So why are College employees telling protesters that the College is not Catholic and has not been since the 1960s? Possibly because the employees are confused, but probably also because they want our protest to stop.
TELL THEM YOU WON’T STOP PROTESTING UNTIL THE COLLEGE DROPS ITS OFFICIAL STATUS AS CATHOLIC OR CANCELS HILLARY CLINTON’S ADDRESS AND HONORARY DEGREE – AND THE LATTER WOULD BE MORE RESPECTFUL TO THE NUNS WHO FOUNDED THE COLLEGE, THE CATHOLICS WHO FUNDED THE COLLEGE FOR DECADES, AND THE CATHOLICS WHO ATTENDED AND CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE COLLEGE!
Here is the history of Marymount Manhattan College in a nutshell: It was originally a downtown branch of Marymount College of Tarrytown, New York, which was founded in 1907 by a women’s order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. In 1961, Marymount Manhattan College became legally
“independent” from its Tarrytown parent and from its founding religious order. Indeed, in the 1960s and 1970s, every Catholic college in the State of New York took similar action to become legally independent of the Church – but this in no way signaled the colleges’ secularization, even if the colleges did slowly secularize in the decades that followed. The legal changes were primarily a response to discriminatory New York State
laws that significantly restrict state funding for institutions deemed to have a primarily religious function. This led schools like Fordham University to remove crucifixes from classroom walls and separately incorporate their founding religious communities, all the while holding on to some sort of Catholic identity.
When Marymount Manhattan College’s trustees and officials decided to abandon the College’s Catholic mission is unclear, but the College has thoroughly secularized. It is likely soon to be declared officially non-Catholic by the Archdiocese of New York – the right decision if the College has no intention of being Catholic, but NOT a happy development if one respects the College’s founders and those Catholics who built the institution over many decades. Marymount Manhattan College’s current trustees and officials are traitors to the Church and to their own institution’s founding mission.
We hope this clarifies an understandably confusing situation. Please remember that this confusion – and the hypocrisy of colleges that want to appear both Catholic and non-Catholic, depending on the audience – are exactly the reason Cardinal Newman Society exists. When our protest results in the resolution of one more college’s Catholic identity, as we feel confident it will, please remember Cardinal Newman Society with a special prayer and, if possible, a very special donation (see
www.cardinalnewmansociety.org for contact information). Most importantly, thank God for yet another sign of the new springtime of the Church, proclaimed by Pope John Paul II and sure to happen under Pope Benedict XVI!
