Crusaders revisited. (Odds & Ends).

"Crusaders! Crusaders!" This cheer has wafted over the bleachers of countless football and basketball games in many a Catholic school that has adopted the Crusader as its mascot and mantra. An image of a Crusader, decked out in battle armor atop a horse, is emblazoned on many high school rings. Bookstores do brisk business selling a variety of Crusader decals, which are displayed in the rear windows of many a car cruising around these schools' neighborhoods.

Crusaders! Crusaders! My high school was one of many that adopted the Crusader mascot. It all seemed so proper back then, well before the Second Vatican Council convened. My school was located in the middle of an excessively Catholic part of Chicagoland. The Holy Roman Catholic Church then indulged itself with a theology of the church triumphant.

Both theology and history have evolved since that time, thanks be to God. Catholicism, in a move akin to the emperor of Japan renouncing his divinity after World War II, abandoned its triumphant theology in favor of a pastoral theology that, ideally, centers on all people's experiences, their spiritual traditions included. And the exclusively Western interpretation of history that presented the Crusades as an honored symbol of Catholic faithfulness has gradually been replaced by an understanding of the Crusades as a series of well-orchestrated, particularly violent attacks on the Muslim world.

Crusaders! Crusaders? Things do change. Various precincts of contemporary culture reflect a new consciousness of sensitivity and correctness. Groups of people who find team names like Redskins and Indians offensive speak out. Vesuvius-like controversies erupt, often led by alumni who connect a particular mascot with what they remember as their "good old days." Some of these voices, backed with fat cat checkbooks, threaten their own crusades to cut off contributions should their favored team name change.

Even President Bush has learned to speak more correctly. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he used the word crusade to describe America's reaction to the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the thousands of lost lives. He quickly and wisely dropped this description, offensive not only to the Islamic world but to knowledgeable and sensitive people of goodwill everywhere.

Crusaders? Crusaders? In recent years mosques have sprung up in the area of my high school alma mater and in neighborhoods surrounding many other Catholic schools across the nation that sport the Crusader mascot. Muslims now are part of the student bodies in many of these Catholic schools. I have to wonder if they join in Crusader chants at pep rallies and games? Do Crusader decals grace their cars' back windows?

Crusaders? Crusaders?

PETER GILMOUR ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.