The Embarrassed College of the Holy Cross

crusaderMy friend Fr. Martin Fox, at his blog Bonfire Of The Vanities, writes today about a Catholic college for the Holy Cross, hence, College of the Holy Cross.  He picked it up from NRO.

They are wringing their hands over maybe changing their college team’s name: The Crusaders.

Goodness gracious!  Imagine a Catholic college named for the Holy Cross with the team name The Crusaders.  By the way, “crusader” comes ultimately from Latin crux, “cross” and maybe cruciatus, in Medieval Latin, “marked with a cross”.

Fr. Fox says:

[T]here is one reason to be embarrassed by the name “Crusader”….

I’ll bet they are spending pointless hours trying to come up with something PC neutral, like the idiotic Minnesota “Wild”.  Perhaps they should chose: “Yellow”.

Holy Cross should drop the “Holy” right away, while they’re working on not offending anyone.  Let’s not clue anyone in about what we think of the Lord’s Sacrifice on Calvary.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù, You must be joking! and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

15 Comments

  1. donato2 says:

    They should call themselves the Jihadists. In addition to being more ecumenical it will frighten the opposing team more.

  2. Grateful to be Catholic says:

    There is another Catholic college whose teams go by the name Crusaders: Christendom College. They are not thinking of changing their team name or the name of Crusader Gymnasium. Neither will they remove the large statues at the gym entrance of Pope Urban II and King St. Louis, in armor. Deus vult!

  3. Gregg the Obscure says:

    As a substitute, perhaps “Cross Purposes” would be a fitting athletic identity for that Jebby redoubt. (I have a tangential connection, my brother-in-law was an alumnus, but he passed away before my wife and I met.)

  4. Kathleen10 says:

    They are ashamed to be Catholic. Ashamed to be associated with Jesus Christ.

  5. Sconnius says:

    As someone who is barely old enough to remember the North Stars skipping town, the real question is what Fr. Z thinks the Minnesota hockey team should be called.

  6. Boniface says:

    Offense against ignorant historical nonsense is the best (Catholic) defense. 2/3 of the Christian world was militarily conquered by Islamic invaders….

  7. mo7 says:

    Perhaps the Athletic Dept. should be concerned about fielding some teams worthy of the name Crusader.

  8. JonPatrick says:

    Unfortunately too many people have bought into the secular world’s propaganda of the Crusades being a bloodthirsty offensive by Christian armies into the Holy Land strictly to conquer territory, loot and pillage. The truth is that it was an attempt to free the Holy Land from the Muslim conquerors and that far from getting rich on loot, many of the crusaders spent considerable sums of their own to perform what they felt to be their religious duties.

    So here we have yet another teachable moment that will be passed over in favor of kowtowing to the secular narrative.

  9. James C says:

    I wonder what GK Chesterton would say? He was made an honorary member of the Holy Cross Crusaders in 1931. See this video of his very in-PC acceptance speech: https://youtu.be/K4wUYTMcXBE

  10. JonathanTX says:

    Regarding James C’s video, I think we should revive the use of the term “Mohammedan(ism)” in the place of “Islam” or “Muslim.” Since “Muslim” means one who submits (to the will of God), when we refer to someone as Muslim, we are in a sense agreeing that their faith is in fact God’s will.

    In the same way, there are two common Arabic words for Christian: “Na?r?n?” (Nazarene) and “Mas???” (of the Messiah). Those who consider Mohammed a prophet do not use “Mas???,” because that would imply that they agree that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.

  11. ajf1984 says:

    When I read items such as this, Luke 9:26 comes to mind…”For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when he shall come in his majesty, and that of his Father, and of the holy angels.”

  12. JustaSinner says:

    Name change to Saladin College Mujahadins…there, solved it!

  13. Cincinnati Priest says:

    I looked up “coward” in a thesaurus website and came up with all sorts of apts names for the newly-monikered p.c. team:

    – Holy Cross Yellow Bellies
    – Holy Cross Fainthearts
    – Holy Cross Lily Livers
    – Holy Cross Jellyfish
    – Holy Cross Invertebrates
    etc.

    All suitable for those ashamed of the Gospel. As a bonus, could come up with some great mascot graphics for some of these! But yes, the team color should definitely be yellow!

  14. Cincinnati Priest says:

    apts -> apt

  15. If “Crusaders” goes, the name of the college must change as well. So, instead of Holy Cross College, I suggest:

    Unholy Babylon College…

    And at that point, who cares what they call their sports teams?

Comments are closed.