Pennsylvania Politics

Allentown, Pennyslvania is still a ways away from St.Vincent College near Pittsburgh but since I'm heading that way for a job this morning I thought I'd include an interesting conflict brewing at this prestigious 161 year old Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts school. As you may have read President Bush is delivering the commencement speech for 300 graduating next week. It's an exciting and privledged moment but some students question how holy the President truly is. The school places great importance on morality, hospitality and peaceful relationships between people and nations but they don't feel the President displays many of these qualities. They have begun a petition that point out the obvious. It's worth a read.

Dear President Bush:

Political motives aside, and with the highest respect for the Office of the President of the United States, we the undersigned friends, students, and alumni of Saint Vincent College respectfully protest your acceptance of the College's invitation to speak at commencement on May 11th.

Since it was founded in 1846, Saint Vincent College has strived to embody the ideals of the Catholic faith and the fifteen-hundred-year heritage of Benedictine education. The College's mission is firmly rooted in "the love of values inherent in the liberal approach to life and learning." We believe your administration's disregard of opposing viewpoints has deeply divided the nation and flies in the face of this approach.

Your poor stewardship of the environment, policies that favor the wealthy while ignoring the needs of the poor and the sick, and reckless squandering of the lives of our troops by clinging to failed tactics in an ill-conceived, unjustified war are at odds with our values. Values that—rather than being unique to Catholicism—are universal.

Archabbot Nowicki, the College's chancellor, believes that your address would help to "burnish our reputation as one of the finest liberal arts schools in the country," but we believe that linking the school to your administration would irreparably tarnish Saint Vincent.

The College's mission is to provide men and women with a quality education "to enable them to integrate their professional aims with the broader purposes of human life." Your purposes are not our purposes, and your beliefs do not reflect the values and heritage of our cherished institution.