And there was great wailing and passing of Kleenex

A Catholic priest and tenured professor at a Catholic university opposed the display of a rainbow flag as a symbol on inclusion “because the primary sign of inclusion is the crucifix”, and you’ll ever guess what happened! (Spoiler alert: don’t read the headline above.)

“I said that, if [the inclusion statement] is going to be posted, I encourage them to make sure that they wrote something that aligns with our mission values as an institution. In my opinion, the Pride flag is used not only for inclusive purposes, but in a variety of different ways to support causes that do not align with Catholic teaching.”

An “open meeting” was held for students distraughted* by these cruel words and the usual happened:

Boxes of tissues were passed around the room as the night went on. Emotions were high, and students of all backgrounds came to speak their minds.

I read an essay earlier this week by an author who posited that, by growing up in the Twitter/Facebook era, with the ability to de-friend people who say mean things about them, and unleash Twitter storms against those who hold objectionable views, children create a protective bubble around themselves, and assume that the real world will be exactly like the world they’ve been living in since they were, say, eight-year-old.

Sadly, just as we were proved wrong to think that the snowflakes would grow up and accept reality when they left the cozy womb of the modern campus, there’s little hope here; the juveniles simply bring their fragile, sensitive egos trailing behind them like Linus’s security blanket, and proceed to change the environment to suit their expectations.

*yes it’s a word, because I say it’s a word, and it’s more fun than other choices.