(National Catholic Reporter. Joryán Hernández).
What does it mean to be a premier Catholic university? One that cultivates “a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice, and oppression that burden the lives of so many” and aims “to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice”? One that contains one of the leading peace studies programs in the world? And what does it mean when that university refuses to discuss whether its investments support the killing of nearly 38,000 people in Gaza? To an unaware outsider, it may have appeared like a splendid picnic on the campus lawn. On May 2, several students hunched over laptops, class notes spread out on fuzzy blankets, everyone preparing for finals. To the side of the lawn, a custom-made banner depicted two women, with lettering below that read “Nahida & Samar Lawn,” in honor of a Catholic Palestinian mother and daughter killed in Gaza.