The Father Moloney Removal

Father Moloney's Removal

Father Daniel Moloney

In 2020, after George Floyd’s death while under arrest in Minneapolis, Father Daniel Moloney, the Roman Catholic chaplain at MIT, sent out an email to his flock saying that they should suspend judgement till the facts were in. In brief: people complained to MIT; the Administration condemned Moloney and complained to the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese asked Moloney to resign, and he did.

In part of his long email, Moloney said,

George Floyd was killed by a police officer, and shouldn’t have been. He had not lived a virtuous life. He was convicted of several crimes, including armed robbery, which he seems to have committed to feed his drug habit. And he was high on drugs at the time of his arrest. But we do not kill such people. He committed sins, but we root for sinners to change their lives and convert to the Gospel. Catholics want all life protected from conception until natural death. The police officer who knelt on his neck until he died acted wrongly.

Moloney questioned whether Floyd’s death was due to racism.

I don’t think we know that. Many people have claimed that racism is major problem in police forces. I don’t think we know that. Police officers deal with dangerous and bad people all the time, and that often hardens them. They do this so that the rest of us can live in peace, but sometimes at a cost to their souls. Some of them certainly develop attitudes towards the people they investigate and arrest that are unjust and sinful. We should pray that never happens, but we can see how it does. Many parts of our country have been experiencing a five-year crime wave, providing some context for why the police are trained in aggressive tactics.

Suzy M. Nelson, an MIT vice president and dean for student life responded with an email to leaders of student organizations.

On Sunday, MIT senior leaders and the Bias Response Team (BRT) received reports of a message sent by Father Daniel Maloney

The message from Father Moloney was deeply disturbing. Those who wrote me and other senior leaders were outraged, and many felt abandoned and alienated by their faith. By devaluing and disparaging George Floyd’s character, Father Moloney’s message failed to acknowledge the dignity of each human being and the devastating impact of systemic racism—especially within the criminal justice system—on African Americans, people of African descent, and communities of color. Moreover, his message dismissed the need for urgent action and change in America. Now more than ever, we need people in positions of power and influence to call upon each one of us to examine the ruinous impact of hate and racial violence in America, to strengthen our commitment to healing our relations with others, and to unite in bringing about systemic equity and justice for Black people in every sector of society.

Like all current MIT chaplains, Father Moloney signed the Relationship with Affiliated Organizations and Representatives, an agreement about pastoral conduct with MIT’s Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life (ORSEL). In the section, Expectation for ORSEL Affiliation, our chaplains agree to [d]emonstrate respect for the dignity and worth of all people and a sensitivity to the beliefs and cultural commitments of others, and acknowledge that actions or statements that diminish the value of individuals or groups of people are prohibited. Father Moloney’s email clearly failed to live up to these expectations.

In response to this message and the many complaints and concerns it raised, Dean Gustavo Burkett and I engaged the chairs of the Tech Catholic Community Advisory Board (TCCAB), a group of faculty, staff, and alumni who support TCC operations on campus. The TCCAB leaders were also deeply concerned by Father Moloney’s message, as was the Archdiocese of Boston, which has issued strong statements of solidarity with and support of Black people. Following discussions with the TCCAB and the Archdiocese of Boston on Tuesday, the Archdiocese asked father Moloney to resign from his chaplaincy at MIT...

...As we look to the future, we will engage with the Archdiocese in nominating a Catholic chaplain whose views and ministry are consistent with the Institute’s values of inclusion, respect, and dignity for all community members.

Students filled out online bias incident reporting forms. One of them boasted on Twitter that he had pretended to be Catholic on the form and encouraged his friends to do the same. The American Spectator says:

An MIT student who posted the contents of Moloney’s email on Twitter wrote, I am wondering why MIT chose to hire someone with such strong opinions at a supposedly ‘liberal’ institution....

This anonymous student later tweeted that he filled out the bias incident reporting form while pretending to be a member of the Catholic community and shared the form with his friends for them to fill out. MIT’s dean of students later wrote that many felt abandoned and alienated by their faith as a result of Moloney’s statements.

Thus, we have an organized pressure campaign to get an MIT chaplain removed for his nuanced and cautious view of George Floyd’s death, a campaign that made use of false claims of Catholicism in MIT’s anonymous bias incident process. Moloney was removed in just two days, by a bureaucracy moving at lightning speed. Moreover, MIT said it would take care to vet the views of Moloney’s successor as chaplain. As part of this, MIT requires chaplains to sign a form saying actions or statements that diminish the value of individuals or groups of people are prohibited, which means in practice that George Floyd’s criminal record cannot be mentioned, and the extent of racism in our criminal justice system is not up for debate —a blatant attack on free speech. Note, too, that Father Moloney was a Yale graduate with a Ph.D. from Notre Dame's high-ranked Department of Philosophy, credentials equalling those of many of MIT's faculty in the humanities.

This is a situation in which MIT failed to model the process of rational discourse, and instead not only gave in to pressure, but allowed its administration to assert debatable claims as fact. Father Moloney was blamed for failing to acknowledge the devastating impact of systemic racism - especially in the criminal justice system. The claim that systemic racism is prevalent in the criminal justice system, and that the situation of George Floyd was an example of this, has to be shown with evidence and reason. Future scientists, engineers, and model citizens should not jump to conclusions about these issues, but consider the evidence for and against them. Father Moloney was claiming that this was not a settled issue - he was reminding students of the need for calm deliberation. Instead, MIT responded, in effect, with a claim that questioning these issues and daring to debate them is itself forbidden, and doing so may result in significant negative consequences.

References

MIT Catholic chaplain forced out after message on Floyd killing and protest, Deirdre Fernandes, Boston Globe (16 June 2020).
M.I.T. Catholic Chaplain Forced Out Over Email Message About George Floyd, Matt McDonald The New Boston Post (June 17, 2020).
Priest Canceled for Preaching Solidarity Over Racial Division, Ellie Gardey, The American Spectator (June 20, 2020).

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