Bishop Warns College May Lose Catholic Name for Not Cancelling Pro-Abortion Groups in Conference

WORCESTER, Massachusetts, October 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Worcester's Catholic bishop, Bishop Robert J. McManus, has issued a frank condemnation of the decision by the local Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross to rent their facilities for a conference featuring NARAL and Planned Parenthood workshops.
Bishop McManus has issued a scathing statement confirming that he has requested that college President, Rev. Michael C. McFarland rescind the invitation based on the conference's fundamental differences with Catholic moral teaching.

As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy is scheduled to use the conference facilities at the Catholic college for their annual Teen Pregnancy Institute on October 24. The conference schedule includes workshops featuring a Planned Parenthood representative discussing "protection methods" and a similar NARAL update on initiatives to provide teen access to "low-cost, confidential health services and Emergency Contraception." Pro-abortion Governor Patrick Deval will be honored with a leadership award at the conference.

According to the local chancery, hundreds of complaints were received from Catholics around the country voicing outrage at Holy Cross' facilitation of a conference which so openly opposed the basic moral teachings of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of human life.

The bishop's statement maintained that the complaints were justified since, "The College of the Holy Cross should recognize that any association with these groups can create the situation of offering scandal understood in its proper theological sense, i.e., an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. Certainly it is understandable how people of good will could interpret the college's allowing presentations to be made by such groups as truly scandalous."

"The moral teaching of the Catholic Church on respect for life at all stages of its development is manifestly clear. Life is a fundamental good that must be protected and respected from the moment of fertilization to natural death. This teaching is so basic and important that it provides the foundation upon which much of the Church's moral and social doctrine rests. It is beyond modification and compromise."

Holy Cross officials have replied that they will not rescind the invitation despite a host of complaints flooding their offices from alumni and others across the country. Officials explained that "Holy Cross in no way supports or endorses Planned Parenthood, NARAL, or other organizations that engage in or promote practices contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church."

However, the bishop's statement denied the possibility of this position saying, "I strongly contend that the confusion and upset to the Catholic faithful and others that flow from the perception that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross supports positions contrary to the fundamental moral teaching of the Church must be avoided."

"To deny Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice a forum in which to present their morally unacceptable positions is not an infringement of the exercise of academic freedom but a defensible attempt to make unambiguously clear the Catholic identity and mission of the College of the Holy Cross."

President McFarland explained his decision to continue to allow the conference to take place while also attempting to explain that Holy Cross "fully affirms and promotes" the sanctity of human life. He continued to justify his decision in opposition to the bishop's statement saying, "Beyond the contractual obligation, it is important to emphasize that the college believes a meeting of adult professionals pooling resources, engaging in a dialogue and exchanging information is a beneficial way of grappling with pressing issues related to the health and well-being of Massachusetts teenagers and children."

"As an institution of higher learning, we are dedicated to the open exchange of ideas. As a Jesuit college, Holy Cross is committed to its mission of engaging with the larger culture on even the most problematic and divisive of moral and spiritual issues."

As the leader of his flock, Bishop McManus issued a warning to the Catholic college saying, "As Bishop of Worcester, it is my pastoral and canonical responsibility to determine what institutions can properly call themselves 'Catholic.' This is a duty that I do not take lightly since to be a Catholic institution means that such an institution conducts its mission and ministry in accord with Catholic Church teaching, especially in cases of faith and morals."

"It is my fervent wish that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross will unequivocally disassociate itself from the upcoming conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy so that the college can continue to be recognized as a Catholic institution committed to promoting the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church."

Read Bishop McManus' entire statement:
http://www.worcesterdiocese.org/bishopsoffice/HC-conf-stmt-1...

Read Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Holy Cross College Hosts on-Campus Planned Parenthood Workshops, Awards Pro-Abortion Governor
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/sep/07092808.html

As I've said before elsewhere on FR, it is very gratifying to see this statement - especially the line about "no modification and no compromise" - because there are those of us out here who remember when FATHER McManus, in another capacity, gave some advice to the family of a comatose woman that was ALL ABOUT MODIFICATION AND COMPROMISE.

In other words: Easy on the kudos until you see him actually DO something! Because the previous track record was anything but evidence of a SPINE!

Back then, the Jesuits at BC were DEFENDING him!

Here is what FATHER McManus was teaching way back before the mitre was bestowed:

Article in the NYTimes:

January 12, 1988

Bishop Sees No Moral Issue If Feeding Ends in Coma Case By PETER STEINFELS

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, R.I., Louis E. Gelineau, said yesterday that a diocesan official's opinion approving the removal of a feeding tube from a comatose patient ''does not contradict Catholic moral theology.''

The opinion was written at Bishop Gelineau's request by the Rev. Robert J. McManus, vicar of education, who is a member of the diocesan medical ethics commission.

It has been criticized as ''utterly and unquestionably wrong'' by another Catholic theologian, the Rev. Robert Barry, who teaches religious studies at the University of Illinois. A diocesan press officer said abortion foes in the Providence area had expressed concern that Father McManus's view weakened the church's teaching on the protection of life.

A Kind of Precedent

Although Father McManus's opinion in the case of Marcia Gray, a 48-year-old Catholic who has been in a coma since January 1986, is not unprecedented among moral theologians, it is apparently the first time such a viewpoint has been expressed by someone acting in a diocesan capacity.

A growing number of state courts have ruled that such chemical feeding is a means of artificial life support like mechanical respirators, which can be removed.

Bishop Gelineau, in Providence, had asked Father McManus to study the case after Mrs. Gray's husband, H. Glenn Gray, who is seeking to remove a tube supplying food and water to his wife, sought church advice, The Bishop emphasized yesterday that Father McManus's opinion ''in no way supports or condones the practice of euthanasia.''

Mr. Gray, who is a University of Rhode Island professor, has sued the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, which administers the hospital where Mrs. Gray is a patient, to have the feeding tube removed. The case is scheduled to be heard this month by the Federal District Court in Providence.

According to Bishop Gelineau, the church has made no ''definitive statement regarding the need to provide nutrition and hydration to the permanently unconscious person.''

At a news conference, Bishop Gelineau acknowledged that his position supporting Father McManus might differ from the standpoint of other bishops. But Dr. James J. Walter, associate professor of theology at Loyola University, in Chicago, said that Father McManus's opinion appeared to be one held by a ''growing majority'' of Catholic moral theologians. 'Ordinary' vs. 'Extraordinary'

According to Dr. Walter as well as Dr. Lisa Sowle Cahill, professor of theology at Boston College, the terms Father McManus used to examine the issue were traditional ones. Most Catholic theologians ask whether artifically provided nutrition and hydration constitute ''extraordinary'' medical treatment. Such treatment may be suspended if seen as burdensome. On the other hand, ''ordinary'' medical treatment cannot be morally withdrawn.

Dr. Cahill noted that theological foes of removing feeding tubes for the permanently unconscious stress the ''ordinary'' and basic character of food and drink. ''But food and drink is no more basic than air,'' said Dr. Cahill, noting that Catholic theologians have agreed that artificial respirators qualify as ''extraordinary'' treatment and can sometimes be disconnected.

The differences among theologians, Dr. Walter said, depend on whether they look at the medical treatment alone or in relation to the benefit it may give a particular patient. In the case of Mrs. Gray, Father McManus had concluded that the measures ''supplying nutrition and hydration artificially offer no reasonable hope of benefit'' and were therefore ''disproportionate and unduly burdensome.''

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