Photo courtesy of University of Leeds Sustainability | Father Graham, in a show of solidarity with his comrades, is fighting capitalism on campus by replacing Smith Hall with a sustainability garden.
Xavier President Michael Graham, S.J., has made the executive decision to demolish Smith Hall to create space for a new sustainability garden, after the previous location was taken to build a new health center.
“We took a second look at the Laudato si’ and we decided we needed to take action immediately,” Graham said. “Then, once we decided we needed to take action, we started thinking about where the new garden would go.”
The Laudato si’ is a papal encyclical that was released in 2013. In it, Pope Francis calls for all people to take action to protect the environment and criticizes the ever-increasing consumerist culture that he believes to be present.
Graham said that he and other administrators wanted to take a hard look at scripture before they coming to a conclusion about where to put the new garden. The solution, according to Graham, was clear: Smith Hall had to go.
“Christ made his position fairly clear on the whole ‘capitalism’ thing,” Graham said. “He said that it would be harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it would be for a camel to enter the eye of a needle, so we think it’s in the best interest of our Jesuit mission to follow the words of Christ and do our best to instruct students about the dangers of capitalism. Of course, the Williams College of Business just had to go.”
By: Kevin Thomas ~Comrade~