University of Michigan Rejects Atheists' Claim That Football Team Meeting Pope Francis Is Unconstitutional
Members of the University of Michigan's football team met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, despite complaints from the nation's largest atheist organization saying the student activity was unconstitutional.
In addition to football practice and cultural sightseeing, the Wolverines' trip to Rome included an optional visit to the Vatican and a chance to see Pope Francis and receive a blessing during the weekly "Papal Audience."
Rick Fitzgerald, director of public affairs at the university, told The Christian Post that the visit to Vatican City, as well as the Papal Audience, were optional for the students.
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"Some players who chose not to meet the pontiff today were able to join the tour of the Vatican, just as those who chose not to visit the Vatican had the opportunity to relax at the hotel or take advantage of other sightseeing options," said Fitzgerald.
"In fact, there were members of the football team who chose not to make the trip to Italy at all. As adults, these players are able to make informed decisions on their own."
Last Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines players and staff began their tour of Rome, which included educational and cultural activities. They are scheduled to return on April 29.
"The trip will focus on educational opportunities, but three practices will take place near the end of the excursion at the professional soccer club AS Roma's training center," reported mgoblue.com last Friday.
"The team will meet with refugees in Rome soon after arrival and will tour historic landmarks such as Trevi Fountain, the Roman Forum, Spanish Steps and the Pantheon (a Roman temple completed in 128 A.D. that is now a Catholic church) in addition to the Colosseum."
The scheduled Papal Audience is what led the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation to send a letter of complaint to the university on Monday.
In the letter, FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor told University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel that taking students to a Papal Audience was unconstitutional.
"The University of Michigan is showing favoritism to one religion, Roman Catholicism, over all minority religions and nonreligion by taking students to a devotional Catholic event, led by the head of the Catholic Church," wrote Barker and Gaylor.
"This practice violates the well-established constitutional principle that the government must remain neutral toward religion."
The Papal Audience is not the only time that there has been a connection between the university and the center of the Catholic Church.
The University of Michigan also has a Vatican Archives Project, described online as "a service to English speaking scholars who rely on the research resources of the Vatican."
"The Vatican Archives project of the University of Michigan over a period of 20 years (1984-2004) has worked to integrate in a single information structure basic series level information on the holdings not only of the Archivo Segreto Vaticano, but also the holdings of the archives of the Propaganda Fide, the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Archivio de Stato di Roma (Papal States period), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," noted the university's college of literature, science, and the arts.
"The principal result of the project was [the book], Vatican Archives, An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See by Blouin, Coombs, Claudia Carlen, Elizabeth Yakel, and Katherine Gill, published by Oxford University Press in 1998. As well, approximately 1500 series description records were entered into RLIN, the bibliographic database of the Research Libraries Group."
