Posted on 04/28/2005 3:30:37 PM PDT by Diago
Thank you everyone who participated in Cardinal Newman Society's protest against Hillary Clinton's commencement address and honorary degree at Marymount Manhattan College! Your actions have led to a just outcome and will send a strong message to other wayward Catholic colleges. Please continue to help us protest several other commencement scandals -- more details to come next week! -- CNS
DURING CNS PROTEST OF HILLARY CLINTON HONORS, MARYMOUNT MANHATTAN COLLEGE DECLARED NOT CATHOLIC
(April 28, 2005)
The Archdiocese of New York has formally declared Marymount Manhattan College -- which has been under protest by the Cardinal Newman Society for inviting pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton to give its commencement address and receive an honorary degree on May 20 -- no longer a Catholic institution. The College will no longer be listed in The Official Catholic Directory, which identifies institutions including Marymount Manhattan College that are formally recognized as Catholic.
This is the fourth time since Pope John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic universities, that a bishop has declared an historically Catholic college or university to be not Catholic. The 1990 document gives local bishops the responsibility of determining whether colleges can bear the label Catholic. Catholic colleges established prior to 1990 are assumed to be Catholic and to conform sufficiently to the guidelines of Ex Corde Ecclesiae until a bishop declares otherwise.
Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, was declared no longer Catholic by Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York in 2003, during a similar protest by Cardinal Newman Society of the colleges commencement speaker, pro-abortion New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer. CNS also protested Spitzer as the commencement speaker at Marymount Manhattan College last year, but no public action was taken by the Archdiocese and the College took no step to end its affiliation with the Catholic Church. Two other historically Catholic colleges in Rochester, New York -- Nazareth College and Saint John Fisher College -- have been declared no longer Catholic by Bishop Matthew Clark.
The decision to honor one of Congress most outspoken and strident advocates of abortion rights was just the latest episode in a long history of secularization at Marymount Manhattan College, said Patrick J. Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), in a press release. CNS is a national organization dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity at Americas 220 -- now 219 -- Catholic colleges and universities.
Why the College chose to remain officially Catholic while turning traitor against the Catholic Church, I cannot say," Reilly continued. "This is a good day for those seeking truth and clarity, but at the same time a sad day for Catholics, who founded, attended and funded this college only to be turned away for the sake of government funding and private ambitions.
CNS wrote Cardinal Egan on April 14, complaining about Marymount Manhattan Colleges plans to honor Sen. Clinton and suggesting immediate action to prevent scandal in the Archdiocese of New York. CNS asked Cardinal Egan to consider advising the College privately to withdraw Clintons invitation, but also acknowledged that the enforcement of Ex Corde Ecclesiae may require the declaration that an institution is no longer Catholic, and we support such action if Marymount Manhattan College obstinately refuses to acknowledge your pastoral authority as bishop and to uphold the Churchs fundamental teachings.
According to the Archdiocese of New York, the Colleges officials agreed with todays action. Indeed, College employees had been rebuffing CNS protesters of the Clinton honors by claiming that Marymount Manhattan College has not been Catholic since 1961, when it separated from its parent institution, Marymount College of Tarrytown, and its founding womens religious order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. In fact, the Colleges actions in 1961 were similar to those of most other Catholic institutions throughout the country that incorporated separate from the Church to qualify for state government funding. The vast majority of those colleges continue to claim a Catholic identity while slowly secularizing, and Marymount Manhattan College is not much different -- any apparent trace of its Catholic identity has disappeared over time, even though until today it preserved its official status as Catholic, possibly to avoid alienating its Catholic alumni and donors.
There is tremendous value to clearly and formally identifying wayward Catholic institutions as no longer Catholic, as Cardinal Egan has done so courageously, Reilly said. If Senator Clinton had a similar degree of dignity, she might have declined the Colleges honor out of respect for faithful Catholics who are appalled by her stridency on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. If the Colleges trustees and officials had a similar degree of dignity, they might have chosen to respect the Colleges roots and give their students something young people today are longing for -- a moral education rooted in the truth about God and man.
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"Catholic Higher Education Alert" is a free service of the Cardinal Newman Society to supplement the Society's quarterly newsletter, "MISSION".
Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
ping!!!!
Is what follows a direct quote?
Hillary Clinton used a Catholic Church in New York to deliver a talk to loyal Democrats when she was running for her senate seat. Protesting parishioners prayed the rosary while she spoke and they were thrown out of their own church by strongmen. The church allowed their own to be
tossed while this pro choice female pandered for votes.
This attack on the church and the beliefs is nothing new by Hillary Clinton. She is larger than all of it. Ask her.
I agree with him. Even God has sent men to fight a righteous war. A mass murder should not be allowed a chance to ever commit the same crime again. Both righteous wars and the death penalty are pro-life for the oppressed and innocent.
If the Catholic colleges aren't going to behave like Christians, they should be shunned like any other liberal institution. Let the liberals support them instead.
...for inviting pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton to give its commencement address...
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That is an awful short list of reasons why Hitlery should not have been invited --- my list IS VERY LONG with all valid reasons...
http://catholicinsight.com/online/church/vatican/printer_communion_princiles.shtml
Yes, it comes from his memo to Cardinal Keeler, "Worthiness to receive Holy Communion General principles."
No longer will pro-aborts be able to argue that abortion is just one of many issues - - as if Nazis could have argued that "the Holocaust is bad but Hitler has a low unemployment rate."
Looks like Cardinal Egan got the Holy Fathers message.
DING! DING! DING! First time 'Clinton' and 'digity' have been used together in a sentence. Give the Senator a cigar, uh, maybe not any of them left laying around by her hubby.
Is this a big deal or not? I am pinging my better half (a recent contributor to our board) for her take. Especially, the comment on the Seamless Garment.
Marymount Manhattan ex-communicated by Cardinal Egan
Consistent with this man's actions!
If anyone finds a linked 'news' story on this please post it.
This is huge, in my opinion. We have been complaining in vain about this stuff for two decades.
ping.
Hilary's path of destruction, now it is colleges.
Ping
My email came at Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:34:13 -0700.
Keep your eye on some of the Catholic blogs:
http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/weblog/
http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/weblog.php
http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm
Marymount Manhattan College (click for press release) |
wonder if Hugh Hewitt will be commenting today
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