Check out the photo that Notre Dame chose to highlight on its Facebook page to "honor" former Notre Dame president Fr. Theodore Hesburgh on his birthday:
Highlighting perhaps the most prominent pro-abortion politician on Capitol Hill. Could you imagine Notre Dame posting a picture of Fr. Hesburgh with a segregationist? For that matter, could you imagine Fr. Hesburgh appearing at an event - even one in his own honor - if a prominent segregationist were in attendance?
The thing is that Notre Dame had plenty of other photos to choose from (see here), and decided to use this one.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed legislation that prohibits public
colleges from requiring student groups to adhere to so-called
“all-comers” policies.
The Student Group Protection Act is designed to ensure freedom of
association on campuses, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mark D.
Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg.
The new law gives religious or political student organizations at
public institutions the right to define their doctrines. To the extent
allowed by law, they also can limit membership to students committed to
their missions.
The ACLU of Virginia and some student leaders had
urged McDonnell to veto the bill, saying they feared it would allow
groups to discriminate based on religion or sexual orientation.
However, the Family Foundation of Virginia
praised McDonnell for signing what it called a common-sense measure that
protects religious liberties.
The ACLU said the legislation was an effort to
override a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a university’s right
to require student organizations to abide by nondiscrimination policies.
The ruling came in a challenge by a conservative Christian group in
California that excluded gay and lesbian students.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if secular universities officially recognize
Knights of Columbus councils as student clubs while Catholic
universities—like Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Fordham—don’t because
administrators have determined that the organization is discriminatory
and noninclusive?
At a hearing of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee yesterday, a single witness — Georgetown law student and “reproductive rights activist” Sandra Fluke — told sympathetic policy-makers that the administration’s so-called contraception mandate should stand … because her peers are going broke buying birth control.
“Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy (Georgetown student insurance not covering contraception),” Fluke reported.
It costs a female student $3,000 to have protected sex over the course of her three-year stint in law school, according to her calculations.
“Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” Fluke told the hearing.
Craig Bannister at CNSNews.com did the math — and discovered that these co-eds, assuming they’re using the cheapest possible contraception, must be having unprotected sex about three times a day every day to incur that kind of expense. What Fluke is arguing, then, is that her fellow law students have a right to consequence-free sex whenever, wherever. Why, exactly, especially if it costs other people something? When I can’t pay for something, I do without it. Fortunately, in the case of contraception, women can make lifestyle choices that render it unnecessary...
Lady, if you want to be promiscuous to the tune of $3000 during your time at Georgetown Law School, that's your business. Knock yourself out. No one is going to stop you. Y'know, free will and all.
But to demand that the Catholic Church violate its teachings by providing you with the means for you to engage in your promiscuity is beyond arrogant. It's perverse.
This witness was called by "ardent, practicing Catholic", San Fran Nan the Theologian. Does she REALLY think testimony like this bolster's the Obama Administration's position on the HHS mandate? As one commenter at Hot Air put it:
Yes, PLEASE, trot out more privileged poster children like this. This is like an ad for our side.
... [The Obama Administration] is attempting to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Mr. Obama’s HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is trying to force Steubenville to dispense abortion-producing drugs and pay for sterilizations. This is a Roman Catholic institution. Such things are strictly proscribed by the Catholic faith.
Sec. Sebelius may be aware that Catholic institutions are required by faith and fidelity to their mission to uphold these principles. It is an indispensable part of their mission and their reason for being. To force a Catholic institution to violate the consciences of its faculty, students and alumni in this fashion is like forcing a Yeshiva to serve pork to Orthodox Jewish students.
This attempt to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville is, tragically, not an isolated example. From the first days of the Obama administration, there has been a kulturkampf (culture clash) against Catholic institutions not seen since the days of the Iron Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck. It was Bismarck who attempted to put all churches and universities in Prussia under his hobnailed boot.
Writer Charlotte Allen wrote of the “Persecution of Belmont Abbey” by the Obama administration in 2009. There, too, liberal zealots were demanding that the Catholic school, founded in 1876, provide contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations or face federal sanctions. This, according to the institution’s president, could lead to closing down the historic little college.
Chai Feldblum is a tenured professor at Georgetown University Law School. This is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Ironically, Feldblum, is also a homosexual legal activist. She was Barack Obama’s choice for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She told a panel at Family Research Council that if it came to a clash between what she calls gay rights and religious liberty, religious liberty must give way...
My Comments: What the Democrat Party can't control, they will attempt to destroy. Whether it's violating the conscience rights of Catholic organizations by forcing them to cooperate in the Democrats' worship of Moloch or the coming persecution of the Church over recognition of so-called same-sex "marriage", expect more of this ... MUCH more of this ... in the future.
And, just as with Sebelius, it will be the dissident Catholics and other left-wing "Christians" who voted for this anti-life administration that will provide them cover and help to usher in a new era in persecution of those who hold fast to traditional Christian faith.
This Obama Culture of Death Update™ has been brought to you by Douglas Kmiec, all the fine folks at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good / Catholics United / Catholic Democrats, and countless other Catholics for whom "Hope" and "Change" trumped LIFE.
During the firestorm that followed the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama two commencements ago, the university’s president, Father John Jenkins, wrote a letter to the Class of 2009 explaining his position. He stated his sadness that the honors bestowed on Obama had been taken as “ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching.” Notre Dame, he asserted, “was unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.”
Remember those words: “unequivocally committed” with no “ambiguity in our position.” How are these words reconciled with the university’s announcement that Roxanne Martino has been elected to the board of trustees? For it turns out that Martino, an accomplished businesswoman and ND alumna, has given more than $25,000 over the years to Emily’s List.
Emily’s List is not just any group. The New York Times recently called it a “fundraising powerhouse.” Arguably, it is one of America’s best known and most prominent political organizations in the country. And it is dedicated to abortion rights.
What was Notre Dame’s response? The chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Richard Notebaert, sent out an email to fellow trustees, saying that Martino is “fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.”
Notebaert went on to say that Martino “has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position.”
He’s not the only one putting that line out there. Now Father Jenkins has chimed in, sending some concerned alumni an email from “the Office of the President” that is almost word for word the same as Notebaert’s. One forwarded to me reads as follows:
“Ms. Martino (along with her husband, Rocco) is a Notre Dame graduate, and she is fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.”
“She has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position. This is not her personal position, and she will now review all of her contributions to ensure that she does not again inadvertently support these kinds of activities in the future.”
Father Jenkins has two big problems here. The first is his declaration that Martino was unaware that the organizations she donated thousands of dollars to “also” take a pro-choice view, in addition to providing a wide range of “important services and support to women.” When asked to provide backup for that statement — e.g., an example of a service that Emily’s List provides in addition to its agitation for abortion— Notre Dame’s communications office forwarded me an answer from Notebaert. In it, he reasserted that Martino supports Church policy, that she was “unaware of the specific objective of Emily’s List,” and that his and Father Jenkins’ statements about other “important services” for women applied to a group, and did not apply to Emily’s List. That admission, of course, suggests that his and Father Jenkins’ earlier notes were highly misleading — and deserving of a similar clarification.
For as Notebaert’s message confirms, Emily’s List exists for one reason and one reason only. Click the home page of its website, and it asks you in big capital letters — some in red — to “HELP US ELECT PRO-CHOICE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN.”
Washington D.C., May 27, 2011 / 06:08 am (CNA).-The lead author of a letter criticizing House Speaker John Boehner on “matters of faith and morals” says the letter was a bid for dialogue, not a political stunt. But Dr. Stephen Schneck's own critics say he promotes a distorted version of Catholic social teaching.
Professor Schneck, who directs the Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies, was the top signer of a letter protesting Boehner's May 14 commencement speech at the institution where Schneck works as a political scientist.
[...]
The signers charged the House Speaker, himself a Roman Catholic, with ignoring “the teachings of your Church on matters of faith and morals as they relate to governance.” They said the speaker's voting record was “at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” regarding the obligations of “those in power” toward the poor and vulnerable.
But this form of faith-based protest has opened up Schneck to criticism over his own approach to the Church's social teaching.
[...]
Professor Schneck is a member of the board of directors at Democrats for Life, an organization he describes as “fundamentally and wholly concerned with trying to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
He is also a board member of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. That organization has received funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute, which promotes abortion as a “reproductive right.”
Catholics in Alliance typically backs Democratic policies, presenting abortion as an issue that should be addressed by ending poverty. In 2009, Schneck joined a “Catholics for Sebelius” initiative, supporting an Obama nominee whose bishop told her not to receive Communion over her abortion record...
My Comments: So, let me get this straight. Differences over matters of budgetary and fiscal policy at the federal level make Speaker Boehner persona non grata. But Kathleen Sebelius, whose abortion advocacy and history of cozying up to late-term abortionists is so extreme that her Bihsop has admonished her against receiving Communion, merits this hack's going to bat for her as a member of "Catholics for Sebelius".
That, alone, exposes the guy as a political hack, a two-bit liar, and a hypocrite, and his views on Catholic Social Teaching can be summarily ignored as far as I'm concerned.
JUST REMEMBER this rule of thumb: Allegedly "pro-life" Catholic Democrats are ALWAYS committed Democrats first and foremost. Their party and its political agenda trump their faith and their allegedly "pro-life" views EVERY TIME it is put to the test.
I'm not asking that rhetorically; I'd really be interested in knowing. Both schools are in my top 3 "wish list" of colleges to encourage my children to attend (the other being the University of Virginia, with it's strong Dominican presence; Providence is also under consideration).
Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee says in the future, he will stick to running the university and leave comments about college football to the experts.
"What do I know about college football? I look like Orville Redenbacher. I have no business talking about college football," he said Wednesday, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
More than a week ago, Gee said teams in the major conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC are more deserving to play for the BCS national championship because they play tougher competition every week. "We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor," he said.
That didn't go over very well at TCU and Boise State, both of which at the time were hoping to turn undefeated seasons into a case for inclusion in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.
[...]
Gee told the Dispatch he has since decided, "I need to keep my mouth closed."
"I'm very blessed to have the best athletic director and best football coach in the country," Gee said, the newspaper reported. "They run the athletic program and I run the university, and I should have stayed out of there. What I should do is go over to the surgical suites and get my foot extricated from my mouth."
As for the real Little Sisters of the Poor -- a Roman Catholic women's religious order serving the elderly -- Gee said he had reached out to one of the order's homes in Ohio.
"I sent a [personal] check to the Mother Superior up there and invited her to a ballgame," he said, according to the report.
So we’re trying a new feature here at TAC. Since we noticed we have a lot of college football fans, we thought it might be fun to start our own rankings system. This way, we have an excuse to talk college football every week in a Catholic setting. B/c we thought of it this week, this ranking is coming out on Thursday but the others should be coming out on Mondays.
Here’s how it’ll work. People will send in their rankings and I’ll assign points to them (25 for 1st, 24 for 2nd, etc.) and then average out the points and rank the teams according to that. Then I will take that score along with the computer models and…just kidding. No computer models.
My hope is that it’ll build and we’ll get more people involved (and if you want to submit rankings, let me know-you don’t have to write for TAC). At the end of the year, we may even do a special bowl pick-em thing if it seems popular enough.
Since this poll is a collaboration of several writers, there are obviously some opinions as to rankings that do not reflect my own thinking and are thus, by definition, wrong.
Therefore, so that you can see the correct top-25 rankings, I am going to reveal how I voted this week:
1. Alabama - Until someone knocks off the defending champs, they're still #1. 2. Boise State - Shocker, I know, that I'm not going with Ohio State. But Boise beat a Top 10 opponent, while Ohio State beat Marshall. If the Buckeyes take care of business against Miami this week, they'll leapfrog back to #2. 3. Ohio State - See above. That said, I think that if Ohio State stays healthy they may have the team to beat at the end of the year. 4. Oregon - 72-0 (and shutting it down after the 3rd quarter or else they might have put up 100) is impressive regardless of whom one is playing. 5. Texas - Not sold on them, especially now that McCoy has moved on, and they looked pretty anemic at times on Saturday. But the cliché is actually true with respect to the Longhorns: They don't rebuild, they reload. 6. TCU - It is inexcusable that the two most consistently outstanding college football teams in the Lone Star State over the last decade don't play each other on an annual basis. But I suppose the Longhorns know they have a tough enough time with Oklahama every year to then be foolish enough to play the Horned Frogs, too. If the Big 12 ever looks to replace Colorado and/or Nebraska (or to boot Missouri from its ranks), TCU would be the perfect replacement. 7. Nebraska - Returning to glory just in time to join the Big 10 + 2 next year. 8. Iowa - The Hawkeyes, if Stanzi stays healthy (a HUGE "if" after seeing him go down again on Saturday), are the biggest impediment between Ohio State and another run to the BCS Championship game. 9. Florida - Meh. The scoreboard might not have reflected it, but they got whipped for 3 quarters by the worst Division 1 team in Ohio. 10. Miami - The one that regularly plays in Florida, not the one that went down to Florida and whipped the Gators for 3 quarters. The Hurricanes looked impressive Saturday. If they can go into Columbus and upset the Buckeyes, we may be seeing the return of "The U" to national prominence. God spare us from the thuggery. 11. Virginia Tech - Tech is not going to fall very far in my rankings after narrowly losing to my number 2 team, who had to score a last-minute touchdown to overcome the Hokies. After starting out excruciatingly slow on Monday night and falling behind 17-0, the boys from Blacksburg made an impressive and valiant recovery to take the lead against Boise State and hold it until late in the game. If they run the table the rest of the season (not unheard of), and if enough teams ahead of them lose (again, not unheard of), we could very well see a BCS championship rematch of the game we watched on Monday. 12. Oklahoma - This ranking is achieved by recruiting success and reputation only. I'm just not impressed overall with the Sooners. They are the REAL perennial underachievers every year in both the regular season and their BCS appearances. For all the crap the Buckeyes take for their BCS bowl record (which is a solid 5-3, including a National Championship), it is the Sooners who have to be embarassed by their paltry 2-5 showing in BCS bowl games, including losing 4 straight (one of them to Boise State). 13. Wisconsin - Another key stumbling block to Buckeye success this year. The Badgers never seem to get any of the hype, but they're always in the thick of things at the end of the year. An impressive bowl victory over Miami has given them momentum going into this season. 14. Florida State - Jimbo Fisher has the Seminoles back on track. Unfortunately, in the coming years, we might have to get used to seeing 3 Florida teams sitting near the top of the rankings. 15. Georgia Tech - Another underappreciated team that always seems to the last one standing among the wreckage that is the ACC over the last several years. 16. Arkansas - Not sold on them yet, but everyone else seems to think the Razorbacks have something to be excited about this year (besides their first time having a Homecoming Queen with all of her teeth). 17. Penn State - Joe Pa just keeps going and going. An impressive first game from his new freshman quarterback turns what looked like a question mark going into the season into an exclamation point going into this weekend's game against the top-ranked Crimson Tide. 18. USC - Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. Same dirty tactics, different theater. Lane Kiffin returns to the place where he learned how to cheat at the feet of the master, and where the student athletes major in creating new and inventive ways to cheat that no one else ever thought of before. 19. Georgia - The Dawgs perennially vie with Oklahoma in competing for the underachievment crown. 20. LSU - Bayou Bengal fans should be a little worried after last week's game. It's not quite time to hit the panic button just yet, but that was one sorry showing in the 2nd half against the 2nd and 3rd team of a basketball school. Les Miles ought to be a LOT worried about keeping his job. Les ain't more anymore. 21. Auburn - The other team in Alabama has sort of dropped off the radar screen of late, having been overshadowed by its powerhouse in-state rival. This won't be the year they step out of the Tide's shadow. 22. South Carolina - A good start to the season; but let's wait to see how the Ol' Ball Coach finishes the season. 23. Michigan - A strong showing against one of the favorites in the Big East, UConn, propels the Wolverines into my top 25. 24. Notre Dame - Okay, I admit this is a reach. We'll see how the Irish do this week against Michigan. 25. North Carolina - How do you drop the Tar Heels out of the top 25 after they almost beat LSU with their 2nd and 3rd team players and their back-up point guard?
Your feedback is, of course, encouraged. Just so long as you realize that any opinion expressed that is contrary to something in my vote talley will be, by definition, wrong.
By the way, I HATE Thursday night as the official kickoff of college football. The official kickoff should be on a Saturday. Save the Thursday games for later on in the year (or at least wait a week).
For a crash course on my views of the near-unimpeachable, quasi-immaculate greatness that is college football, and how to ensure the game achieves the perfection it is so close to attaining, be sure to see this post, among others linked below.
Annual College Football Kickoff Post
At last! That most glorious time of the year is finally upon us.
In addition to the Liturgical Calendar, I generally mark the seasons by which sport just happens to be played at that particular moment. By that measure, the autumnal quarter of the year must easily be judged the grandest of them all by virtue alone of the sumptious bacchanalia of pigskin served up across college campuses (campi?) every Saturday afternoon.
Saturday afternoons in autumn. For more than a century they have stood as the showcase for what has become a true American ritual, a time reserved for one of the most richly colorful, spirited, and vibrantly exciting sports in all the world - college football.
Baseball has its summer, pro football its Sundays and Monday nights, basketball its winters indoors, but tradition and college football's passionate following have indisputably claimed that first day of each autumn weekend.
*** There are few spectacles in the sporting world to match the ceremony of an Army-Navy game, the color of a Rose Bowl pageant, the emotion when a chorus of thousands rings out with the Notre Dame fight song, the splendor of a tailgate party at a Texas-Oklahoma game, the beauty of the USC cheerleaders, or simply the great games that have been played and the extraordinary performances that have been given on college football fields over the years. ~ Richard Whittingham, Introduction to Rites of Autumn
College football has always been something very special, with its heritage, its pageantry, and especially with the intensity of competition found on all levels. It has a spirit to it that lives; it has tradition that is unshakable.
As a boy in Cincinnati I followed college football, especially Ohio State and Notre Dame. I had my heroes: Hopalong Cassady at Ohio State, Johnny Lujack and Johnny Lattner at Notre Dame, Pete Dawkins at Army, Joe Bellino at Navy. I dreamed of playing in college myself, and the dream came true. ~ Roger Staubach, Foreword to Rites of Autumn
And so, as we prepare for this evening's official college football kickoff, followed by this Saturday's fare of fall-flavored football festivities, I wish you and your school(s) of choice the best of luck (especially if your school is Ohio State, Notre Dame, UVA, or Baylor).
The decision by Father Tom Doyle, Notre Dame’s new Vice-President for Student Affairs to fire Bill Kirk from his position as Associate Vice-President for Residence Life has left many of us with an empty feeling. It has also put another dent in Notre Dame’s reputation as a family-friendly and compassionate employer. The decision was both unfair and imprudent. It was unfair, because, as a loyal employee of Notre Dame for almost 22 years—and one who had been placed repeatedly in positions where he took the brunt of public criticism for enforcing policies adopted by his superiors—he deserved better from those superiors than to be removed from office with no notice and with no public explanation for his removal. It was imprudent, because administrators of Bill Kirk’s talent, compassion and principled commitment to the good are rare. He loved Notre Dame and he loved and respected the students whose welfare he vigorously pursued.
In addition, his removal from office took place against the background of other events at Notre Dame that inevitably raised questions about its real motivation...
[...]
The larger role played by Bill Kirk and his family at Notre Dame and in the local community also raises questions about the wisdom—indeed, the fairness—of severing him from this community. Bill’s wife, Elizabeth, has played a very visible role on campus in recent years as the Associate Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. She has also figured prominently in campus affairs as the faculty advisor for the Right to Life Club and the Identity Project. She has been one of a very few articulate and confident pro-life women on campus prepared to mentor young women seeking to take on the tricky balancing act of wife, mother and career. She has increasingly played a role nationally and internationally as a leading pro-life spokesperson and, together with her husband, has forged important links between Notre Dame and other organizations in the community. As official faculty advisor to the Right to Life Club, Elizabeth served as primary advisor to the student coalition formed in the spring of 2009 as “NDResponse” and served as a conduit for many, including junior, untenured faculty members, who were unwilling to get involved directly for fear of reprisal. Without compromising his administrative duties, Bill stood with the students of NDResponse at their rally on the South Quad on Commencement day. He was the only senior administrator at Notre Dame willing to do so. With the firing of Bill Kirk, Notre Dame will almost certainly also be deprived of Elizabeth’s talents.
At the time Bill took part in the NDResponse rally, many people commented on the courage it took for him to stand with his wife and other witnesses to this protest of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary degree. I personally discounted these worries, believing that the Notre Dame administration would admire him for his principled stand on a matter so close to the Catholic heart of Notre Dame, even if they disagreed with his particular action. The administration welcomed President Obama’s sharp dissent from and attack on central Catholic teaching on life. It seemed only reasonable that they would equally welcome dissent from university policy by such a loyal Catholic and member of the Notre Dame family as Bill Kirk—especially when his dissent was made in the name of the Catholic principles at Notre Dame’s heart and in the company of his bishop.
Perhaps, alas, there was reason for Bill Kirk to be worried about his participation in NDResponse after all. There is no doubt that the treatment of Bill Kirk this summer will have a chilling effect on the participation of other administrators, unprotected by the safety net of tenure, in the great debates about public policy and moral principle into which Notre Dame will be inevitably drawn. A number of other administrators have told me that in light of Bill Kirk’s treatment, they will in the future keep their heads down rather than dissent from the policies of the central administration...
... Kirk and his wife Elizabeth are prominent campus abortion foes (she was assistant director of one of the few institutes on campus that is avowedly pro-life and orthodox). Now their voices have been silenced, and by the same people who gnash their teeth and pluck their beards about living wages, unionization, fair treatment of employees, and the rest of the Catholic Left’s lobbying agenda. One can hear the college brass channeling Henry II: Will no one rid us of this troublesome pro-life Associate Vice-President for Residence Life?
On the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 2010, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex corde Ecclesiae. CNS has written an extensive Timeline and Background of Ex corde Ecclesiae to mark the anniversary and shed light on the importance of this historic Church constitution.
“The requirements of Ex corde Ecclesiae are of continuing importance for Catholic colleges and universities in 2010,” said CNS President Patrick J. Reilly. “We are still in the midst of the educational crisis to which Ex corde responded 20 years ago, and we await full implementation of the constitution’s ‘norms’ in the U.S. In order to rediscover the Catholic identity of their colleges and universities, presidents and board members must revisit the vital message of this landmark document.”
Reilly continued, “A new generation of Catholic administrators, professors and students are already reaping the fruit of strong Catholic identity brought about by adherence to Ex corde. Catholic colleges and universities included in our Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College have worked to integrate the principles of Ex corde into every aspect of their institutions.”
“On this anniversary, CNS and its more than 20,000 members continue to pray that more Catholic university leaders will embrace Ex corde Ecclesiae and courageously stand up for Catholic teaching in a world that is so desperately searching for the Truth.”
On August 15, 1990, Pope John Paul II responded to the decades-long crisis in Catholic higher education by issuing the apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae. The document, which has the binding effect of Church law, was the first official Catholic Church document defining the essential relationship between Catholic institutions of higher education and the Church.
Inspired by the message of Ex corde Ecclesiae, Patrick J. Reilly and other recent Catholic college graduates founded The Cardinal Newman Society in 1993 to seek the faithful implementation of the apostolic constitution in the United States.Ex corde Ecclesiae’s guidelines include:
· the requirement for any official action of a Catholic university to be in harmony with its Catholic identity;
· the responsibility of all Catholic university professors and administrators to promote, or at least to respect, the institution’s Catholic identity;
· the need of all professors of Catholic theology to have a “mandate” from the local bishop to teach; and
· the requirement that Catholic professors should be in the majority at a Catholic university.
In 1999, the U.S. bishops approved clear guidelines to implement Ex corde. Since then, it is evident that most of Catholic higher education is still undergoing the crisis that Ex corde was issued to address.
CNS continues to report on the abuses of Catholic identity that take place across the United States every year. Recent examples such as Notre Dame’s bestowal of an honorary doctorate of law upon pro-abortion President Barack Obama, the increasing support for abortion and gay “marriage” among Catholic students, and the fact that nearly one in eight Catholics leave the Church by their graduation from Catholic colleges demonstrate that the “educational emergency,” in Pope Benedict XVI’s words, is still prevalent.
Two years ago, during his visit to the United States of America, Pope Benedict XVI convened a meeting of Catholic college and university presidents in Washington, D.C., where he echoed key themes of Ex corde on the importance of Catholic identity. The Holy Father told the Catholic presidents that the current “crisis of truth” is rooted in a “crisis of faith.”
In 2011, the U.S. bishops are scheduled to conduct a review of the implementation of Ex corde Ecclesiae over the past 10 years since their particular guidelines for American institutions went into effect. Details for this review have not yet been made public.
MATTHEWS: You, you sir, strike me, as I hate to use the word [ED.: No you don't, liar, or else you wouldn't constantly bring it up], as someone who's well-educated. I know you went to UVA Law School [ED.: Join the club]. Is that hurting you? Is - no I'm dead serious about this. Do you get hurt in the Republican Party now for having had a fine education? Do people think, look askance at you and say, "Oh he's an egghead, he's got a good degree from UVA" Is that a problem now, it's better to be a yahoo? Well I mean to be really uneducated like Palin, to really be proud of the fact you don't know anything?
INGLIS: There, there is a sense out there that ignorance is strength. But you know ignorance really is not strength...
My Comments: I, too, went to UVA Law School, and NEVER ... NOT ONCE ... have I EVER been made by Republicans or conservatives to feel like an "egghead" (seriously, we're talking about dime-a-dozen lawyers here, not nuclear physicists) or that I was too "intellectual" with my "fine education" and "good degree from UVA".
My law school classmate, Todd Zywicki, now he's really smart. A highly published law school professor, in fact. Maybe he qualifies as an "egghead" with his "fine education" (he also has an A.B. with high honors from Dartmouth College - but never mind the M.A. he got from that land grant school, Clemson) and "good degree from UVA". But I'd be willing to bet that he has never been made to feel that he is "too smart" by any of the Republicans of his acquaintance.
And what about Laura Ingraham? She was a couple of years ahead of us at UVA Law (and, like Todd, she also has a degree from Dartmouth College). Yeah, those Republicans just can't stand Laura, can they? She's too smart for 'em. They think she's an overeducated egghead, and none of them EVER listen to her radio show or watch her on FOXNews.
Matthews is clearly grasping here, pretending that a UVA Law degree bestows some sort of intellectual superiority. Again, it's a frickin' law degree, not a PhD from MIT. He so wants to show that the conservative movement is anti-intellectual that he tries to paint frickin' Bob Inglis as some sort of heavyweight thinker, who was therefore rejected by the GOP, because he got a law degree from one of the liberal-approved law schools (after all, it's where Chrissy's heroes Bobby and Teddy got their law degrees).
But more than that, Matthews is projecting his own bigotry on those who he is attacking. He's so convinced that anyone who doesn't follow his lead by getting wood for The One MUST be so deficient in their intelligence and in their outright disdain for education that they would reject someone for the mere crime of having a law degree from UVA. The rubes are not only "yahoos", according to Matthews, but they celebrate their uneducated status by throwing overboard anyone with the slightest hint of a higher degree from a "fine" school (yet, somehow, W's degrees from BOTH Yale AND Harvard didn't hurt him among the "yahoos"; those two Ivy League degrees don't seem to measure up in Chrissy's mind to Inglis' law degree from UVA). It's Matthews who is bigoted in his views of those with whom he disagrees, not the other way around. Yet Matthews continues to project on a daily basis, spewing this garbage about conservatives being hostile to education.
And Bob Inglis, still smarting from his throw-the-bums-outa-office asswhooping he took in the South Carolina Primary, glibly plays along, tying to milk his 15 minutes of lefty love now that he has trashed as "racists" the constituents who kicked him to the curb. Thank God the voters of his district voted this petulant jerk an early retirement.
UPDATE (16 July 2010) Chris Matthews couldn't have had worse timing in bringing up a UVA Law degree as evidence of "someone who is well educated".
And it's not like this is Jackson-Lee's first or even most egregious gaffe. Yet Chrissy Matthews would assure us that - on the basis of her Yale and UVA degrees - Jackson-Lee is among the nation's elite, unlike that "yahoo" Sarah Palin.
URBANA, Ill. --The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Catholicism after a student accused the instructor of engaging in hate speech by saying he agrees with the church's teaching that homosexual sex is immoral.
The professor, Ken Howell of Champaign, has taught at the university for nine years. He says his firing violates his academic freedom.
A professor at the university who is also president of the American Association of University Professors agrees. Cary Nelson says teachers are allowed to express their own beliefs.
University spokeswoman Robin Kaler declined comment because Howell's firing is a personnel issue.
The student had a friend register his complaint and has remained anonymous.
My Comments: This should be a slam dunk First Amendment case for an organization like the Thomas More Law Center.
... Commenting on academic freedom and Catholic identity in a 2002 letter, Mr. Garvey wrote:
On several occasions I have heard people express concern that the Catholic identity of Boston College and the Law School will require a certain orthodoxy, or suppress unorthodox opinions, among its faculty and students. No school that regulates ideas can justly call itself a university. Indeed, it is precisely because we are committed to the search for truth in an atmosphere of academic freedom that the Law School can render a useful service to the Church and the cause of justice. It is natural that we should have a particular interest in the intersection of law and religion. (Though this is not our only focus.) But when people address that subject here they do not speak for (or against) the church hierarchy. They follow where their inquiries lead them.
In 2007, Mr. Garvey was criticized by the Cardinal Newman Society when the law school awarded an honorary degree to Rep. Edward J. Markey, an abortion proponent with a 100% 'pro-choice' voting record. “Congressman Ed Markey is one of the most distinguished graduates of Boston College Law School, whose career of public service reflects the very best values and traditions of the School,” said Mr. Garvey. “I don't believe Boston College has ever had a better friend in the United States Congress than Ed Markey.”
In awarding an honorary degree to Rep. Markey, Boston College Law School failed to heed the 2004 US bishops’ document “Catholics in Political Life,” which stated, “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.”
[...]
According to federal election records, Mr. Garvey made three donations to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whose support for abortion led 14 bishops to state during the 2004 presidential campaign that they would deny him Holy Communion. In June 2002, Mr. Garvey donated $250 to the Kerry Committee; in March 2003, he donated $1,000 to John Kerry for President, Inc.; and in April 2004, he donated $500 to John Kerry for President, Inc...
... Vigneron said the university board expects Garvey to continue [former president and newly appointed Bishop of Trenton, N.J., David M.] O'Connell's work to reclaim a Catholic identity for the Northeast Washington campus. O'Connell raised the share of students and faculty who self-identified as Catholics and hosted Pope Benedict XVI in a 2008 visit...
My Comments: I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how that works out.
A convert to the Catholic Church who became Catholic because of a belief in and devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. * A graduate of Baylor University and the University of Virginia School of Law. * Former Mayor of the Town of Columbia, Virginia. * Married with four children: two boys and two girls. * Primary interests include the Catholic Church, family, Early American History, and law/politics * Primary purpose of this blog is fostering enlightened discussion about the roles played by the institutions of religion, family, and state in our daily lives. * Under the protection of St. Thomas More, martyr, and patron of lawyers, judges, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, and large families (not to mention troubled marriages).
O Glorious St. Thomas More, Patron of Statesmen, Politicians, Judges and Lawyers, your life of prayer and penance and your zeal for justice, integrity and firm principle in public and family life led you to the path of martyrdom and sainthood. Intercede for our Statesmen, Politicians, Judges and Lawyers, that they may be courageous and effective in their defense and promotion of the sanctity of human life - the foundation of all other human rights. We ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, keen in study, correct in conclusion, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, trustworthy with confidences, courageous in court. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients' tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.
Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain -- their good servant, and God's first. AMEN.
Dear Scholar and Martyr, it was not the King of England but you who were the true Defender of the Faith. Like Christ unjustly condemned, neither promises nor threats could make you accept a civil ruler as head of the Christian Church.
Perfect in your honesty and love of truth, grant that lawyers and judges may imitate you and achieve true justice for all people. AMEN.
"Give me the Grace Good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee and not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths. To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly company but utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of the business thereof."
"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."
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"What does it avail to know that there is a God, which you not only believe by Faith, but also know by Reason: what does it avail that you know Him if you think little of Him?"
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"The things that we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labour for."
Give me, good Lord, a full faith and a fervent charity, a love of you, good Lord, incomparable above the love of myself; and that I love nothing to your displeasure but everything in an order to you.
Take from me, good Lord, this lukewarm fashion, or rather cold manner of meditation and this dullness in praying to you. And give me warmth, delight and life in thinking about you.
And give me your grace to long for your holy sacraments and specially to rejoice in the presence of your blessed body, sweet Saviour Christ, in the holy sacrament of the altar, and duly to thank you for your gracious coming. AMEN.
"It is necessary to go back to seeing the family as the sanctuary of life... In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life" (Centesimus Annus, #39).
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