Catholic University in Belgium Sacks Lecturer Who Called Abortion the Murder of an Innocent Person

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That’s awful! A lot of surprising things are happening at Catholic universities these days.
 
From the article:

"A visiting lecturer at Belgium’s Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) has been dismissed after arguing that abortion was murder in his philosophy class for first-year students and saying it could be “worse than rape”.

The comments by Stéphane Mercier created an uproar at the university, the francophone twin of the Flemish-language Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), after a feminist group complained he was presenting his personal opinions in the class.

A UCL statement said his courses were suspended because “the serenity required for teaching was not assured”. It said its inquiry had led to disciplinary measures against Mercier but did not disclose the details."

thetablet.co.uk/news/6971/0/catholic-university-in-belgium-sacks-lecturer-who-called-abortion-murder
 
mdgspencer said:
see thetablet.co.uk/news/6971/0/catholic-university-in-belgium-sacks-lecturer-who-called-abortion-murder
In the face of complaints he called abortion murder, this Catholic-university, rather than defending him, had suspended him. Now, the university has fired him.
In its statement, the famous traditionally Catholic university in Belgium stressed that abortion was legal in Belgium since 1990 and it respected women’s autonomy to opt for it.
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The people who support abortion, if they claim to be Catholic, must be denied communion. And for this to happen at a Catholic University no less. Appalling. They should at least have the honesty to remove the word ‘Catholic’ from their name. :mad:

“For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world” 😦
 
These surely seem to be the ‘last days’ with all the errors in even Catholic teaching. :eek:
 
mdgspencer said:
In the face of complaints he called abortion murder, this Catholic-university, rather than defending him, had suspended him. Now, the university has fired him…
…In its statement, the famous traditionally Catholic university in Belgium stressed that abortion was legal in Belgium since 1990 and it respected women’s autonomy to opt for it.
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And the bishops didn’t defend him. 😦
 
Fiasco said:
And the bishops didn’t defend him. 😦
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I suspect the context in which the man expressed these views is what got him in trouble, not the views themselves. Was he teaching a class on catholic moral theology? No.

I don’t think we have sufficient information to declare the university mistaken in its actions. There is no basis to construe those actions as a rejection of the man’s beliefs, but rather of his actions (viewed in context).
 
Rau said:
I suspect the context in which the man expressed these views is what got him in trouble, not the views themselves. Was he teaching a class on catholic moral theology? No.

I don’t think we have sufficient information to declare the university mistaken in its actions. There is no basis to construe those actions as a rejection of the man’s beliefs, but rather of his actions (viewed in context).
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Perhaps a fair point. However, I’m struggling to imagine a context in which a concept as fundamental to the Catholic faith as the inherent value of an image-bearer of God, from conception to natural death, would be off limits.
 
Exsanguin8 said:
Perhaps a fair point. However, I’m struggling to imagine a context in which a concept as fundamental to the Catholic faith as the inherent value of an image-bearer of God, from conception to natural death, would be off limits.
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I’m not struggling with that at all. The topic is not off-limits - but the behaviour in the relevant context may well be. Presumably, the Philosophy course was not teaching or debating tenets of the Catholic Faith.
 
Rau said:
I’m not struggling with that at all. The topic is not off-limits - but the behaviour in the relevant context may well be. Presumably, the Philosophy course was not teaching or debating tenets of the Catholic Faith.
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To randomly insert the abortion issue into a discussion that has nothing to do with it would be a little weird.
 
Exsanguin8 said:
To randomly insert the abortion issue into a discussion that has nothing to do with it would be a little weird.
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Since this was a Philosophy Class, one would think that such topics would come up. Venerable ++Archbishop Sheen was a Dr. of Philosophy, and spoke often and at length of the modernist bent within philosophy and of the damage done by the enlightenment philosophers to Catholic morality. This Lecturer seems to merely have taken a firm stand on the perennial teachings of the Church for which he was rewarded by being sacked by the “go along to get along” crowd. unfortunately typical of many 'c’atholic centers for higher learning today.
 
Pulvis said:
Since this was a Philosophy Class, one would think that such topics would come up. Venerable ++Archbishop Sheen was a Dr. of Philosophy, and spoke often and at length of the modernist bent within philosophy and of the damage done by the enlightenment philosophers to Catholic morality. This Lecturer seems to merely have taken a firm stand on the perennial teachings of the Church for which he was rewarded by being sacked by the “go along to get along” crowd. unfortunately typical of many 'c’atholic centers for higher learning today.
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I think the salient point here is that the world will always be the world. The problem is the Church, in the aggregate (boots-on-the-ground), refusing to be the Church. Nature abhors a vacuum, even more so spiritual ones. Catholicism and Western Christendom (again, boots-on-the-ground) as a whole are getting good at creating spiritual vacuums.
 
Where is the voice from the Church hierarchy–from the local diocese and from Rome? In recent years, wasting no time, we have heard sharp rebukes and criticisms from just about everything regarding social justice issues.

But when it comes to defending the lives of the unborn, where is the outrage??? A lecturer at a Catholic institution was fired for speaking against abortion–an evil act that merits automatic excommunication in the Church… Have the doctrines and teachings of Christ been muted to accommodate the desires of the world? Of all the talks about deferring to appropriate authority in the Church hierarchy to make appropriate decisions, where are these people???
 
Randolph said:
…A lecturer at a Catholic institution was fired for speaking against abortion–an evil act that merits automatic excommunication in the Church…
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Where I live, Catholic universities are not just for Catholics nor is adherence to the Catholic faith an expectation or requirement for students. It is not a seminary or anything vaguely resembling that.

We don’t know the full context of this particular man’s actions. It is not sufficient to recognize he spoke the truth we Catholics believe and thus conclude he’s done no wrong. Is it ok to hop up on the soap box and “lecture” on moral ills and present catholic doctrines in the midst of that particular class, should the lecturer feel so inclined?

I took a “philosophy of religion” course once. Had the lecturer exhorted us all to see “the light”, to recognize the “truth of the one true church” - he would also be quite out of line.

I don’t say the university was right to fire him. But it is wrong to conclude (given limited information) that the university erred.
 
Be it as it may, I am also very aware of the fact that many students attending Catholic universities throughout the world are not themselves Catholics. If the lecturer was truly fired for other legitimate reasons, no one would have a problem with that. But if the really story bares true as reported in the article that this lecturer was fired for simply speaking out against abortion (which by the way is a legitimate position to take in a philosophy course), then it is an outrage…
 
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