Eucharistic Adoration at Harvard Square: “Reasoned discourse and robust dissent”?

Michael Pakaluk is an Ave Marian with close and longstanding ties to Harvard. There he met his late wife Ruth while they were both undergraduates. He later earned his PhD in Philosophy there, and his wife Catherine recently earned her PhD from Harvard. He also has close ties to Ave Maria (owns a home here, is raising his family here, is a professor here, some of his children attend college here, his mother lives here, his father-in-law lives here, his married son lives here, his married daughter lives here, etc.).

We shared his initial reaction to Harvard’s black mass here at AveMariaLiving.com. Yesterday Michael wrote about the Faustian response he received from black mass Harvard’s president in reply to Pakaluk’s letter to her. President Faust sent a form letter to “Mr. Pakaluk” (just some guy who has two degrees from Harvard, married Harvard alums, has for decades been a prominent

and outspoken member of the Catholic community in the Boston area, has been a visiting professor at Brown University, the Catholic University of America, and the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome, and a visiting scholar at Brown, Cambridge, Harvard, and St. Andrews, and the Director of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, and is currently a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a full professor at Ave Maria University – just “Mr. Pakaluk”).

You would think that the letter and statement being sent to the thousands of people who wrote to complain about her school’s black mass would be well thought out and compelling – or if not then simply a “thank you for your concern” letter. Michael does a good job of explaining just how weak is the crimson pedestal from which Faust looks down upon the “Mr. Pakaluk’s” of the world.

However wonderful and well-intentioned it was for President Faust to act in solidarity by being present for the beautiful Catholic acts of worship and reparation (and it was extremely wonderful and I bet it was also well-intentioned), her statement (cited, flayed and splayed by Pakaluk) demonstrates how hard it is to see things clearly from the elite heights of crimson towers, for example:

I plan to attend a Eucharistic Holy Hour and Benediction at St. Paul’s Church on our campus on Monday evening in order to join others in reaffirming our respect for the Catholic faith at Harvard and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is not censorship, but reasoned discourse and robust dissent.

It is best to let Pakaluk deftly explain (just some of) what is wrong with Faust’s statement.

Meanwhile we can all rejoice that the Eucharistic Lord was lovingly worshiped and adored throughout Harvard Square, which adoration was beamed throughout the world. This is not the first time the devil has been confounded by the power of love.

Pakaluk does us all a favor by pointing out that this “powerful response” of love (in this case public acts of reparation and worship) had naught to do with “reasoned discourse and robust dissent”, further unmasking the elite mindset of Faust and black mass Harvard. May faith and reason pave the way for love to prevail.