The student union at University College London (UCL) cancelled a
scheduled talk by a Catholic apologist last week, prompting concerns
about freedom of speech on campus.
Union officials said the talk could not go ahead because protocol had
not been followed.
But one of the union’s officials had earlier called
for students to disrupt the event, calling it “bigoted”.
UCL’s Catholic Society had invited Catholic apologist Peter D
Williams to deliver a talk on “defending our right to have our own view
on homosexuality”.
Mr Williams was preparing to address a busy room of students when he
was approached by a representative of the Catholic Society and the
student union and told he could not give a talk because the Catholic
Society had failed to submit a speaker approval form.
Comments written by students on social networking websites since the
cancellation have provoked concerns about freedom of speech.
Hannah Webb, the external affairs and campaigns officer for the
student union, wrote on Facebook about the talk: “This was cancelled!”
After she was asked how, Miss Webb replied that “their speaker hadn’t
been approved so fairly easily”.
Miss Webb added that the event had been “flagged up” beforehand and
“a number of us were alarmed that such a speaker had been allowed to go
through the external vetting process”.
Beth Sutton, the student union’s Women’s Officer, also wrote on
Twitter: “We managed to stop it [the talk] because union protocol wasn’t
followed.”
Mr Williams responded on Twitter and asked if Miss Sutton would have
been so concerned about protocol were it another event. She replied she
would be equally concerned for events “on the boundaries of what UCLU
allows and requires discussion”.
Miss Sutton had also made a Twitter appeal to her followers prior to
the talk asking them to disrupt the “bigoted homophobic” event.
Mr Williams said that he was worried about the future of Catholic
apologetics on campus.
He said: “This experience makes me concerned for
the ability of Catholic apologists and speakers to talk on university
campuses. If student unions will ban a presentation of Catholic teaching on
the specious grounds that it is ‘homophobic’ or ‘hate speech’, or merely
because it might make some people feel ‘unsafe’, then this will
constitute an effective censoring of the presentation of Catholic
teaching (at least on sexual ethics and sexuality) in any student
atmosphere.
“This is a grossly anti-intellectual betrayal of the very mission of a
student union, not to mention condescending to the student body, and
especially same-sex attracted people. It is also brought about by a
worrying form of ideological bigotry, that cannot imagine how someone
could disagree with a permissive view on sex and sexuality without being
motivated by prejudice.”
Mr Williams said he was still prepared to deliver the talk if the
event was re-scheduled, “if only so that I could have an opportunity to
explain the life-giving teaching of the Church, and why it is the most
rational and humane perspective. Particularly, I would want to show
that, so far from being hateful of people who experience same-sex
attraction, the Catholic Church insists that they ‘must be accepted with
respect, compassion, and sensitivity’.”
Mr Williams concluded: “Catholics should learn from my experience how
necessary it is for all of us to know, and to be able to explain to our
non-Catholic neighbours, the difficult teachings of the Church. Not
only that, but Catholic students need to appreciate how necessary it is
for them, if they cherish their freedom of speech on campus, to get
involved in student politics with other like-minded students .”
Student union officials were unavailable for comment.