Posted on 05/18/2005 9:33:07 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Md. cardinal to boycott Giuliani speech
5/18/2005, 11:11 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) — Cardinal William Keeler will not attend a Jesuit university commencement because keynote speaker Rudolph Giuliani, a Catholic, supports abortion rights, an official said Wednesday.
Giuliani, the Republican former New York City mayor mentioned as a possible candidate for president in 2008, is expected to award some 1,600 degrees and certificates at Friday's commencement at Loyola College of Maryland.
He also is to receive an honorary degree.
Friday's graduating class entered the school one week before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Loyola spokesman Mark Kelly.
"The attacks had a huge effect on this class, many of whom are from New York," Kelly said late Wednesday. "The college selected Mayor Giuliani because of his courage and leadership after the attacks."
Kelly added Loyola does not agree with every position held by every speaker.
Keeler could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. His spokesman did not elaborate on the decision, but confirmed it was because of Giuliani's abortion stance.
The Cardinal Newman Society is planning protests, the group said in a statement.
The society is protesting speakers and honorees at 18 Catholic college and universities, saying the invitations violate the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops statement last year asserting "Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."
Earlier this week, New York Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, also a Catholic, canceled his speech to graduates of St. Elizabeth's College of Nursing after learning a bishop opposed his appearance. Boehlert said he did not want to draw attention from the graduation ceremony.
A spokeswoman for Giuliani did not immediately return phone calls.
Ah, the tagteam appears. We're . . . . safe.
Just curious.
No.
The President is pro-life. Giuliani is NOT pro-life. The President is more in line with RC teaching and he isn't even RC!
I sneer about a lot of things. SO do you. You just are hyper sensitive when I take a public policy point of view about Catholic Church policy (or the actions of some cleric) that doesn't fit into your leitmotif. My best advice is to take posts that disagree with your point of view more calmly. Part of living on this planet in a civil way is facing and coping with disagreement with some semblance of maturity. JMO.
"Hypersensitive."
Right. When you say "some cleric" you reveal your prejudice. You're hypersensitive about any opportunity (even the shabbiest) to bash the Vatican.
Part of living on this planet in a civil away is avoiding your base instincts to bash anything greater than you.
I will be sure to ping you when I find something the Vatican does that pleases me. It has happened before, it will again.
</Sarcasm>
I think the late Pope's policies on the Evil Empire where seminal and decisive, and his reaching out to other religions was excellent, including, inter alia, burying once and for all, the hatchet with the Jews, and opening the window a bit wider in a more official way regarding the Catholic theological issue of folks of good spirit being able to find their own way to the Catholic heaven based on the content of their character, even if outside the formal strictures of the Catholic Church itself. Of course, that latter bit pleases me not for myself; I think I'm returning to dust, and will "live" thereafter only a brief time in the memory of a few, before achieving total oblivion.
CARDINAL KEELER REFUSES TO ATTEND LOYOLA COLLEGE EVENT HONORING RUDY
GIULIANI
- PROTEST PLANNED AT COMMENCEMENT FRIDAY -
MANASSAS, VA (May 18, 2005) - Today Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler informed Loyola College of Maryland interim president David Haddad that the Cardinal refuses to participate in an event honoring Rudolph Giuliani, an
advocate of abortion rights and probable Republican candidate for U.S. president in 2008.
The former New York City mayor has been invited to deliver Loyola's commencement address and receive an honorary degree on Friday, May 20. Despite a planned protest on Friday and a public campaign in recent weeks by the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) and Defend Life of Maryland urging the college to withdraw Giuliani's invitation, Keeler's terse letter to Haddad offers the first public glimpse at what appears to be strained relationship between the historically Catholic college and its bishop.
"[T]here will be no representative of the Archdiocese [of Baltimore] participating in any event honoring former Mayor Giuliani," Keeler wrote in a letter dated May 18, noting that he and Haddad had an "earlier exchange of correspondence" about the college's invitation to Giuliani. In what may be a subtle threat to Loyola College's official recognition by the Cardinal as a Catholic institution, Keeler wrote, "I am confident that, by now, you understand many of the consequences that spring
from an invitation having been extended to former Mayor Giuliani to receive an honorary degree at Loyola. May the Lord make of this event a teaching moment for many."
CNS is protesting commencement speakers and honorees at 18 Catholic colleges and universities, noting that the invitations are a direct violation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops statement "Catholics in
Political Life." The June 2004 statement includes the following mandate: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be
given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." Complete details on the protest are posted at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.
In a letter dated April 27, CNS urged Cardinal Keeler to "take immediate action to prevent scandal in the Archdiocese of Baltimore," first by privately communicating with Loyola College, but without "waiting until it is too late to inform the public that the invitation is in direct
conflict with the U.S. bishops' statement and the Church's expectations forCatholic colleges and universities." CNS also noted Keeler's authority to determine whether Loyola could remain an officially Catholic institution:
"While our mission is the renewal of Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities, we realize that the enforcement of Ex Corde Ecclesiae may require the declaration that an institution is no longer Catholic, and we support such action if Loyola College obstinately refuses
to acknowledge your pastoral authority as bishop and to uphold the Church's fundamental teachings," CNS wrote.
The public action by Keeler comes soon after pro-abortion Rep. Sherwood Boehlert voluntarily turned down an invitation to deliver the commencement address at St. Elizabeth's College of Nursing in Utica, New York, this Saturday. Even though Bishop James Moynihan of the Diocese of Syracuse had privately opposed the invitation to Boehlert, which violated a diocesan ban on such speakers at Catholic institutions, it was Boehlert who turned down the invitation because of planned protests by pro-life
activists, similar to the Loyola protest planned for Friday.
CNS also successfully protested Marymount Manhattan College's invitation to pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton to receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address this Saturday, May 20. In response to significant media attention to the protest, the highly
secularized college ended its official recognition by the Archdiocese of New York as a Catholic institution.
The CNS protest against Villanova University in Pennsylvania, which has invited Ireland President Mary McAleese to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree on Sunday, has both outraged and energized Irish citizens with considerable coverage in the Irish media. McAleese has been a public advocate of women's ordination, including strident criticism of the Vatican and supporters of the Church's firm teaching on the male priesthood.
Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans publicly chastised Loyola University of New Orleans for honoring two politicians, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitchell Landrieu, who have voted for
abortion rights. Archbishop Hughes refused to attend Loyola's commencement ceremony last weekend, as planned.
Loyola's commencement ceremony featuring Giuliani is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday morning, when he will be greeted by protesters outside the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore. Leaders of the protest will hold a
press conference in support of Cardinal Keeler and opposing Loyola College's invitation to Giuliani tomorrow, May 19, at 11:30 a.m. outside the Archdiocese of Baltimore Chancellery, 320 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
For more information and the latest updates about the CNS protest, see http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.
[Catholic Campus News]
CARDINAL KEELER REFUSES TO ATTEND LOYOLA EVENT HONORING GIULIANI
On Wednesday, Baltimore?s Cardinal William Keeler informed Loyola College of Maryland interim president David Haddad that the Cardinal refuses to participate in an event honoring Rudolph Giuliani, an advocate of abortion
rights and probable Republican candidate for U.S. president in 2008.
The former New York City mayor has been invited to deliver Loyola's commencement address and receive an honorary degree on Friday, May 20. Despite a planned protest on Friday and a public campaign in recent weeks by the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) and Defend Life of Maryland urging the college to withdraw Giuliani?s invitation, Keeler?s terse letter to Haddad offers the first public glimpse at what appears to be strained relationship between the historically Catholic college and its bishop.
[T]here will be no representative of the Archdiocese [of Baltimore] participating in any event honoring former Mayor Giuliani, Keeler wrote in a letter dated May 18, noting that he and Haddad had an earlier exchange of correspondence about the college?s invitation to Giuliani.
In what may be a subtle threat to Loyola College?s official recognition by the Cardinal as a Catholic institution, Keeler wrote, I am confident that, by now, you understand many of the consequences that spring from an invitation having been extended to former Mayor Giuliani to receive an
honorary degree at Loyola. May the Lord make of this event a teaching moment for many.
As mayor of New York and later as a U.S. Senate candidate, Giuliani was very public about his support for abortion rights and special rights for homosexuals. ?I?m pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights, he declared during an
interview on CNN in 1999. His views are radical: he has opposed federal and state bans on partial-birth abortion, and he has opposed restrictions on federal, state and city funding for abortions. In a 1989 interview with New York Newsday, Giuliani said, ?I?d give my daughter money for it
[an abortion]. On gay rights, Giuliani has endorsed ?domesticpartnerships and took steps to extend special benefits to gay and lesbian couples employed by New York City.
CNS is protesting commencement speakers and honorees at 17 Catholic colleges and universities, noting that the invitations are a direct violation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops statement Catholics in Political Life. The June 2004 statement includes the following
mandate: The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest
support for their actions.? Complete details on the protest are posted at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.
Loyola's commencement ceremony featuring Giuliani is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday morning, when he will be greeted by protesters. CNS members and
others are encouraged to join the protest by arriving around 8:30 a.m. at the 1st Mariner Arena, 201 W. Baltimore St., Baltimore, Maryland. A local pro-life organization, Defend Life of Maryland, is leading the protest and
will provide instructions upon arrival.
CONTACT: Dr. David Haddad, Interim President, Loyola College in Maryland, 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210; Phone: (410) 617-2201; E-mail: dhaddad@loyola.edu
Yawn.
I responded and answered your question. You just don't like answers which don't quite fit into your little matrix.
I think I'm returning to dust, and will "live" thereafter only a brief time in the memory of a few, before achieving total oblivion.
*** I think that's tragic and pretty fatalistic.
Rudy better think twice about running for the presidency. He wcould be a hero and run against Hitlery but he doesn't have the sense to do that.
I'm comfortable with it. But well, what do I know? There is no absolute truth here for the skeptic. How can there be?
Your misunderstanding/misstatement of Catholic catechism is pathetic.
I have no matrix of any size. My faith is in Christ and His own Church.
YOU are the one who defines her own little matrix.
And don't flatter yourself, I asked you no question. Vicious "near atheists" have no information I'd want to derive.
You're the first person I've ever met that has this view of the afterlife. Suppose you are wrong?
Then I will be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised. But Senator Hatch assures me that the Mormons have irrigated Hell, and it looks now just like Utah, a state whose scenary I love. So in that sense, the "surprise" either way will be a win-win for me.
Maybe its me, but isn't this article just a little bit intellectually dishonest? I don't think that this is as big of a supposed dissent from within the church as the article portrays. Loyola is a Jesuit institution and as such, the local diocese have no say over what happens there. Jesuits operate soley at the discretion of their General (I think that's the title ol' Ignatius came up with but don't quote me) and the Holy Father. Historically, local diocese have often tried to do things to make life difficult for the Jesuits. To me this article kind of boils down to someone like Gorgeous George (the new lib celeb de jour don't zot me because of my couple of french words LOL) stating that he won't be attending a commencement given by Margret Thatcher at Oxford?
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