The nation’s largest Catholic university told a group of pro-life students that it could not display posters reading “Unborn Lives Matter,” lest they provoke the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a letter to the College Republicans, DePaul University president Father Dennis Holtschneider said the posters contained “bigotry” veiled “under the cover of free speech,” the Daily Wire reported.
“By our nature, we are committed to developing arguments and exploring important issues that can be steeped in controversy and, oftentimes, emotion,” Mr. Holtschneider said in the letter. “Yet there will be times when some forms of speech challenge our grounding in Catholic and Vincentian values. When that happens, you will see us refuse to allow members of our community be subjected to bigotry that occurs under the cover of free speech.”
Citing the university’s Guiding Principles on Speech and Expression, he said the poster “provokes the Black Lives Matter movement” and therefore needs to be redesigned.
The prohibition of conservative speech is becoming routine at DePaul.
Last August, the DePaul Young Americans for Freedom were prohibited from inviting Ben Shapiro to the Chicago campus. The administration cited security concerns.
And after protesters stormed the stage at his May lecture, Milo Yiannopoulos was told that he could not return to DePaul for a followup performance the following month.
Mr. Holtschneider denounced Mr. Yiannopoulos as a “self-serving provocateur” who is “unworthy” of university discourse.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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