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 it is no longer Catholic, then the trustees should RETURN the stolen property to the church.
The code of canon law on the improper alienation of church property should be invoked and proceedings should begin for the return of church property to authentic Catholic educational authorities. It should be illegal for a secular cabal to STEAL a Roman Catholic college. That's big chunk of real estate and some change there.
Bumpus ad summum
Pope Benedict XVI
(We are so lucky to have him.)
Mrs Clinton giving speech on sanctuary floor in front of altar at St. Michaels Roman Catholic Church. Pulpit in background. Four busloads (one from Salvation Army) were trucked in. Catholics were evicted when spotted by usher.
This is the Diocese of Rochester, NY, 'shepherded' by Bishop Matthew Clarke. His best friend in seminary was Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Diocese of Albany, NY. Both Bishops Hubbard and Clark were appointed to their present posts - 28 years ago!!! by Archbishop Jadot. Archbishop Jean Jadot, Pope Paul VI's apostolic delegate to the United States from 1973-1980, has no regrets about the spate of bad bishops he inflicted on the Catholics of this country.
"In the United States today, that all depends on one's point of view. An American priest who is second in command of his ancient religious order in Rome says Jadot was 'the best man we ever had.' The reason: 'For seven years, Jadot helped pick our very best bishops.' He instanced Ted McCarrick,now the cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Roger Mahony, the cardinal archbishop of Los Angeles, two of a very small group inside the College of Cardinals who could be called Progressives. (Jadot also plucked a priest out of the Diocese of Jackson, Miss., and had him made bishop of Springfield, Mo. He is now the embattled cardinal archbishop of Boston, Mass., Bernard Law. But that's another story.)
"If, however, you were to ask a conservative like Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, he would say Jadot hurt the Church in the United States by picking the very worst' bishops. This is because John Paul II had changed the criteria. It was part of his plan to bring a runaway, postconciliar Church back to its senses."
Hey, that's me !
This is a 120mm H.E. shot across the left's bow! //lol
All he has done is read the writing on the wall. He wants to remain Cardinal Archbishop of New York and not "promoted" to obscurity at the Vatican so Pope Benedict XVI can appoint someone else.
Pope Benedict XVI collaborated with Cardinal Saraiva Martins on the idea of the Mandatum for Colleges and Universities -- but it is well known that 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.
If I were Notre Dame and Marquette, I would be worried about now.
This is excellent news. And while we shouldn't assume that Egan supported the move, let's not assume that he didn't. When someone does the right thing, he/she should normally be thanked. Whatever Egan's motives, he will be attacked for this. We need to defend him.
Perhaps if there is enough of this decertification -- which we can hope will be quietly or not-so-quietly encouraged by the new Pope -- some of these BS institutions will actually be driven out of business. That would be a good thing. Some of the kids would end up at genuinely Catholic institutions, and some would go to the usual leftist places -- but without the phony Catholic label. Their leftist "education" won't be served up with pseudo-religious sanctimony, and things will be a tiny bit more clear to them. That's my guess, anyway.
I gather that these schools stand to lose considerable support from well-to doalumnae who are practicing Catholics.
do you have a date & the name of the church? Just want to make sure I never attend Mass there..
Certainly this would be a way for the Holy Father to confront the liberals without getting into politics. I doubt that many of these schools could survive as strictly secular institutions. Most do not rank very high on the USNEWS listing.
Yes, and there is a lesson here for conservatives. Rather than the almost hopeless task of trying to reform the most corrupted of the liberal institutions, we should be thinking of ways to destroy them. Hitting them in the pocketbook by means of constant public denunciation and by means of lawsuits is one way to start. The Catholic church can withdraw their phony pseudo-Catholic seal of approval, and in the secular realm, political activists and lawyers (and angry parents) can do the rest. It would be wonderful to see a few dozen colleges and universities driven to utter extinction in this way.
OH well.I guess she will speak at a non-catholic COLLEGE,just keep weeding them out for us Hillary .
bttt
It would probably be easier just to issue a (rather short) list of those self-proclaimed Catholic colleges that are in fact Catholic!
think this is the beginning of the end for Hillary.
Even though in general Roman Catholics are harder on Roman Catholics who violate basis Church teaching, (remember John Kerry), I don't think anyone who is open to this kind of condemnation could never be elected.
On abortion and euthanasia there not great support for either by American Catholics. On these two issues,the Church will not give one millimeter.
Very Important Story
BTTT
This is good to hear. Is this Manhattanville College? Or is that a different college?
This is amazing news!
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