As A Former College Newspaper

As A Former College Newspaper Editor. . . I couldn't help but notice this anonymous article that ran in the middle of last month in The Observer, the student newspaper at Notre Dame University. (Link provided courtesy of Instapundit.)

The letter describes in detail what happened when a young couple at the school engaged in some pre-marital sex in a dorm room on campus -- an event that was noticed by the powers that be at the school. Apparently, extra-marital sex is a violation of the standards of student conduct at Notre Dame (not a surprise at a Catholic institution), and the two were required to undergo some counseling as a condition of remaining students on campus.

Reading through the letter, it's hard to quibble with the sentiments that are expressed. For many people, the potential emotional pratfalls that are part and parcel of sexual relationships can get short shrift in a culture such as ours. And I've been privvy to more than a few stories about students walking in on roommates, in flagrante delicto, to know that it's a serious problem on campuses all over the country. That these two kids got a talking too and some counselling doesn't bother me in the least.

What does bother me is this. First of all, the letter is written in a sort of style that evokes memories of confessions of ideological purity that were delivered during the worst days of China's Cultural Revolution -- something which seems to indicate it was heavily edited by a Notre Dame administrator. The whole exercise reeks of a Catholic grade school punishment (write "It's wrong to fidget during grace in the cafeteria" 1000 times), crossed with an bush league attmept at devising a new scarlet letter.

Second, I have to ask just what the editors at The Observer were thinking when they ran this letter. While the administrators at Notre Dame can claim, in loco parentis in the manner in which they deal with student discipline, this shouldn't obligate the student newspaper to play along.

When a student newspaper becomes a willing accomplice to the punishment of students it is meant to serve, you have to wonder about the priorities, and independence of the student editors. Let's hope they think twice next time.

Finally, it does, as Reynolds points out in his post, expose the hypocrisy of the way the Church is dealing with its pedophilia crisis. It certainly seems from here that there are one set of standards of behavior for the clergy, and another for the rest of Catholics. That's the sort of dissonance that can cause serious long term problems.

Eric 04:09 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ericmcerlain.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1269