Marquette University, a Jesuit college in Milwaukee, has caused great scandal by dedicating April 2025 to LGBT pride.
Concerned Catholics decided to protest against the events listed in a university-issued promotional flyer titled “Pride Month 2025 Event Lineup.” Among the planned activities were Drag Bingo, Queer Lasting, Pride Prom and Lavender Celebration of Graduates. The school’s “Office of Inclusion and Belonging” promoted the month-long program. The timing of these events—coinciding with Holy Week and Easter—was especially offensive to many faithful Catholics, who had just commemorated the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On Easter Tuesday, April 22, members of TFP Student Action gathered for a peaceful Rosary of reparation on Marquette’s campus. The group included twenty-five participants made up of students, faculty and alumni. Passersby showed support and even joined the prayer between classes.
Evan Olwell, who led the protest, said, “LGBT ‘values’ are not Catholic or Jesuit values. Shame on Marquette for dedicating a whole month to the vice of Pride.” Mr. Olwell later observed how the school does not dedicate even a day to the great Jesuit founder, Saint Ignatius Loyola.
Many students showed sympathy for the protest. One student, for example, complained about how the LGBT agenda is being shoved down the throats of the student body as if the whole school approved of it. Another student said he thought most students disagree with this agenda but choose not to say anything negative to avoid sounding impolite.
A participating alumni challenged students to take a Catholic stand. She later commented about her sadness over Marquette’s downward spiral. When she studied there, the president was still a priest and is now a layperson. She also lamented how poorly catechized the students are.
This ignorance about the Faith showed during the rally. One student affirmed that Jesus was homosexual. Another said she learned in her theology class that God loves absolutely everybody. When a TFP volunteer asked if God loves Lucifer, Satan or all the devils in hell, she turned away without a response.
The university’s effort is bearing rotten fruit, as many students no longer believe in what the Church teaches. At the campaign, one woman proudly proclaimed she indulged in impure practices. Another had a friend take a picture of her in front of the TFP signs, posing in an obscene way. A third, when challenged to pray the Rosary, proclaimed herself to be a Satanist.
Another student insisted that the campaign was hateful and intolerant. In a sudden fit of anger, she threw hot tea at Mr. Olwell, who deflected the attack with his sign. The act was caught on TFP Student Action’s Facebook Live Stream. The student refused to apologize but said she was “sorry that you have been brainwashed.”
Another volunteer commented on the irony of a Jesuit university promoting secular and immoral causes while sidelining its own Catholic heritage. “There’s a whole month for Pride but nothing for Fr. Jacques Marquette,” he noted.
Father Marquette, the university’s namesake, was a seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary who brought the Gospel to Native Americans and earned their deep respect. Yet a few years ago, the university removed his statue from its central location on campus. At the beginning of this academic year, the administration removed his image from the school’s logo, which depicted him in a canoe across the Great Lakes with a cross on his belt.
This is the first time Marquette has celebrated a full Pride Month. Last year, the school hosted a Pride Week and a “Trans Compassion Week,” which concluded with a “Mass of Inclusion and Welcome.” Mr. Olwell observed the Mass and said it was nearly indistinguishable from a “Pride Mass.” A Jesuit priest delivered a homily focusing on compassion for marginalized groups. When asked afterward why the Mass didn’t include a call to repentance, the priest appeared uncomfortable and offered a vague reply.
Campaign volunteers handed out a flyer titled “10 Reasons Why Transgenderism is the Family’s Worst Enemy.” The well-received pamphlet outlined concerns ranging from the undermining of science and biology to the moral consequences of promoting gender ideology.
TFP Student Action has also launched a petition opposing Marquette’s increasing promotion of values inconsistent with Catholic morality. “A school cannot claim to be Catholic or Jesuit if it actively promotes behavior contrary to Church teaching,” said one volunteer.”