out of the bubble

Have decided to crawl out of my little bubble of endless self-indulgence and look at the world around me and I was horrified. Last night I discovered that students AND PROFESSORS(!!!) at the Sapienza University in Rome protested because the Pope was going to speak at their University, apparently because they felt this threatened the secularism of the state. Ok, so I prevent one of the most important theologians of the 20th century from speaking at my university simply because he's the Pope and it would make the state look too religious (rather than secular). or some such Bullshit. What, indeed, is the world coming to? or what is it going back to? i should say. This question is not a question of whether you have faith in the Catholic religion, not even of whether you respect the Pope's status or not. This is a question of whether today's supposed intellectuals behave like intellectuals and listen to other people say what they have to say, hence widening their perspectives and engaging in civilized dialogue. There is nothing wrong with any religious leader speaking anywhere, let alone at a university, where everyone's supposed to be reasonable and longing to listen, be it the Dalai Lama or the Imamm or the Greek Patriarch or the Pope. Dear me, and this coming from one of the best universities in Europe. They should be ashamed. The decadence. I. am. appalled.