Here is the official statement regarding this controversy from the president of the University of Scranton:
I see a different picture emerge when that section of the statement quoted above is examined piece by piece :
… Speakers for this University event are experts chosen to provide women with information about the challenges of politics; they are not chosen to engage in a discussion of abortion
- Ms. Margolies’ very presence speaks of abortion. If that were not true , Bishop Bambera would feel no obligation to point it out … Students are impressionable - they are there to learn. You would pretend that students could somehow remain totally aloof to a subject which she has been so politically outspoken on ?.. Or even better : You would presume that all of the students and that Ms. Margolies herself are willing to pretend together that
she isn’t in favour of abortion while she speaks there ? -
uch:
By inviting these speakers to campus, the University is not endorsing their personal views.
- It is doubtful whether a subject which someone in the public eye has been so politically outspoken on, can be construed as solely her personal view any more . She is a representative - conveying to everyone that abortion is the correct view ; and that it should be their view too. But in actually , abortion is a politically polarizing moral disaster - a failure - one which she endorses , and one which you, by inviting her to speak, tacitly condone - whether inadvertently or not. The students are being taught to *run for politics *- you think they can’t put 2 and 2 together ?
- His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI said : LINK
“It is necessary to help all people to be aware that the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion, which attacks human life at its beginning, is also an aggression against society itself.” . By inviting Ms. Margolies, as a teaching body,you impede your students from developing a sense of conviction.
As Catholic and Jesuit, the University treasures its relationship with the Diocese of Scranton and with Bishop Bambera.
- “Catholic” ?..
Well, possibly in your own minds. “Treasuring” the “relationship” with Bishop Bambera + ignoring his plea = lip service .
We are saddened that any action on our part might in some way compromise this relationship.
- Yet it would appear, not “saddened” enough to correct your error . The more crucial point is that you may well be “compromising” the souls of your students - deforming their consciences for the future. That is where Most Reverend Joseph C. Bamberra’s interest as a pastor is focused.
This is especially true given that we, like Bishop Bambera, strongly oppose the pro-abortion views of Ms. Margolies
.
- What is “especially true” is that, unlike Bishop Bambera, you do not strongly oppose Ms. Margolies’ pro abortion views in any tangible way : He requested you withdraw Ms. Margolies’ invitation to speak . You disregard his request. He asked that you oppose strongly by action, and you have answered with indifference and inaction. Over forty million innocent children slain in their mothers’ wombs annually , and you cannot see the wisdom in *not having * a proponent of this slaughter speak at your (ahem) “Catholic” university ? What would you answer if one day all these little ones who have been slain in their mothers’ wombs were to ask why you didn’t heed the Bishop’s valid request ?
What Pope John Paul II said in his
ADDRESS TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE (Feb. 22,2002) is particularly poignant : He warned us against the
“…grave danger that the false interpretation of human rights poses in not taking into account the reality of human nature,
which can drive democratic regimes to transform themselves into totalitarian regimes.”
“The distinction sometimes made in certain official documents between a human being and a human person to then apply the right to life and physical integrity only to people who are already born is an artificial distinction without scientific or philosophical foundation,” he said. “Every human being, from his conception to his natural death, has the inviolable right to life and deserves all respect due to the human person.”
That is *abortion and politics *summed up by one of the most profound Catholics of our time. And another profound one, Pope Benedict XVI , called abortion , “an aggression against society itself.”
No way whatsoever :dts: that Ms. Margolies should be invited to speak at the University of Scranton.
There are still 9 days left before January 28 … not too late yet to phone her and cancel.
