Father Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas University, regrets his earlier decision to block a campus appearance by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and is now inviting him. Here’s his statement. Dease had made a bad decision, but I give him credit for knowing how to acknowledge as much, apologize and try to make amends.
More coverage by my esteemed teammate Abdi Aynte, who’s been covering the story, on the Minnesota Monitor.
“Uninviting” was a mistake, all right, and a surprising one for St. Thomas to make. I am happy to see they now recognize that. I only wonder why they did it in the first place.
I hope it was not some misguided effort to be “ecumenical” in outreach to the Jewish community at the expense of their standing as an open educational institution.
If it was, it seems to me that our Minnesota Jewish community at least, is well able to stand the strain of hearing from an old man past his prime (like me) who sometimes puts his foot in his mouth.