Posted on 05/09/2003 10:45:21 AM PDT by pseudo-justin
NEW YORK ARCHDIOCESE SAYS MARIST COLLEGE 'NO LONGER CATHOLIC'
The Archdiocese of New York has responded to Cardinal Newman Society’s protest of Marist College’s commencement speaker by declaring the college “is no longer a Catholic institution” and therefore not under the Church’s jurisdiction.
It is the first 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 founded in 1946 by the Catholic order of Marist Brothers and established an independent board of trustees in 1969—an action taken by most religious colleges in New York in the late 1960s to ensure state and federal aid. Recently, college officials have claimed the college is no longer Catholic, and its promotional materials and website claim it is an “independent, liberal arts college.”
Nevertheless, the college’s status remained unclear, partly because college officials have been careful not to put too much distance between the college and the Catholic Church. College materials still promote its “ineradicable Judeo-Christian roots” and “Marist spirit and heritage.” The college retains a few Marist brothers on the faculty and staff, offers a Catholic Studies minor and sponsors lectures by prominent Catholics—recently Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., spoke on Catholicism in the modern world, and Catholic peace activist Tom Cornell discussed the morality of war. Several sources identify the college as Catholic, including the Official Catholic Directory, which requires the Archdiocese of New York to approve local listings; the websites of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, the National Catholic College Admission Association and the Diocese of Brooklyn; and Catholic college directories compiled by Paulist Press and CollegeProfiles.com.
The confusion ended with a letter dated May 2 and signed by Joseph Zwilling, Communications Director of the Archdiocese of New York, who on behalf of Cardinal Edward Egan confirmed that “Marist College is no longer a Catholic institution”—a statement that was repeated later this week to the Poughkeepsie Journal. Zwilling said Marist College will not be included in future editions of the Official Catholic Directory.
“The president of Marist College, Dr. Dennis Murray, has assured us that Marist College is truly independent, and does not identify itself as a Catholic college in any way,” wrote Zwilling in his letter to Patrick Reilly, president of Cardinal Newman Society.
Zwilling was responding to Reilly’s letter dated April 30, in which he asked Cardinal Egan to make a public statement opposing the college’s selection of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to give this year’s commencement address on May 17. Spitzer is a public advocate of abortion rights who recently harassed 34 pro-life pregnancy centers in New York, issuing subpoenas based on abortion advocates’ claims that the centers were unlicensed and deceptive, and established a special unit to “promote access to reproductive health.”
PAUL HARVEY CANCELS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT QUINCY UNIVERSITY
In response to a protest led by Cardinal Newman Society, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey has canceled his planned commencement address on May 18 at Quincy University in Illinois.
“Mr. Harvey has chosen willingly to withdraw from our invitation to be the Commencement Speaker lest he cause embarrassment to us and to himself, even though I pleaded with him to come and speak,” wrote Quincy University president Rev. Mario DiCicco, O.F.M., yesterday in response to the Cardinal Newman Society protest. This contradicts a Quincy University press release dated May 7, in which DiCicco claimed that Harvey had canceled his address “due to personal reasons, which he did not elaborate on.”
DiCicco alleged in his May 8 letter that “Harvey is quite opposed to abortion,” although his public statements indicate that he advocates abortion rights: “I think that that choice should be left to a woman and her God and her doctor, and Paul Harvey ought to stay out of it altogether, out of it, and the government ought to stay out of it altogether. It’s none of our business” (Washington Post, July 7, 1995).
“If Paul Harvey’s views have changed, consistent with Catholic teaching on abortion and the law, then Cardinal Newman Society will drop our protest immediately,” said Patrick Reilly, president of Cardinal Newman Society. “But fawning over abortion-rights advocates is not what Catholics expect from Catholic institutions. Paul Harvey may have an impressive broadcasting career, but his public advocacy of abortion rights directly contradicts Catholic teaching and is not something that we should encourage Catholic college students to emulate.”
The Cardinal Newman Society protest is part of its annual survey of commencement speakers and honorees whose public actions and statements are opposed to Catholic teaching. The Society has teamed up with the American Life League (www.all.org), which is also protesting pro-abortion commencement speakers as part of its “Crusade for the Defense of our Catholic Church.” The full list of 16 colleges under protest this year, as well as 14 colleges praised for their choices of commencement speakers and honorees, is posted at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.
“When will our college leaders realize that there are thousands of upstanding, admirable people out there who deserve these honors?” Reilly asked.
Sad but good. Apparently necessary.
I think I wish more so-called Catholic colleges were as honest as Marist so that kids who graduate from a supposedly Catholic college and think that what they've learned is Catholicism, will no longer have that illusion.
So, in other words, everyone agrees and moves on. I don't see much happening here. I would rather see Eagan (and others) publicly acknowledge all of the colleges in their diocese that they feel support and nurture true Catholic moral and theological teachings. It seems to me that we should expect our bishops to take the high ground.
Instead of telling Daschle he can't call himself Catholic, why not actively promote those in government who represent true Catholic positions? Instead of revoking the Catholicity from a college, why not promote those colleges that truly express their Catholicity?
Wouldn't it be better for our bishops to tell us where to go toward rather than what to avoid?
How many other "catholic" colleges have parted company with the church? As Colleen points out, it is better to clarify this before handing over one's life savings for a 'catholic education'.
Instead of telling Daschle he can't call himself Catholic, why not actively promote those in government who represent true Catholic positions? Instead of revoking the Catholicity from a college, why not promote those colleges that truly express their Catholicity?
Wouldn't it be better for our bishops to tell us where to go toward rather than what to avoid?
In these times, it would greatly depend on the bishop. Many modernist bishops don't say anything at all, sometimes they even encourage such nonsense to go on under their noses.
From what I read earlier regarding this matter, it sounded like Marist College was going to stop identifying itself as a Catholic college anyway.
I couldn't even figure out how to answer your question. But I do know one thing. We definitely need to set up a political party which advances those things the (pre-conciliar) Church approves of. For example, total ban on abortion and divorce. Then, no one would have an excuse for not voting for the right candidate.
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