St. Louis University has cancelled a speech by commentator and children’s author Matt Walsh of “The Daily Wire” in what appears to be a response to his conservative views.
The university at first claimed that seemingly arbitrary COVID-19 precautions would have to be followed or the event would be canceled. However, after finding a new venue at a church “intimately close” with the school, Walsh again was notified this week that his talk would have to be canceled after the new venue claimed that certain views held by Walsh supposedly are inconsistent with Roman Catholic teaching (Walsh is a practicing Roman Catholic.)
School administrators insisted to conservative students and Walsh that his talk would have to be elsewhere because of concerns about COVID-19 and vaccination status. Walsh refused to comply, and the talk was moved to a new location. Some students had protested in the streets just prior to the cancellation, prompting critics to accuse the university and church of bowing to the “mob.”
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The sponsoring clubs had to scramble to find the replacement venue. The students were able to secure St. Francis Xavier College Church, a church closely affiliated with the school. This solved the problem of the majority of the audience needing to be vaccinated and the talk was scheduled to continue.
However, in emails obtained this week by “The Daily Wire,” the priest who approved Walsh’s event notified Young Americans for Freedom and College Republicans that after reviewing videos and commentary by Walsh, he decided that Walsh’s “content regarding immigration, communities of color, Muslims and other important topics is not in keeping with who we are as a parish and as part of the Catholic Church.”
As a result, the priest informed the conservative students that Walsh’s talk would have to be canceled fewer than 36 hours before the event. In response to twice being canceled by school administrators and affiliated officials, Walsh tweeted, “It’s outrageous that SLU would go to such lengths to keep a bestselling children’s author off of their campus.”
–Lee Hartman | www.metrovoicenews.com