Boston College shouldn’t be discriminating against anybody, but wouldn’t you think that the absolute last religious group BC would single out to oppress would be… Catholics?
After all, BC is a Catholic school, founded by Catholics, run by Catholics, paid for mostly by Catholics and with a mostly Catholic student body.
But the Catholics who run BC are Jesuits, and the Society of Jesus these days is woke Woke WOKE … and that means they’re all in on the Panic.
Be scared or be square, and few modern Jesuits would ever dream of being square.
So as the fall semester gets closer, the deal at Boston College is, if you’re a student and you don’t want to get the jab, you have to get a religious or medical exemption.
So what if some of the vaccines are based on aborted fetal tissue and you really believe in Church doctrine about the sanctity of life.
Boston College doesn’t care about that so much anymore.
If you’re a Catholic and you can’t in good conscience take the shot, Catholic BC isn’t going to give an exemption because, in the words of a BC flack, the woke Pope told Catholics they have a “moral obligation.”
“Given that Pope Francis, Cardinal Sean (O’Malley) and millions of Catholics worldwide have been vaccinated, it is difficult for Catholics to make an argument against a COVID-19 vaccination.”
Really? Is it that cut and dried?
How about this statement from the Archdiocese of Boston’s school system, dated May 28?
“Covid vaccination of faculty, staff or children may not be mandated by a Catholic school.”
That’s Cardinal Sean’s boldfaced “not,” by the way.
Here’s a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, maybe not the official party line from the Vatican, but it is from the Vatican, entitled “Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines.”
Paragraph 5: “Practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
Hey, Eagles, what part of “it must be voluntary” do you not understand?
Boston College’s surrender, not to science, but to Political Correctness, is somewhat surprising. As far as higher education is concerned, BC has resisted the Deep State totalitarianism better than most. That may not be saying much, but BC still has crucifixes in every classroom. (My only complaint is, they’re not large enough.)
They’ve scoffed at the “demands” to rid themselves of fossil fuels.
Two of my daughters are graduates. One was married in the chapel. I feel more affection for BC than for my own, ultra-woke alma mater, the University of North Carolina.
But what’s up with this Deep State fascism, Eagles?
Denying religious exemptions to … Catholics? Apparently not just Catholics either – there are reports of evangelical Protestant students being muscled, their ministers being called and asked if the student gets the Fauci ouchie, will she be excommunicated, or whatever the Protestant equivalent is, from their church?
“It would be one thing if you just had to check the box and say you had a religious objection,” one parent told me. “But they’re making everybody produce medical and religious documentation.”
It’s not just students either. Apparently they’re strong-arming staff and faculty as well. I thought Jesuits were all about the “c” word — conscience.
The Jesuits bow to no one in their absolute commitment to Wokeness, so let us turn to the recent document from their fellow wokesters, some of the Democrats in Congress. This from about 60 House Democrats, including Steve Lynch and Lori Trahan of Massachusetts:
“We seek the Church’s guidance and assistance but believe also in the primacy of conscience.”
So… they, call them Caesar, insist on getting their conscience. But staff and students, who don’t have the same clout with the Jesuits, have to toe the line or they’re gone.
The Jesuits’ new motto: Their way or the highway. We’ve come a long way from the road to Damascus.
Another thing: what about the modern insistence that the only thing that matters is one’s self-identify. I identify as (fill in the blank), therefore I am (fill in the blank).
If the BC student suddenly identifies as a, say, Congregationalist, does he still have to get the jab?
Or better yet, as a Muslim? There is no Jesuit within 100 miles of Chestnut Hill would say boo to an adherent of the Religion of Peace.
I got a call from the father of a female BC student. He said she told one of the Jesuit mandarins that if she took the shot, she’d be going against her religion and possibly damaging her health.
“Choices have consequences,” the Jesuit told her.
“But BC is forcing these choices on me, and they’re both bad.”
“Sometimes,” he said, “life is unfair.”
BC may find out about that itself. You have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but the Good Book says nothing about rendering unto BC.