Posted on 09/15/2007 4:42:35 AM PDT by monomaniac
By Hilary White
WASHINGTON, September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic University of America (CUA) has invited former presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry to speak on environmentalism and the Iraq war this semester, despite initial opposition by the office of University Center, Student Programs and Events (UCSPE).
The Tower, the campus paper of Catholic University, said the UCSPE had initially objected to Kerry's appearance, saying there is an "unwritten" campus rule banning political candidates during an election year.
Kerry, who still receives Communion regularly, has a 100 per cent pro-abortion voting record according to NARAL Pro-Choice America. During the 2004 presidential debates, Kerry claimed that he was "personally against abortion", but would not "take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith."
CUA is the national university of the Catholic Church and the only institution of higher learning directly founded by the U.S. bishops. The university has a policy that says the school "is not required to provide a forum for advocates whose values are counter to those of the University or the Roman Catholic Church."
The phrase "…is not required" is not quite what the US bishops decided at their meeting in Denver during the last presidential election campaigns in 2004. At that time, John Kerry was the centre of a storm of controversy for his militant abortion advocacy and insistence that this in no way affected his status as a Catholic.
Kerry was notorious for baiting Catholic bishops, receiving Holy Communion in front of the cameras at every opportunity.
The controversy spread with US Catholic bishops taking sides between those who defended the Canon Law requiring the refusal of communion to "notorious public" dissenters and those, like Washington's Cardinal McCarrick, who shied away from taking a strong stand. For the first time, Catholic organisations that would traditionally have supported a Catholic Democrat candidate, urged Americans to re-elect their Protestant Republican president.
Nonetheless, the bishops held a meeting to attempt to hammer out some unified response. The bishops produced a statement after their Denver meeting saying that Catholic institutions "must refuse" to give a venue to Catholic speakers who deny important Church teaching, such as that which defends the right to life.
Mark Arnone, chairman of the College Democrats, who invited Kerry to speak at CUA, defended the decision saying Kerry "expresses remarkable dedication to the doctrine and principles of Catholic social teaching established in Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical 'Rerum Novarum'". Arnone cited Kerry advocacy "for affordable and accessible health care…minimum wage reform" and the environment. John Paul II and Pope Benedict have strongly emphasized that the life issues are of much higher priority than these other issues.
Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, a group dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity in Catholic universities, responded that the situation is "wrong on so many levels". The Tower quotes Reilly saying, "For a Catholic university that accepts Catholic moral teachings as truth to invite or to host an active political candidate who intends to uphold and possibly expand the incidents of abortion in the United States is entirely contrary to its Catholic morals."
The 2004 controversy revealed, to a public glare unprecedented in US Catholic history, the deep rift in the US Church between those who hold fast to the Catholic teachings regarding life and family issues, and those of the so-called "progressive" school popular since the advent of the 1960's sexual revolution.
To express concerns contact the CUA Chancellor:
Archbishop of Washington:
The Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, 301-853-4500
chancery@adw.org
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference Says Pro-Abortion Politicians Should be Shunned http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html
Little boys and John Kerry,
Hey Catholics, where’s the moral leadership.
I’d love to go but I’ll be hunting snipe that day. What’s the date?
This kind of stuff drives me nut’s. Hildabeast also spoke at a Catholic university in Buffalo not long ago. Where is the leadership amoung the Bishops ?
The Pope ought to pick up the phone and straighten these guys out.
If he speaks, think twice before contributing. The Bishop’s need to regain their moral compass.
Pro-Abortion John Kerry to Speak at Catholic University of America ...
didn’t j ‘fn keery get ex-communicated???
At the very least.
Cut off their pension for not following doctrine.
shouldn’t the headline read: pro abortion lurch to speak at pro abortion catholic university?
He hasn’t been excommunicated, but he is married outside the Catholic Church. He never received an annulment of his first marriage. The Archdiocese of Boston claimed that whether Kerry did or did not receive an annulment is “confidential,” which is a bald-faced lie—the whole point of a decree of annulment is to PUBLICIZE the status of a Catholic, precisely for the purpose of avoiding scandal if/when he/she remarries.
I was baptized Catholic but i jettisoned this morally
derelict church long ago.
Why have’nt they excommunicated Kerry ?
Why are the letting him speak at CAU ?
Follow the money trail.
If you think the pope is infallible when speaking on
faith or morals then you are easily duped.
The Catholic church covers up child molestation.
Catholic University
What is that
Catholic Universities along with Catholic U went bye bye years ago
You have a lot of faulty ideas her, but I will select one right now.
**The Catholic church covers up child molestation.**
Yes, just because some priests made mistakes does not mean that the entire Catholic Church is at fault.
Just because some ministers make mistakes and sexually abuse children does not make all Protestant churches speak in error.
Just because some teacher make mistakes and sexually abuse children does not mean that all teachers are bad.
Please stop speaking in these generalities. You are not accurate at all.
Have a blessed day as you think about this.
BTW, you are always welcome to come back to the Catholic Church. You are still a Catholic unless you filled out lots of paperwork and went through a Church court proceeding.
Find a priest that you can sit down and talk with and make an appointment. Then you can go from there.
Christ tells us not to judge, so I am puzzled by your judgments here.
**Why have’nt they excommunicated Kerry ?**
Kerry and other CINOs have excommunicated themselves.
Go to Our Lady’s Warriors and look at the dissent heading, the the speakers. You will see a lot of politician’s names there.
**If you think the pope is infallible when speaking on
faith or morals then you are easily duped.**
Are you even aware of what the Pope has dcreed in dogma? Two things?
Do you know what the latest doctrine really is? Please educate yourself before you speak out in untruth like this.
The black hair dye and nail polish are not intended for human consumption.
It seems they don't make cardinals like that in the US anymore.
Sheesh, just what this forum has been lacking...a Catholic-baiting troll.
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