Marquette’s Office of University Mission and Identity attempts to kick off the new semester on a high note with a series of events and speakers to further the university’s goal of integrating values of excellence, faith, leadership and service into each student. This year’s theme is aptly called “Human Dignity, Human Rights: A Call to Service.”
In previous years, Marquette’s Mission Week has emphasized students’ commitment to peace and hope. Last year’s celebration, “Constructing Peace,” revolved around the consolidation of peace and the university’s values.
The administration brought in Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and gay rights activist, to address the Marquette community on establishing peace within relationships and everyday life. The speech was called “Les-sons My Grandfather Taught Me,” and it centered around peaceful solutions to problems.
An avowed dissenter from the Church’s teachings on homosexuals, Gandhi is an active leader of Soulforce, a group strongly opposed to religious denouncements of homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals, especially within the Catholic Church’s teachings.
Marquette students grew concerned last year when the knowledge of Gandhi’s opposition to the Church was discovered.
Some students supported the Catholic Bishops’ “Catholics in Political Life” teaching, which says, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”
Director of University Communication, Brigid Miller, disputed the idea of controversy. “The response to Mission Week 2005 was quite positive, evidenced in part by large number of students who attended the keynote address and other Mission Week events,” Miller said.
“Our hope is to infuse Marquette’s Catholic, Jesuit mission into every event,” said Miller in response to claims of a lack of Catholic values during the week.
In contrast to the controversy incited by Gandhi, Paul Rusesabagina has been scheduled as the 2006 keynote speaker. Rusesabagina was a hotel manager during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He will speak on his role in saving more than a thousand lives during the bloodbath instigated by the Hutus.
To encourage a stronger Catholic presence, Mission Week also includes many reflective and spiritually stimulating activities. According to the promotional pamphlet, the out-door Stations of the Cross event will emphasize “the desperate cry for human dignity and human rights in specific places throughout the world.”
The week also includes “Loyola Lunches” where students can break bread with campus Jesuits and discuss various human ethics issues, such as HIV/AIDS and apartheid.
Though it is nearly impossible to distance Marquette’s Mission Week from certain political overtones, this year’s agenda does provide many avenues for debate and productive discussion, a dialogue this campus dearly needs.
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