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 college’s 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 America’s 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 College’s 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 Clinton’s 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 Church’s fundamental teachings.”
According to the Archdiocese of New York, the College’s officials agreed with today’s 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 women’s religious order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. In fact, the College’s 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 College’s honor out of respect for faithful Catholics who are appalled by her stridency on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. If the College’s trustees and officials had a similar degree of dignity, they might have chosen to respect the College’s 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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But it is my understanding that these Catholic colleges are not run by the Church and therefore not owned by the Church.
Now I am very confused. What am I missing?
at this Jebbie school we had Mel Gibson as commencement speaker last year...
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Yes, you are correct, this was in way upstate NY, perhaps Buffalo or Syracuse? V's wife.
Marist is not way upstate. It's pretty close to the city actually.
No I refer to the church in upstate NY where Hillary was allowed to talk and parishoners saying the rosary were given the boot... V's wife.
I have a HUGE problem with this line of reasoning. I believe murderers should be executed as punishment for their heinous crimes, not because society is unable to adequetely incarcerate them. Capital punishment is either right or wrong. The Catholic church seems to say society can only execute people when it can't contain them. Would this logic then allow pro-abortionists to say babies can be aborted when thier mother's can't afford the children? Possibly.
I am fairly certain there have been dungeons since the time of Christ. Since the Catholic Church has approved of the death penalty for 2,000 years, I think JP II was simply wrong when he attempted to "evolve" the church teaching on this subject.
Indeed, in the old days, there were no juries, no DNA testing, and no appeals. The death penalty today is much more just.
Sounds like Catholics are starting to take back their Church. Growing some courage.
He's slated for retirement soon enough.
Was O'Connor really the stand-up gut he get credit for being? Sometimes I wonder if he couldn't have done more.
ELS: do you have any theory about Myers's chances to swim the Hudson?
Good.
I didn't follow events closely while he was Arch. of NY, but I do remember hearing about his statements. At least he did speak up for life, truth, etc. I have only been aware of Egan speaking up once early in his tenure as Arch. of NY and that was in opposition to some odious legislation in Albany.
Do you have any theory about Myers's chances to swim the Hudson?
I really don't have enough information to formulate a theory. I think Myers has had input into the recent episcopal appointments in NJ. I have heard that he really didn't want to be in Newark. IMHO, I think he would be an improvement over Egan.
Maybe the Holy Ghost will raise up a humble, holy and little known man to the See of New York.
I can hardly wait to read your comments to my husband. Absolutely priceless!
HILLARY =
Supporter of our terrorist enemy HO CHI MINH during the Vietnam War against Freedom's survival in South Vietnam
HILLARY =
Supporter of our terrorist enemies in a new time of war with our own Freedom now directly at stake here at home
***Don't forget Hillary Rodham Clinton rode with the anarchist/domestic terrorist Black Panthers' militancy.
Lest we forget: Nixon finalized (backed-out as honourably as possible)the Viet Nam war which started during Eisenhower's presidential administration, continued, in fact, excellerated throughout Dem. JFK's and Dem. Johnson's presidential administrations. I've listened to TOO MANY Democrats falsely attribute the Viet Nam war to Richard Nixon.
bump
I understand from my sister that Cardinal Egan wants to remain in New York "in power" until he is 78. So I've been told to expect a "makeover" for Egan to make him look like Pope Benedict's best ally. There's more, but that's enough for now really. God bless.
It was Buffalo, wasn't it? That's what rings a bell.
Yeah, I think:Buffalo. V's wife.
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