Wednesday, April 12, 2006

A "Catholic" University's Profile in Courage - NOT!

From the Philadelphia Daily News:
A highly controversial plan for a memorial on the Villanova campus to the "victims of abortion" is in limbo.

The university's board of trustees took a pass yesterday at approving the controversial memorial during its regular April meeting, but one of the memorial's funders is "hopeful" the board will approve it at the next meeting in June.

Yesterday's mid-afternoon statement from university officials was a monument to vagueness.

It didn't specify the proposed monument by name, but simply read: "One of the issues introduced for discussion was the overall concept of memorials on the university's 222-acre campus.

"No decisions were made about any specific memorial or the broader issue of university memorials on campus," the statement continued. "Villanova as a Catholic university remains strongly supportive of the dignity of human life."

Joe McCullen Jr., a venture capitalist and Villanova alumnus from suburban Massachussetts, and his wife, Eleanor, came forward as the donors of the $20,000 needed for the statue. He said he was baffled by the action.

"I'm disappointed and I'm curious to find out what the reason is," said McCullen, head of McCullen Capital LLC in Boston.

"I believe very much in the issue of protecting the unborn," said McCullen, who also this year donated $1 million to the university's endowment fund.

"We were hoping the board of trustees would come on board and be strong," added his wife, Eleanor McCullen, a St. Joseph's University graduate and a secular Franciscan. "They're afraid to come forward and to take a stand."

Oscar Abello, 20, a Villanova sophomore and anti-abortion Democratic Party activist, said he opposes the statue because it "fails to place abortion within the larger context of the culture of death and social justice, which is vital for the pro-life movement to be successful."


[More]
(emphasis added)

My Comments:
Way to stand up for the Faith there, guys!

In case you haven't seen it, here's a photo of the "highly controversial" memorial, which apparently has no proper place on the campus of an allegedly "Catholic" university:



Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"Offensive" Statue Causes Outcry at "Catholic" Villanova University

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