Given the tensions recently arising on campus over the admittedly-sensitive subject of abortion, I’d like to make the following brief observations. As a Jesuit Catholic campus, we are committed to the principle of care for the whole person. As a university, we are committed to the exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of mutual consideration and respect. These two commitments are not mutually exclusive. As a Jesuit Catholic campus, we can acknowledge and respect the church’s teaching on abortion and, at the same time, recognize that there are different positions on this highly controversial subject, each taken by people in good faith. It would help us all therefore to work together to search for venues within which these different and admittedly opposing points of view can be shared, respectfully but honestly and openly. Rather than finding ways to silence each other, we would all be better served trying to finds ways to listen and learn from one another, even, and especially, from those with whom we disagree. Let’s work on it.