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".
If the colleges don't care, is this a sanction?
We need more, these people profit by thumbing their nose at Catholic dogma.
Umnnhhh...
If you read Bettnet, you'll find that the Cardinal Newman Society had nothing to do with this 'pronouncement' from NY.
Actually, Manhattan was self-declared "non-Catholic" back around the time of the Land 'o' Lakes compact; at around the same time, NY de-listed the college from its "Catholic" directory.
Some time later, it re-appeared for no apparent reason--but its status has NEVER changed, even though the printed directory was inaccurate.
Sorry, not huge.
See Bettnet's story. Mary/Manhattan has been "non-Catholic" for about 40 years, although NY Directory mistakes have been made.
Simple show-time from Egan & Co.
"Protesting parishioners prayed the rosary while she spoke and they were thrown out of their own church by strongmen."
Probably Secret Service Agents paid for by OUR MONEY!!!!
Good work Pope Benedict XVI!! I hope he acts in a similar fashion with other individuals who claim to be Catholic and suuport murdering little babies.
I can't see how any person who believes in a just God can condone abortion. It borders on paedophilia in horror.
I hope Benedict XVI "promotes" him anyway. We need another pastor in the mold of + O'Connor who uses the pulpit of the Archbishop of New York to proclaim the Gospel. Egan would rather be in Rome, albeit as prefect and not as an archpriest or some such obscure role.
Pope Benedict believes in driving out non-Catholic universities and schools even if it leaves the Church with only a handful of truly Catholic institutions of higher learning.
I couldn't agree with him more. Truth in advertising.
Great find. Bookedmarked.
She looks possessed. Sort of like...
Your picture of Hildebeast didn't come through. Here's the URL, for anyone interested (copy and paste it in the address bar):
http://community-2.webtv.net/crproc/DOMUSDEIANDREAL/media/captureD106.jpg
Amazing! I was talking to my parents last night, and one of the topics was the Catholic colleges spewing antichristian bile (my folks are trying to get me back into the RCC fold). And this happens! Each day I like this B16 more!
Better question: If, for his crimes, we cannot burn Jadot at the stake summarily, why have a Holy Office?????
fantastic! I agree that the Church should start proceedings to reobtain its property.
FINALLY!!
They might have a problem accepting credit for the courses in "Lesbian Anthropology" or "Pagan Worship 101" tho...
For a universtiy to call itself "Catholic" it must have the local bishop's permission. I do not know of any Catholic or "Catholic" colleges or universities which are run by a diocese.
I am involved with starting a new Catholic university here in San Diego. The first thing we had to do was to get approval from our bishop to use the word "Catholic."
Here is the website: New Catholic University
I am really starting to like this Pope!!!!!
"The university also claims that the sale is not subject to canon law, which requires Vatican approval for the sale of any Catholic property valued at over $3 million." http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/OSV/98nov9.html
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