The Tower

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ryan J. Reilly E. Michael Jones, center, spoke at the Catholic Information Center on Wednesday. The co-housing lecture series was supposed to take place on campus, but was cancelled due to his allegedly anti-Semitic views. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Ryan J. Reilly E. Michael Jones [Click to enlarge]

The University cancelled a lecture series on Monday after learning that two of the speakers have been labeled anti-Semites by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The 11-part lecture series, "Building Catholic Communities," was sponsored by the School of Architecture and received funding from the Development office, according to Tim Ehlen, who organized the series.

The first lecture in the series was already in progress when the SPLC's Intelligence Project called the Office of Public Affairs on Monday to ask who was sponsoring the series.

Randall Ott, dean of the school of architecture, made the decision to cancel the lecture series because two of the scheduled guest speakers "appear to espouse views that are contrary to the mission and values of Catholic University," said Victor Nakas, University spokesman.

In a post on their blog, the SPLC claimed that E. Michael Jones, the editor of Culture Wars magazine, and John Sharpe, a former public affairs officer on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson are "virulently anti-Semitic 'radical traditionalist Catholics'."

"It is simply true that E. Michael Jones and John Sharpe are anti-Semites, there is just no other way of putting it," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project said in an interview Tuesday. Potok said the SPLC did not call to get the series cancelled, but just to inquire about who was sponsoring the lecture.

Potok said that "radical traditionalist Catholics" reject Vatican II and believe that Jews are engaged in a project to destroy Christian civilization.

Ehlen labeled the SPLC as an "anti-Catholic, pro-Israel group" that is "extremely well-funded, and fights dirty. They're evil, basically."

Calls to Ott were transferred to the Office of Public Affairs, which had no further comment.

When the lecture was cancelled, the organizers had to quickly scramble for another venue. The lecture was moved to the Catholic Information Center at 1501 K St. NW. About 25 people attended the two hour lecture on Wednesday night to hear Jones and Philip Bess of Notre Dame University.

After his speech, Jones said that he is not an anti-Semite, and claimed that his book is based on the Gospel of St. John.

"Jesus Christ came to earth as the messiah. When he arrived on earth, the Jews had to make a choice. They could either accept him, or they could reject him," said Jones. "The further premise of the book is when Jews rejected Jesus Christ, they rejected logos. Christ is the logos, the order of the Universe, and when they rejected logos, they became revolutionaries."

He said his views are consistent with the Catholic faith and found it outrageous that he could not say it at Catholic University.

"It is outrageous that this dean will listen to this group of racketeers and not give me the courtesy of asking me, is this true?" said Jones. "It is total intellectual cowardice on this man's part. We are trying to articulate the basis for Catholic Community. Catholic U. should be ashamed at itself for turning its back on its own people."

Jones said that Catholic academia is full of hypocrisy, and called for solidarity amongst Catholics.

A graduate student who attended the speech said it was a shame that the lecture was taken off campus, "because the issues discussed are very important to the issues that many majors deal with - architecture, law, theology and so on." He said that the SPLC labels as an anti-Semite anyone who believes that Judaism, as a religion, is insufficient.

"The lies propagated by the SPLC should be rejected instead of the school caving in to them," said the student, who wished to remain anonymous.

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