Interview with Camillo Barone of National Catholic Reporter on the Protests at Columbia University, April 23, 2024

NCR: How are you feeling overall, Father, in this unique and tragic time for Columbia as a whole?

Landry: I’m concerned and saddened over what’s been happening.

The campus is essentially under lockdown, Jewish students feel endangered and unwelcome, student protesters are getting arrested, classes are being cancelled or forced to move online, division, hostility and class warfare are being fomented, and various outside elements are trying to use Columbia as a backdrop to push their own political agendas.

This is a time of year when students should be enjoying spring, writing papers, studying for finals, and getting excited for graduation.

I’m particularly sympathetic to the many hard working students who are here to get an education, whose legitimate desires for in-person classes, for example, are being displaced by the consequences of the protests.

NCR: How are the Catholic students you are spiritually comforting these days? What are their overall feelings?

Landry: Most of the Catholic students I see prioritize their studies, work and extra-curricular commitments over political activism. Like most of their peers, they care deeply about the suffering that’s taken place in the Holy Land since October 7, but they’re upset that the toxic animosities of the 76 year-old conflict between Israel and Palestine has spilled over onto their campus.

NCR: What’s been the greatest challenge so far of being a Catholic chaplain since the breakout of the war on Oct. 7?

Landry: To try to help the students respond to the conflict as Catholics.

It’s normal in the face of terrible injustices for students to want to do something, and It’s particularly tempting for gifted Columbia students to think that campus protests will resolve seemingly intractable political disputes half way around the world.

I have tried to remind them that, as Catholics, the two most important things we do in any circumstance are to pray and to love. We’re praying each day for the situation at Mass, the students on their own are praying Rosaries, and I’ve urged them to reach out regularly to their Jewish, Palestinian, and Gazan fellow students, to ask how we can help and make sure they know we have their back.

I’ve likewise tried to keep before them what Pope Francis and the Holy See have been saying, condemning what must be condemned, supporting what has to be supported, and showing true love and support for those who are suffering on all sides.

NCR: Have you spoken recently to the imam and the rabbi of Columbia? If so, what did you talk about and what’s your main takeaway from your conversations with them?

Landry: I’ve been in touch regularly with Rabbi Yonah Hain of the Hillel, offering the solidarity of our prayers and asking how the Catholics and I can help support him and Jewish students. His job is never easy, caring for Jews across the wide spectrum of Jewish religious practice and life and the situation in Gaza and on campus have intensified those challenges. I try to support him as a friend as best I can.

I have likewise spoken to the Muslim Life Coordinator on campus, Ebad Rahman, to see what his challenges have been since Oct. 7 and how I might help. In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, some Muslim students on campus were suffering harassment and others were being doxxed for having participated in protests in which more radical elements had taken the rally in a pro-Hamas direction, for which many who just happened to be there were suffering. Thankfully that scapegoating has diminished.

I was very pleased on Sunday night that the student leaders of Columbia Catholic Ministry decided to try to do concrete gestures of prayerful solidarity with their fellow Jewish and Muslim students by giving them plants as a tangible reminder of our prayers and support.

NCR: What do you think is going to happen in the next days, if the students won’t leave the encampment and Columbia administrators won’t be able to install the chairs and the bleachers for the May 15 commencement?

Landry: I would anticipate that as we get nearer to commencement, the administration will ask and then demand those in the encampment to leave so that everything can be set up. If those in the encampment refuse, I would expect that police will be summoned again to make arrests.

NCR: What is the future going to look like according to you at Columbia after this tormented academic year?

Landry: I’m sure the summer will provide a respite for the Columbia administration to review how its handled the situation over the past year and to clarify what its real priorities are. It’s been gradually moving in the direction of prioritizing the protection of Jewish students on campus from anti-Semitic actions and climate, while at the same time still trying to allow student protests, even as those protests have often involved agitators that are making that climate worse. Such compromises have satisfied none of the parties. I think the administration will have to make some tough calls, like emphasizing that the educational mission of the university and the safety and protection of its students have to be given priority, instead of allowing protests essentially to control the university’s agenda and milieu.

NCR: What are your hopes for the future of Columbia, overall?

Landry: Columbia is an extraordinary university full of truly gifted people. It has so much potential for good. But this year has exposed how badly it needs virtuous, wise, courageous leadership, from both the administration and leaders of student groups. The important value of free speech can’t become so absolutized as to divide a campus and disrupt the university’s principal mission. To produce real leaders who can make the world better, Columbia needs to exhibit true leadership, especially in times of crisis. I still hope those leaders will emerge.