Princeton's Catholic speakers.

I was dismayed by the tenor of Maurice Timothy Reidy's "Catholicism on Campus" (April 7). As the father of a recently graduated Princeton student, I have participated in some of the activities of the Aquinas Institute. I've worshiped at the 10 p.m. "grunge" Mass, which is usually overflowing with enthusiastic young people. I've also attended some of the talks sponsored by Aquinas because, for the last two years, my son was on the speakers committee. He and his classmates invited a group that included not only Luke Timothy Johnson and George Weigel, but also Peter Kreeft and Scott Hahn. These speakers were chosen by the students and not by Robert George, Fr. Tom Mullelly, or St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. Their presence on campus is a welcome counterweight to what students get every day from Peter Singer, Lee Silver, Elaine Pagels, Jeffrey Stout, Steven Macedo, and other Princeton professors, many of them not only proud and avowed atheists but antitheists. University-sponsored programs that condone casual sex (such as "Sex on Saturday Night" during freshman orientation) and a host of programs promoting alternative lifestyles present a formidable challenge to the Catholic community. Catholic students should be commended for their heroic efforts to contest the "anything goes" culture of the university.

Reidy mentions several students involved in Aquinas, including Ashley Pavlic, Michael Kenneally, and Silvio Pellas. These are mature, intelligent, well-spoken young Catholics, yet Reidy did not quote any of them. Instead, he quotes Dan-el Padilla Peralta, who admits he doesn't attend Mass at Princeton or contribute his time to Catholic activities. It seems that the use of his statements, along with those from other sources, are meant to support an agenda.

MICHAEL A. FRAGOSO

Belle Mead, N.J.

THE AUTHOR REPLIES:

While Scott Hahn and Peter Kreeft are respected authors, their talks at Princeton are hardly proof that the Aquinas Institute fairly represents the breadth of Catholic thought. Both are conservative Catholics. That Hahn and Kreeft were chosen by student leaders is further evidence that Aquinas attracts Catholic young people with conservative sympathies. Unfortunately, students such as Dan-el Padilla are turned off by this development.

Catholics who attend--or pay for their children to attend--secular schools are likely to encounter professors or policies they disagree with. The best way to respond is with reasoned arguments. Demonizing university teachers as "antitheist" will not do.

MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY