God & Country on Campus

Campus Report ^ | April 29, 2009 | Malcolm A. Kline

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God & Country on Campus

by: Malcolm A. Kline, April 29, 2009

PC Catholicism

Apparently, Providence College (PC) is trying to move beyond Catholic in Name Only status to a more impromptu version of Catholicism. When school officials demurred over a planned talk at the school by former U. S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., one of the reasons that they gave for their reluctance was “additional concerns about Trancredo’s views contradicting with those of the Catholic Church.”

Catholic Tancredo racked up a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee as an elected representative but was asked to speak at PC on immigration. His strong secure borders stance on that issue puts him at odds with Catholic political activists nationwide.

Nevertheless, there are no papal encyclicals on this issue while there are many on abortion. Moreover, PC has had some high-profile pro-choice Catholics grace its halls as lecturers including Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., from the neighboring bay state.

Attempts to get PC to clarify what views of the contrarian Tancredo might be contradictory to the school’s creed have thus far been unavailing. The school has yet to confirm or deny the position attributed to it by Youth for Western Civilization, the group that invited Tancredo to give an address on campus.

College Causes Global Warming

At George Washington, “The University released the first school-wide inventory of greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday, and administrators said the age of campus buildings is one of the largest contributors to GW’s carbon footprint,” Lara Kasten reported in the GW Hatchet on April 23, 2009. “In the 2007-08 academic year, 53 percent of GW’s emissions were the result of purchased electricity, while 24 percent came from stationary combustion, according to the data released Wednesday.”...