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The basketball reformation: St. Louis coach Majerus draws archbishop's wrath by speaking freely. Plus: Congress must investigate cheating beauty queens!

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Jan. 23, 2008 | The Archbishop of St. Louis says St. Louis University men's basketball coach Rick Majerus should be punished for saying in a TV interview that he supports abortion rights and stem-cell research.

"When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic church teaches," Archbishop Raymond Burke told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic church."

Majerus, who is Catholic and graduated from Marquette University, like St. Louis a Jesuit school, was interviewed by a reporter from KMOV-TV, the city's CBS affiliate, at a Hillary Clinton campaign rally Saturday night. In raw footage of the interview posted at the station's Web site, he called himself "an old-line Democrat," saying, "I think it's a party with a heart."

Burke declined to say how the university should punish the coach, but told the Post-Dispatch, "I'm confident it will deal with the question of a public representative making declarations that are inconsistent with the Catholic faith."

The university has declined to comment beyond an official statement that reads as though the school isn't interested in punishing Majerus: "Coach Majerus' comments were his own personal views and he was not speaking for Saint Louis University. The comments were made at a non-university event and he was not there as university representative."

The school would look terrible if it sanctioned Majerus for expressing opinions that are inconsistent with the Catholic Church, since it just won a lawsuit last year that allowed it to collect $8 million in tax increment financing for its new basketball arena on the grounds that it's not an organ of the Catholic Church. Opponents of the plan had sued, arguing that the subsidy violates a church-state clause in the state constitution, but the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that SLU "is not controlled by a religious creed."

I'd hate to be the P.R. person trying to sell the idea that Majerus, an avuncular, likable, mediagenic guy, should be suspended for saying things like: "Oh, I'm very much an advocate for stem-cell research. Anything that can help eliminate people's pain in life and suffering and things like that, I think you've got to explore all of those options."

Asked about abortion, he said, "I'm pro-choice, personally. But I mean, again, you know, I believe that that's the province of being a woman. You know, you can be for people making a choice without yourself wanting to engage in it. Easy for me to say."

Next page: Why hasn't Congress held hearings about the sabotage era in beauty pageants?