Resent This

THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 12 — Literary scholar Harold Bloom will donate his immense personal library and his archives to St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vt., because, he said, Catholic colleges still have “some sense of literature á and extraordinary aesthetic beauty.”

Bloom deliberately avoided making his gift to the larger and more prestigious colleges because they have fostered a “school of resentment,” including “Marxist, feminist, Afrocentric and deconstructionist” scholars who dominate modern academic life.

Bloom, a self-described Gnostic, said his gift was also a way to honor his friend John Reiss, an emeritus professor of English at St. Michael's. Even though the two sometimes argue about religion, Reiss said, “he likes it that I am Catholic.”

Catholic Precedent

THE KANSAS CITY STAR, April 10 — “If recommending a religious institution constituted an establishment of religion, a public school guidance counselor could not recommend that a student apply to a Catholic college.”

That was part of the written opinion of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago as it ruled in favor of the constitutionality of a Wisconsin program that allows probation and parole agents to refer offenders to faith-based alternatives to prison.

Atheist Lockout

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE, April 11 — “Dozens of secular humanists and atheists were locked out” of a meeting at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul because their gathering didn't fit the mission of the Catholic women's college, reported the Minnesota daily.

The meeting was sponsored by the St. Catherine Secular Committee, a group of faculty and staff members that is not sanctioned by the college.

“The college has its roots, its identity, its essence in its religious values,” said Sister Andrea Lee, St. Catherine's president. “The [Secular Committee] group essentially calls those fundamental values into question.”

Sister Andrea also objected to the group's use of St. Catherine's name.

Scrooge Reversed

TOWNHALL.COM, April 14 — Rebecca Hagelin of the Hoover Institute dedicated a column on the Web site to the “many attempts by public-school officials around the country to silence” even the most benign religious expression by students that are routinely reported on by groups dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights.

One case involves students of Westfield High School outside of Springfield, Mass., who recently brought a suit in federal court after school officials refused to allow them to distribute candy canes last December because the sweets came with a folded card that contained a religious message that “might offend” other students.

The message contained two words: “Merry Christmas.” The court ruled in the students' favor earlier this month.

Pro-Life?

TELEGRAM & GAZETTE, April 15 — Charles Millard, past chairman of the College of the Holy Cross' board of trustees, is publicly opposing the college's decision to award an honorary degree to pro-abortion journalist Chris Matthews, reported the Worcester, Mass., daily.

In letters of protest to the board, Millard included a copy of Holy Cross' pro-life “College Position on Abortion” and a copy of the current Jesuit publication “Standing for the Unborn.”