That came to mind recently as many of the supposedlyresponsible grown-ups at Marquette University were makingfools of themselves while their students demonstrated against discriminationand hypocrisy.
At issue was Marquette President Father Robert Wildrescinding a job offer to Seattle University professor Jodi O'Brien, who wasactively recruited by Marquettenot once, but twiceto become dean of itsCollege of Arts and Sciences.
There have been a lot of hollow rationalizationsoffered publicly to try to explain away Marquette's180-degree reversal, but the real reason for denying the job to O'Brien twoweeks after she signed and returned a contract is obvious.
It's also against the law in the state of Wisconsin.
O'Brien is the gay chairwoman of the anthropologyand sociology department at Seattle University, which like Marquette is a Jesuit university.
Her academic research has included studying ways inwhich discrimination affects lesbians and gay men.
The public explanation for refusing to employO'Brien clearly is not true. It's that somehow her academic research into gaydiscrimination conflicts with Marquette'sCatholic mission.
If that were true, O'Brien would not have beenemployed at another Catholic university for the past 15 years.
If that were true, two different Marquette search committees made up of MUtheologians, administrators and faculty would not have actively recruitedO'Brien.
In 2008,O'Brien was a finalist of the first search committee, but she declined a joboffer at that time. When the first search failed to attract any of its topcandidates, recruitment was reopened.
When the second search committee began its work, Marquette leaders, including a representative of Wild'sadministration, traveled to Seattleto encourage O'Brien to apply again.
It's sad Wild looks so bad going into the final yearbefore his retirement. By all accounts, Wild has made great strides not only inbuilding a first-class physical campus in downtown Milwaukee, but in opening up the universityintellectually to more diverse students, faculty and academic pursuits.
Under previous presidents, student newspaper editorswould get replaced for daring to print opinions on contraception or abortionand the administration would come up with outrageous proposals to wall off theuniversity from the community by closing down Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee'smain street.
Wild's leadership has been much more progressivethan that. And it's simply inconceivable Wild doesn't know that, for nearlythree decades now, it has been illegal in Wisconsin for employers to refuse to hiresomeone based on the applicant's sexual orientation.
Since Wild has hired gay faculty and administratorsin the past and allowed gay student organizations to meet on campus, what hassuddenly changed at Milwaukee'sJesuit university?
Listecki's Wrong Turn
Well, here's one big change: The Archdiocese of Milwaukeehas taken an even sharper turn to the far right.
The last archbishop, Timothy Dolan, was far moreconservative than the man he succeeded. Dolan's predecessor, Archbishop RembertWeakland, was an international advocate for increasing the activism of theCatholic Church on issues of poverty and inequality.
But Dolan also was a smiling, jolly fellow whoavoided political controversy. After Dolan moved on to slap backs in New York City, he wassucceeded by Archbishop Jerome Listecki. No more Most Reverend Nice Guy.
Listecki appears eager to jump into every publicpolitical debate, staking out the most extreme right-wing position.
He is one of those church leaders with the hubris topresume to decide on behalf of God which Roman Catholic politicians have votedsufficiently in lockstep with the church's lobbyists to be allowed to partakeof communion.
Although the archbishop has no real authority overCatholic universities, Listecki is not shy about overstepping his bounds to tryto impose his right-wing ideology on academia.
Listecki was one of the national Catholic leaderswho embarrassed the church by opposing the University of Notre Dame'sinvitation to the first African-American president of the United Statesto speak at commencement a year ago. Listecki objected because President BarackObama did not agree with the church's opposition to a woman's right to choosewhether to have a child.
Notre Dame chose to ignore conservative extremists.Sadly, Marquette did not when Listecki and hisjudicial vicar, Father Paul Hartmann, who teaches at the Marquette law school, raised objections tothe hiring of O'Brien.
The good news is, even though Wild caved in to theArchdiocese, students have received sufficient moral education at Marquette to recognizeillegal discrimination when they see it.
Hundreds of them took time out during finals week todemonstrate over something other than the cost of tuition. Marquette faculty members supported them byvoting to condemn the university action.
Instilling such moral values is the real Catholicmission.