Varsitarian told to employ more charity and logic

The difference in outlook between UST’s The Varsitarian under the Dominicans and Ateneo’s The Guidon under the Jesuits (Inquirer, 10/9/12) is a residue of the centuries-old controversy between Dominican and Jesuit theologians on how to reconcile God’s grace (or “push”) and man’s free will.

The Dominican position seems to be: “God’s grace physically pushes man to do a good act or an evil act, and so man has no free will.” The Jesuit position seems to be: “Man does a good act or an evil act because his free will makes him do so and, therefore, God does not push him.”

That, of course, is an oversimplification and, therefore, inaccurate. But it can somehow explain why The Guidon gives more importance to freedom of thought than to being dictated upon, while The Varsitarian gives more value to being dictated upon than to exercising one’s freedom of thought. Probably its staff is scared of punishment.

The Varsitarian editorial under scrutiny shows clearly that the writers lack logic (and are, thereby, less qualified to be university students); and that they lack charity (and are, thereby, less deserving to be called “Christians”). Their attitude reveals that their loyalty to Jesus Christ ends where their loyalty to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines begins.

They should make a novena to St. Martin de Porres, OP, so that he will teach them to be charitable to Ateneo and De la Salle professors; and a novena to St. Thomas Aquinas, OP, so that he will teach them to use the incisive logic that he used in writing his “Summa Theologiae.” And if they have already taken three units of logic, it will help them to take six more.

Or they could also read all the articles of Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, on the reproductive health bill, so that they will get examples of clear, incisive logic.

My stand? I am against RH (religious hypocrisy).—FR. EDILBERTO V. SANTOS, [email protected]