Outrage! Crucifixes appear at Catholic university

Professors at a private Catholic university are expressing outrage after Christian art, including crucifixes, appeared in their classrooms after the recent winter break.

"A classroom is a place where I am supposed, as a teacher, to teach without any bias, to teach the truth," Amir Hoveyda, the chemistry department chair at Boston College, told Inside Higher Ed. "And when you put an icon or an emblem or a flag, it confuses the matter."

Hoveyda said he felt comfortable in the university's teaching environment for 18 years – but then something unexpected happened.

"[A]ll the sudden, without any discussion, without any warning, without any intellectual debate, literally during the middle of the night during a break, these icons appear," he said.

College spokesman Jack Dunn told the online news magazine many of the crucifixes were provided by students who returned from immersion trips to Central and South America and Europe. He said some classrooms were previously devoid of religious art.

"The effort was to present Christian art in those remaining classrooms as a way of manifesting our pride and our commitment to our religious heritage," he said.

One faculty member referred to the crucifixes as a "tsunami" of Christian art.

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In a statement, Rev. T. Frank Kennedy, chair of the committee on Christian Art, wrote the following:

I suppose a question might be posed to Boston College as to what purpose this Christian Art serves? In a world that is pretty successfully driven by media (imagery) ours is a response that seeks to pose the age-old invitation of Christ to enter into love – a love that is made perfect in its unselfishness. John Paul II spoke of the crucifix on September 15, 2002 saying 'It is the sign of God, who has compassion on us, who accepts human weakness, who opens to us all, to one another, and therefore creates the relation of fraternity.' The Pope also went on to say that though this symbol has been abused in history, it is the Christian's duty to reclaim that symbol as an invitation to love. An invitation to love, and an invitation to faith is exactly that, an invitation. One is not required to respond, one can decline, and one can have many reasons for declining the invitation, but to imply that a Jesuit and Catholic university is not free to offer this invitation is simply an impossibility.

But Dwayne Eugène Carpenter, chair of the romance languages and literatures department and co-director of the Jewish studies program, said the symbols are divisive.

"I think it's naive to believe that affixing crucifixes is going to fan the flames of religious devotion. On the other hand, it can have a negative effect on students" who may see the art as an unwelcome sign, he said.

(Photo: Boston College)

Carpenter told the online magazine the university's department chairs debated the issue in a recent meeting and that he'd like an open forum on the matter.

"It's a Jesuit institution and as such it has every right to place images wherever it wants," he said. "It's just that it's not a very smart thing to do."

Carpenter referred to the issue as an "identity crisis" because the school wants to declare its Catholic affiliation while also appealing to a wide range of prospective students.

"You can't recruit the best by placing crucifixes in every classroom," he said. "You're simply going to limit the number of people who will come here. And I've already heard of several faculty who have said, 'You know, this is not a welcoming place, this is not the place that hired me, and I'll be looking for a job elsewhere.'"

According to the report, Boston College often compares itself to Georgetown University, another Jesuit college.

Georgetown "has a crucifix in every classroom and that's been true for at least a dozen years," said John Glavin, and English professor at the university.

However, Hoveyda said Boston College didn't display the Christian art when he applied for his position several years ago.

"I can only tell you from my personal experience if I saw the same icon when I interviewed in December 1989, this place would not be under consideration for me," he said. "I've had several offers to leave. If I knew icons of this type would appear … I most likely would not have made the decision I did [to stay]."

 

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