On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that marriage was a fundamental right to be extended to all people, including same-sex couples, as protected by the 14th Amendment.

And with that ruling, presented about 10 a.m., social media went wild. All over viewers were confronted with rainbow profile pictures and a neverending procession of Bible quotes, both sides of the public opinion at work.

About a month later on July 24, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J. released a letter to his faculty and staff detailing Loyola’s spousal benefits policy, now extended to same-sex couples. This decision was met with much applause, particularly concerning Loyola’s “promptness,” and a bit of criticism, mostly from students, that it didn’t come soon enough.

It was a double-edged sword for Loyola, which is known to many of its students as a “liberal” and “progressive” Jesuit institution that still has to work within the confines of the Roman Catholic faith, which by and large has been so recognizably against the recent decision that the few sympathizers like the Rev. James Martin, S.J. are being swallowed whole against the likes of Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and Cardinal Sean O’Malley, all backed by the support of an older, conservative lay people.

Marriage for same-sex couples creates an interesting conundrum for Catholic institutions in particular.

Catholic universities like Boston College and Notre Dame consented willingly to the implementation of same-sex couples benefits when their respective states voted to allow same-sex marriage, recognizing the civil nature of the policy over their Roman Catholic standing.

It also didn’t hurt that they were, essentially, forced to.

Other schools have not been so open. At Seton Hall University, a Catholic university in New Jersey, Rev. Warren Hall was fired from his position for publicly supporting the “NO H8” campaign.

In Pennsylvania, Margie Winters, a teacher at Waldron Mercy Academy, a Catholic elementary school, was fired for not “living a rightly ordered lifestyle.”

Read: being a married lesbian.

Frankly, Loyola acted as it was expected to considering that the new national standard is marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Whether it was to act more or less quickly is a matter of opinion, but it is generally well known that the wheels of Catholic doctrinal changes run slowly and even a “progressive” institution like Loyola has to deal with the higher authorities above, who are at the behest of Rome, lay people, and, as in the case of the Jesuits, their own orders.

We can make Loyola out to be whatever we want it to be for our personal lives, but even we can’t make it go against the very nature of its institution.

Public relation reasons aside, Loyola probably acted so “promptly” because of its inevitability.

We have to recognize that, but also still commend the institution for not rebelling like Seton Hall or Waldron Mercy (although that’s like thanking Putin for not bombing a Ukrainian city or NOPD for actually testing a rape kit).

In recognizing this, we still should continue to push for more reformative changes to help represent the interests of all minorities, especially the disenfranchised in particular.

Sadly, no amount of tuition money will be enough to top the bidding of the Higher Power (pun intended), and like the rest of Catholic Social teaching, we may be waiting decades for full acceptance to be had.