A Catholic university in Minnesota has barred Daily Wire personality and author Michael Knowles from delivering a lecture on campus, citing his views on transgender issues.

The college republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, had been working since March with the conservative youth organization Young America's Foundation to host Knowles, a Catholic, for a lecture on campus.


But on Wednesday, the club announced that the university and the student government had informed it that the event would not be permitted to go forward because Knowles had made comments on transgender issues that the university deemed were in violation of their "commitment to 'dignity' and 'diversity.'"

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS CORNER PRIEST FOR OPPOSING PRIDE FLAG

The club was quick to note that Knowles's opinions on transgender issues are in line with those of the Catholic Church.

"In the university's view, it is not simply a concern about what Mr. Knowles would say, rather, it is a concern that he holds conservative-Catholic views in the first place," the college republicans said. "These restrictions on what speakers we can bring to campus represent not just a threat to free speech, but freedom of thought."

Knowles denounced the university for blocking his lecture and took the opportunity to question the University of St. Thomas's Catholic identity.


"If my views on transgenderism are Catholic, and those views 'violate the University's Core Convictions,' then what does that say about the core convictions of the allegedly Catholic University of St. Thomas?" Knowles wrote in a tweet.

"It's wrong for universities to censor conservatives for saying conservative things," he wrote in another tweet. "But it seems especially wrong for Catholic universities to censor Catholics for saying Catholic things!"

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The University of St. Thomas did not respond to a request for comment.