Catholic Church Disaffiliates New York College Over Abortion Dispute

Lifenews.com ^ | April 29, 2005 | Steven Ertelt

[Mount Athos]

The Catholic Church has disaffiliated itself with a New York college that came under fire when it announced plans to plans to honor pro-abortion Senator Hillary Clinton with an honorary degree next month. She is also scheduled to deliver the commencement address.

The Archdiocese of New York has declared that Marymount Manhattan College is no longer allowed to declare itself a Catholic institution in good standing.

The move comes after the Cardinal Newman Society protested plans for honoring Clinton.

Patrick Reilly, president of the Catholic watchdog group, wrote to New York's Cardinal Edward Egan earlier this month, to point out the problems. Egan determined that the college violated standards set by the church urging educational institutions not to give a platform to abortion advocates.

In an April 14 letter, Eagan had previously warned college officials that their actions "may require the declaration that an institution is no longer Catholic, and we support such action if Marymount Manhattan College obstinately refuses to acknowledge" the church's pro-life teachings.

Officials at the college offered no remarks in response to the decision and have apparently been seeking to loosen ties with the Catholic church for some time.

In a statement, Reilly praised the decision.

"There is tremendous value to clearly and formally identifying wayward Catholic institutions as no longer Catholic, as Cardinal Egan has done so courageously," he said.

"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," Reilly explained.

Still, Reilly said his group would have preferred that MMC honor its Cathodic roots and disinvite Clinton.

Eagan has disaffiliated other colleges in the past.

Marist College, Nazareth College and Saint John Fisher College, have all seen their ties to the church ended because of pro-abortion speakers.

The action reduced the number of Catholic colleges in the United States to 219.

Other Catholic educational institutions that have come under fire include Pennsylvania's Cabrini College, Le Moyne College in New York, Saint Xavier University in Chicago, and Seattle University.

[lawdude]

That's gonna leave a mark!!

[bdeaner]

Excellent!

[vpintheak]

It is a good move, but those lefty morons don't really give a crap. What does religion have to do with what they abide by anyway?

[GSlob]

What (if any) degree of control and influence does the archdiocese have over their endowment? If one is to get them, one is to hit where it really hurts.

[syriacus]

Geraldine Ferraro fondly remembering
her time at Marymount Manhattan.

Reception in Honor of Geraldine Ferraro '56

On Wednesday, October 13, 2004 a gathering of Geraldine Ferraro's classmates from the class of 1956, faculty, staff, students and local elected officials came together in MMC's Regina Peruggi Room to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her historic election campaign. A highlight of the evening was the presentation by President Shaver of a leatherbound index of her archives to Ms. Ferraro.

[dimmer-rats stealvotes]

One small step for the Catholic Church; one huge step for mankind!

[speedy]

Wonderful news, and thank you Cardinal Egan for sticking it to the phoney pro-abortionist CINOs. Time for Mario Cuomo to write another bawling op-ed piece.

[iowamark]

It is too bad the Church didn't or couldn't take stronger action before the leftists took over.

[narses]

AMDG Ping!

[ntnychik]

I'm surrounded by Nazareth, St. John Fisher, and LeMoyne. I haven't heard any publicity on this issue, but WOOOHOOOOOO for the Catholic Church for sticking to its principles.

[potlatch]

This is good news. I remember reading the original article about Hillary speaking at the commencement and receiving an honorary award. Sounds like they mean business as they've dropped 3 so far.

[The Red Zone]

Was Hillary! going to talk about abortion there?

It would seem to me that if the RCC wants Catholic institutions to remain simon-pure, they shouldn't have non Catholics or lapsed Catholics speaking there. Isn't Hillary! a Baptist (or, "Baptist") like the Sinkmeister?

[Windcatcher]

The lefties will care when the implications sink in. As someone else posted on another thread about this, HRC (and, by extension, many other closet Marxists) is now radioactive to all other Catholic universities. Rome is starting to play their card, stripping yet more of the Catholic vote from U.S. Marxists.

Now they need to act regarding Latin America. It's getting bad down there.

[devolve]

MARYMOUNT  COLLEGE

              

[Know your rights]

It is too bad the Church didn't or couldn't take stronger action before the leftists took over.

Yes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But it's too late now to act any sooner ... and this is a bolder move than I expected to see from any bishop for a few more years.

[Cicero]

It's a good move.

If necessary, they will have to take Marymount to court and sue them to remove references claiming that they are Catholic from their literature.

It will be an interesting point of law to see if the archdiocese can persuade a New York judge that some weasel worded claim like being "in the Catholic tradition" is still permissable.

A lot of parents may already know that Marymount is liberal and not care about this condemnation. But at least some parents want their kids to have a Catholic education, so they will probably lose some applicants over this dispute.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Another one bites the dust. Of all the things one could get kicked out of the church for...Hillary Clinton and promoting the killing of babies? A line about the "banality of evil" reaches out to me through the chalk mist of many classrooms past...

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Yo, Geraldine! Estrogen shots, baby! Estrogen shots! INCREASE the dosage!

[HitmanLV]

Gerry Ferraro must have fond memories of graduating in 1856! ;-)