IT WAS TWO IN THE MORNING AT THE GROTTO IN JUNE. The candles were going. I was back for my 20th reunion, doing what I did at 19. Walking the lakes. Sitting on a bench in front of Our Lady with a notebook.
Two young men came down the path. Students. Foreign students. They were stuck on campus for the summer.
They were not stuck because of money. They were not stuck because of grades. They were stuck because they were afraid. If they went home, they did not know if our country would let them back in.
“They told us that if we are detained there is nothing they can do for us,” one of them said.
“They” was the university. Our Lady’s university.
“Unacceptable,” I said. Then I said a lot more. It was two in the morning and the Blessed Mother heard all of it. She has heard worse from Notre Dame men. She has heard better too.