Rick Majerus Draws Ire of St. Louis’ Archbishop

In the past month, St. Louis University men’s basketball coach Rick Majerus has had his team score 20 points in a game, is in Sports Illustrated quoted by a former player as demonstrating proper spacing with his “average white dick,”*, and now is in trouble for comments he made during a televised interview at a Hillary Clinton rally. Majerus proclaimed himself pro-choice (gasp!) and an advocate for stem cell research (embryo killer!), which drew a strong rebuke from St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke:

Referring to Majerus’ statements, Burke said [before the 35th Annual March for Life rally in Washington] Tuesday that it was “not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions.”

The archbishop said Majerus should be disciplined but did not say how. At issue is the Catholic concept of scandal, a perennial concern of Burke’s defined by the catechism of the Catholic church as “an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.”

“I’m confident (SLU) will deal with the question of a public representative making declarations that are inconsistent with the Catholic faith,” Burke said. “When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don’t have to embrace everything the Catholic church teaches. But you can’t make statements which call into question that identity and mission of the Catholic church.”

But a SLU representative stated:

“Rick’s comments were his own personal view,” he said. “They were made at an event he did not attend as a university representative. It was his own personal visit to the rally.”

Coach Majerus is Roman Catholic; the Archbishop told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Majerus would be denied Holy Communion if the coach didn’t change his views on abortion rights and stem cell research, statements Majerus made as a private citizen, albeit the very public head coach of the school’s revenue-generating sports team. Luckily, the Archbishop has no control over SLU; but he can sure start a sh*tstorm. Stay open-minded, St. Louis!

Lots of good comments attached to this article on whether and when an employer can dictate what an employee can say. Gives you a sense of how varied St. Louisians think. And props to Majerus, who always loves stirring the pot.

*he can see his dick from there? Have you seen this man’s stomach?!