catholic colleges would recruit and reward liberal scholars with anti-Catholic views, but surely one major reason has to be that the whole wider context of modern academia has become profoundly hostile to authentic Christianity. And alas, institutions of higher education are peculiarly susceptible to succombing to political correctness and “the closing of the American mind.” George Marsden described the general phenomenon very well with his classic 1996 study: [b]The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Unbelief.[/b] Or as Anne Hendershott has put it with special reference to Catholic schools: [b]Status Envy[/b]; i.e., trying to keep up with the Ivy League Jones’s.
But another contributing factor is probably the increased competition among universities to attract students in an increasingly secular and even anti-Christian culture. The temptation to capitulate to the what the general consumer wants (as opposed to serving the much smaller clientele of committed Catholic) is strong and very understandable. I’m glad the Marquette president made the right decision in the end.
David Handy+
As an alumnus of Marquette, I can only say that each classroom wall had a crucifix on it. The word Catholic or Christian was never mentioned in any of my graduate courses. I think Jesuits must like basketball too. They never should have gotten rid of the Medical College of Wisconsin which was another bad decision.