#USA #Kansas – Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, suspended several students for a full academic year after they anonymously distributed a flyer on campus in late April 2026. These flyers were a direct response to the college’s Shoulder to Shoulder conference on April 22nd, 2026, co-hosted with the “Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism.” The event marked the 60th anniversary of the controversial declaration Nostra Aetate and focused on strengthening Jewish-Catholic friendship, exploring controversial topics like Christ’s “Jewish” roots, the “irrevocable covenant,” Pope Benedict XVI’s theology of Israel, and countering antisemitism.
The students (identity unknown publicly, but identified internally, reportedly via printer forensics) created and distributed the flyer criticizing the conference for promoting theological errors. Key points from the flyer include supersessionism (i.e., the Old Covenant is fulfilled through Jesus), criticisms of dual-covenant theology, quotes from Church fathers and past popes on blood guilt and the relationship of Jews with Christians, rejection of standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Jews in a way that compromises faith, and other subjects related to rejection of Zionism and the State of Israel.
Fr. Marion Charbonneau (chaplain and professor at the colleage) emailed the Knights of Columbus chapter, called the flyer “anti-Semitic and offensive,” claimed quotes were distorted/out of context, and urged reports of distributors. He framed antisemitism as a “zero tolerance” issue equivalent to anti-Catholicism. After an investigation involving printer tracking, the students were later suspended for promoting antisemitism.
The conference included pro-Zionist speakers like Joe Heschmeyer, Dr. Lawrence Feingold, Dr. Matthew Ramage, Hebrew Catholics (e.g., Gideon Lazar, Yarden Zelivansky), and others emphasizing friendship, controversial ideas of the rabbinic Jewish roots of Christianity, and opposing online radicalization and anti-Zionism.
Traditionalist Catholic circles viewed this response as suppression of historic Catholic teaching in favor of post-Vatican II shifts, with some alleging external influence from Zionist circles on Catholic institutions.
References: The text of the flyers is not available online except as read in this video.
Image: A snapshot of the top third of the first page of the two-page flyer that circulated around Benedictine College.
