Georgetown’s Soldiers

U.S. NEWSWIRE, Sept. 8 — Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., scheduled a halftime ceremony at the Jesuit school’s Sept. 9 football game with Stony Brook University to honor five soldier-scholars who served in Iraq.

The five honorees are: Cadet Richard Murphy, a third-year law student and a member of the Hoya Battalion at Georgetown; First Lt. Adam Tiffen, a 2003 alumnus of the Hoya Battalion who received a Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq; Master Sgt. Robert Blakey, a senior military instructor at Georgetown who was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and two Purple Hearts for his service in Iraq; Capt. Chad Suitonu, a supply and personnel officer with the Hoya Battalion who was awarded two Bronze Star Medals for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Capt. Tony Murray, who is currently an assistant professor of military science at Georgetown.

All of the men have returned after serving in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Cavalierly Anti-Christian

CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS, Sept. 5 — In a press release headlined “Back to School: Christian-Bashing Returns,” the Catholic League has criticized two anti-Christian cartoons published by the University of Virginia’s student newspaper.

The cartoons ran in the Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 issues of The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper on campus.

The Catholic League contacted the newspaper to request an apology, citing as a precedent an apology the paper made to homosexuals after it published a cartoon describing a crane as the “gayest-looking of all birds.” The Cavalier Daily refused to apologize.

“When gays were offended at the University of Virginia for some throw-away line, The Cavalier Daily said it ‘regrets printing this comic and deeply apologizes to those who were offended,’” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue. “Yet when it comes to Christians, not even a shallow apology can be mustered.”

The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson.

Science, Faith & Money

THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Sept. 11 — The Templeton Research Lectures program has announced a grant program to disburse up to $500,000 over a four-year period to scholars researching the interaction between science and religion.

The three-year program will award eight grants, with the deadline for applications for the first two grants falling on Jan. 1, 2007.

The grants will be awarded to researchers “who want to develop ongoing, interdisciplinary programs within their universities consistent with the aim of this program,” according to a statement on the website of the Metanexus Institute, which is administering the program.

Plaudits for Xavier

THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY, Sept. 11 — Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation’s only historically black college, has been named as one of America’s top undergraduate institutions by the 2007 edition of The Princeton Review’s annual college guide.

The rankings in the guide are based on survey of students attending colleges. “In their comments, Xavier students noted the University’s tough curriculum, the expertise and passion of its faculty, and its family-like atmosphere,” The Louisiana Weekly reported.

Xavier has also been singled out by The New York Times Selective Guide to Colleges, which states: “Xavier is a school where achievement has been the rule, and beating the odds against success a routine occurrence.”