From Campus Reform.
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis, Franciscan University of Steubenville has opened its campus to welcome new Jewish students who have been subjected to bigotry around the U.S.
‘But with too many universities preaching tolerance but practicing prejudice, we feel compelled to do more,’ Franciscan president Father Dave Pivonka said in a press release. ‘We are witnessing a very troubling spike in antisemitism and serious threats against Jewish students. We want to offer them the chance to transfer immediately to Franciscan.’
According to the statement, Franciscan has put forward scholarships and an expedited transfer process for Jewish students to transfer immediately despite the university already having record attendance.
It is not a coincidence that old and once-respected institutions of higher learning that turn a blind eye to the harassment or worse of Jews on their campuses, long ago abandoned their former (Protestant) Christian identities, including the Ivy Leagues and others.
Removing Christianity from the campuses opened the gates to the ungodly types there now, who engage in, to use a quaint and obsolete expression, unchristian behavior. Filling the vacuum is a motley assortment of atheists, Marxists, satanists, and multiple sects of Muslims, many of whom despise the Jews and celebrate those who would annihilate them, not only today in the Middle East, but also those in the past, especially Hitler and the Nazis.
Another void however is being filled by Franciscan University. Perhaps mindful of the discrimination suffered in the past by Catholics at prestigious Protestant institutions, including the Ivy Leagues (though nothing comparable to what’s happening today to the Jews), righteous souls like President Pivanka and his Franciscan University are flouting the ugly trend of Jew-hatred in the Ivies and others; not only teaching them a lesson, but shaming them as well. Let us hope more Catholic higher-education institutions will emulate Franciscan’s most Christian act of inviting persecuted Jews into their classrooms.