Dear Commons Community,

The University of Kansas has placed a journalism professor on indefinite administrative leave after he posted a tweet denouncing the National Rifle Association in the wake of the recent mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, The Kansas City Star reported.

The September 16 shootings at the Navy Yard left 13 people, including the gunman, dead. That day, David W. Guth, an associate professor of journalism at the university, posted a tweet saying, “The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you.”

University officials called his words “repugnant,” and on Friday Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said Guth would be put on leave.

“In order to prevent disruptions to the learning environment for students, the School of Journalism and the university, I have directed Provost Jeffrey Vitter to place Associate Professor Guth on indefinite administrative leave pending a review of the entire situation,” Gray-Little said in a statement.

Mr. Guth wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press on Friday that he agreed with the university’s action in light of threats he and others had received.

“It is in the best interests and peace of mind of our students that I remove myself from the situation and let cooler heads prevail,” he wrote. “I know what I meant. Unfortunately, this is a topic that generates more heat than light.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

In a remarkable interview released last week, Pope Francis said the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and said it should focus more on socioeconomic issues.  As reported in the New York Times:

“Pope Francis sent shock waves through the Roman Catholic church on Thursday with the publication of his remarks that the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception…

His surprising comments came in a lengthy interview in which he criticized the church for putting dogma before love, and for prioritizing moral doctrines over serving the poor and marginalized. He articulated his vision of an inclusive church, a “home for all” — which is a striking contrast with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, the doctrinal defender who envisioned a smaller, purer church.

Francis told the interviewer, a fellow Jesuit: “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time. The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

“We have to find a new balance,” the pope continued, “otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

The pope’s interview did not change church doctrine or policies, but it instantly changed its tone. His words evoked gratitude and hope from many liberal Catholics who had felt left out in the cold during the papacies of Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, which together lasted 35 years. Some lapsed Catholics suggested on social media a return to the church, and leaders of gay rights and gay Catholic groups called on bishops to abandon their fight against gay marriage.

But it left conservative and traditionalist Catholics, and those who have devoted themselves to the struggles against abortion, gay marriage and artificial contraception, on the defensive, though some cast it as nothing new.

While not ignoring such bread and butter matters, American bishops have saved their greatest fury for those sexual and reproductive issues. At the same time they have criticized efforts by nuns to improve social welfare efforts, which the pope now says should be emphasized.”

Pope Francis’ words surely were a call to change the stringent tone that has dominated the Catholic church’s positions but they do not change any official doctrines.  As pope, Francis has the unilateral power to walk the walk as well as to talk the talk.

Tony