ACCU PRESIDENT TO RETIRE, SEEKING CANDIDATES
Monika Hellwig, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), has announced her retirement at the end of the summer of 2005.
In the 1990s, Hellwig led the ACCU's efforts to prevent full
implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, in the United States. She has been a vocal critic of Cardinal Newman Society and has downplayed concerns about scandals at Catholic colleges and universities. In recent years, Hellwig has led ACCU efforts to strengthen Catholic identity in member colleges, including outreach to trustees, presidents, faculty and student life personnel.
Applications for the position of ACCU president are now being accepted by Rev. William Leahy, S.J., ACCU Search Committee Chair & President, Boston College, 18 Old Colony Rd., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. For more information, see www.accunet.org
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[Catholic Campus News]
COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER PROTEST LIST EXPANDS TO 24
The number of inappropriate commencement speakers and honorees at Catholic colleges has increased to 24. Faithful Catholics are urged to contact college presidents, express concern about inappropriate commencement speakers and honorees, and ask the presidents to withdraw invitations to these speakers when possible. Please be respectful and polite in all communications.
The full list is posted at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org. The five speakers and honorees added to the list since Friday include:
- College of St. Mary (Omaha, NE): Eileen Cody, commencement speaker, May 16. Rep. Cody is a member of the Washington State legislature and chairwoman of the House Health Care Committee. In February 2002, Cody helped prevent a hearing on a bill requiring parental notification and consent for a minor seeking an abortion. In 1998 and 1999, Cody led efforts to require insurance companies to include contraceptives in existing prescription drug benefits and to increase state and federal funds for family planning services. In December 1997, Cody participated in a holiday party at a Seattle abortion clinic that featured a display of aborted fetal remains.
CONTACT: Dr. Maryanne Stevens, RSM, President, College of St. Mary, 1901 S. 72nd St., Omaha, NE 68124-2377; (402) 399-2435; mstevens@csm.edu
- Georgetown University - School of Nursing and Health Studies (Washington, DC): David Satcher, commencement speaker, May 22. The former U.S. Surgeon General opposed a ban on partial-birth abortion and advocated contraceptive education in schools. In 1994, under his direction, the Centers for Disease Control placed media advertisements promoting condom use.
CONTACT: Dr. John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University, 37th & O Sts. NW, Washington, DC 20057; (202) 687-4134; president@georgetown.edu
- Marymount Manhattan College (New York, NY): Eliot Spitzer, commencement speaker, May 21. Spitzer, a fervent advocate for abortion rights since becoming New York State Attorney General in 1988, has received campaign contributions and get-out-the-vote support from NARAL Pro-Choice America and other pro-abortion organizations. One of Spitzer's first actions as Attorney General was to seek an injunction against a coalition of pro-life groups. He later filed papers in federal court labeling abortion clinic
protesters "nuisances" and demanding 60-foot buffer zones around clinics, a restriction on free speech for which he was rebuked by an appellate court. In 2002, Spitzer investigated 10 crisis pregnancy centers claiming their pro-life services were deceptive to women seeking abortions. He created his office's first Reproductive Rights Unit to intimidate pro-life activists.
CONTACT: Dr. Judson Shaver, President, Marymount Manhattan College, 221 E. 71st St., New York, NY 10021; (212) 517-0560; jshaver@mmm.edu
- St. John's University (Jamaica. NY): Ron Silver, commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, May 16. The actor Silver founded the Creative Coalition, a celebrity political activist group, to advocate abortion rights and other liberal causes. Silver was a prominent participant in two abortion-rights events: a 1998 rally in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the 1992 "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National Organization for Women. Silver addressed the 1992 marchers for abortion rights, urging, men to "allow [women] the choice of what to do."
CONTACT: Rev. Donald Harrington, C.M., President, St. John's University, Newman Hall Rm. 318, 8000 Utopia Pkwy., Jamaica, NY 11439; (718) 990-6301; pres@stjohns.edu
- St. Thomas Aquinas College (Sparkill, NY): Charles Schumer, congratulatory remarks, May 14. Schumer is a U.S. Senator from New York. Schumer regularly earns 100 percent ratings from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood for his votes in support of abortion. Recently Schumer voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion and against a bill making it a criminal offense to kill a fetus during the commission of a violent crime.
CONTACT: Dr. Margaret Mary Fitzpatrick, S.C., President, St. Thomas Aquinas College, 125 Rte. 340, Sparkill, NY 10976-1050; (845) 398-4012; mfitzpat@stac.edu
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[Catholic Campus News]
MOUNT ST. MARY'S WITHDRAWS HONORARY DEGREE INVITATION
Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, has withdrawn its invitation to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to receive an honorary degree because of his support for the death penalty. But Gonzales will still deliver the commencement address on Sunday, and college president Thomas Powell announced that he is "proud and happy" that Gonzales will speak.
A petition signed by 61 faculty members and students said that Gonzales' activities in Texas, where he advised then-Gov. George W. Bush on 57 executions, are "glaringly incompatible" with the college's Catholic mission.
"I believe that a Catholic college must support Catholic values, which certainly includes respecting the life of all people from conception until natural death," philosophy professor Michael Miller wrote in a campus newspaper.
Gonzales is not one of the commencement speakers and honorees protested by Cardinal Newman Society. The society's protest is generally limited to individuals who clearly and publicly dissent from Catholic teaching on fundamental moral issues, and given the Church's teaching that the death penalty is permissible when deemed necessary, we do not assume an individual's moral culpability based on support for the death penalty alone. This is not to suggest that support for the death penalty is not a serious concern, especially given clear statements from Pope John Paul II and the American bishops opposing its use in modern society.
Cardinal Newman Society praises Mount St. Mary's action as a courageous defense of its Catholic identity. Catholic colleges that forbid honors to public advocates of the death penalty do so to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and to ensure students receive consistent teaching on the death penalty. Caution must be taken to apply such strict standards consistently and to the selection of commencement speakers and campus lecturers. Gonzales' invitation to deliver the commencement address, an
honor in itself, is inconsistent with the withdrawal of an honorary degree.
KUDOS & THANKS: Dr. Thomas Powell, President, Mount St. Mary's College, 16300 Old Emmitsburg Rd., Emmitsburg, MD 21727; (301) 447-5600; houston@msmary.edu
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[Catholic Campus News]
IONA REPLACES CRUCIFIXES IN CLASSROOMS
Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, has placed crucifixes on the front walls of more than 100 classrooms as a renewed sign of its Catholic mission. The college is not certain when the crucifixes were removed, but many Catholic colleges took steps to reduce Catholic art and imagery in the 1960s and 1970s in response to court decisions that seemed to endanger government funding for overtly religious institutions.
"This is very consistent with Iona's effort to increase what we call symbolic manifestation of our tradition," said campus ministry director Carl Procario-Foley to the Journal-News. "We are a school in the Christian Brother and American Catholic tradition."
Although Iona president Rev. James Liguori has called for more religious artwork and symbolism on campus, the idea and funding for the crucifixes came from an anonymous alumnus.
"This wonderful benefactor went to a [homecoming] session about the mission of the college," Liguori's assistant told the Journal-News. "He said it went very well, but he was concerned that there were no crosses."
KUDOS & THANKS: Br. James A. Liguori, C.F.C., President, Iona College, 715 North Ave., New Rochelle, NY 10801; (914) 633-2203; jliguori@iona.edu
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[Catholic Campus News]
U. SCRANTON PRIEST CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ABUSE
Rev. Albert Liberatore, a theology professor at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania, has been charged with sexually abusing a current 17-year-old student in Liberatore's university office, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Liberatore has denied the allegations, but a private investigator hired by the university determined that the accusations had merit. Liberatore has been suspended from all priestly activities and from his teaching position pending a criminal investigation.
The Church does not equate abortion and the death penalty. It's this confusion that has allowed pro-abortion politicians to call themselves faithful Catholics because they are against the death penalty.