Carnegie Mellon students face criminal charges for blasphemous display

May 10, 2013

After an official review of a blasphemous anti-Catholic display on campus, officials at Carnegie Mellon University have filed criminal charges against two students.

Jared Cohon, the president of Carnegie Mellon, revealed that campus police had filed indecent-exposure charges against students who had mocked the Pope while marching in a campus parade naked from the waist down. However, the university will not take any other disciplinary action against the students. Cohon explained that the school “upholds their right to create works of art and express their ideas,” but public nudity is a criminal offense.

Pittsburgh’s Bishop David Zubik had urged university officials to investigate the incident, elicitly Cohon’s admission that the display was “highly offensive.”

 

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Further information:

• CMU review of 'pope girl' nude protest ends with criminal charges (Post-Gazette)
• University president apologizes for blasphemous mockery of Pope (CWN, 5/2)