Catholic University to Honor Justice Breyer Who Wrote Majority Opinion Supporting Partial-Birth Abortion
NEW YORK, September 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a brash move defying the U.S Bishops' speakers policy, Fordham University's Stein Center for Law and Ethics announced that pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer is the 2008 recipient of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize. Breyer infamously wrote the majority opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down state laws banning the practice of partial-birth abortion.
The Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize is scheduled to be bestowed upon Justice Breyer at a dinner in New York on October 29, 2008.
Three weeks ago The Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick J. Reilly wrote to inform Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., President of Fordham University, of Justice Breyer's record. Reilly urged him to rescind the offer of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize to Breyer. No response was given.
"This amounts to nothing less than Fordham University thumbing its nose at the US Bishops, whose opposition to such honors is clear," said Reilly.
Earlier this year The Cardinal Newman Society led a coalition of prominent Catholic organizations and released a statement in support of the US Bishops' speakers policy. In the 2004 statement, "Catholics in Political Life," the Bishops stated: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
In the 2000 decision Stenberg v. Carhart, Supreme Court Justice Breyer wrote in the majority opinion: "This Court, in the course of a generation, has determined and then redetermined that the Constitution offers basic protection to the woman's right to choose."
In contrast, New York Archbishop, Edward Cardinal Egan recently lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for defending the so-called "right to choose." Egan said: "Anyone who dares to defend that they [children in the womb] may be legitimately killed because another human being 'chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in his dissenting opinion in Stenberg, wrote: "I am optimistic enough to believe that, one day, Stenberg v. Carhart will be assigned its rightful place in the history of this Court's jurisprudence beside Korematsu and Dred Scott. The method of killing a human child . . . proscribed by this statute is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion."
"The choice by Fordham University of Justice Breyer to receive this prestigious award," said Patrick Reilly, "is a far cry from an award established to recognize the 'positive contributions of the legal profession to American society.' Justice Breyer did not act objectively in Stenberg, but rather overstepped his authority and legislated from the bench."
"If Fordham truly aspires to follow its own mission statement and be 'Guided by its Catholic and Jesuit traditions,' then it must rescind the offer of this award to Justice Breyer," said Reilly.
Contact:
Edward Cardinal Egan of New York
1011 First Ave
New York,
NY 10022
Phone: 212-371-1000
and
Fordham University
Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President/Chief Academic Officer
svpcao@fordham.edu
718.817.3040 (p)
718.817.3050 (f)
Link (here)
Link to GJBJ previous post (here)
2 comments:
Fordham seems to be going out of its way to honor those who dishonor the Catholic Church. The Cardinal Newman Society website has two relevant news items:
1. Fordham Highlights Award Given to Feminist Theologian Johnson
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CardinalNewmanSociety/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/488/ItemID/220/Default.aspx
(9/12/08) Johnson: "I would not be at all adverse if we simply dropped the word Trinity altogether."
The front page of Fordham University’s website promotes an article entitled “Theology Professor's Book Awarded First Place by Press Association.” The professor, Fordham Theology Department’s Elizabeth Johnson, received the award from the Catholic Press Association for her most recent book Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God. Johnson stated in a recent interview: “I would not be at all adverse if we simply dropped the word Trinity altogether.” She characterizes the Catholic dogma of the Trinity as distant and unapproachable, preferring instead her concept of “triune God.” Johnson’s 1992 work She Who Is argues for a feminist interpretation of God. Source: Fordham.edu and National Catholic Reporter
2. Fordham University Honoring Congressman with 100% NARAL Rating
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CardinalNewmanSociety/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/488/ItemID/219/Default.aspx
(9/12/08) Says it will take "enormous courage" to "face down powerful opponents of choice"
The Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., President of Fordham University, and The Fordham Club of Washington, D.C., are inviting alumni to attend an annual dinner honoring Congressman John Lewis of Georgia “for his distinguished public service to the nation” on September 18. Lewis, who has received a 100% pro-choice rating from NARAL, compared the civil rights battles for racial equality with the fight to keep abortion legal. “It took tremendous courage for the heroes of yesterday’s civil rights battles to stand on the front lines of the struggle for full citizenship for blacks. It will take enormous courage for America’s pro-choice majority to face down powerful opponents of choice at the clinics and in the state houses, the Congress and the White House. But we can afford to do no less.”
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for your thoughts and insights. You point out the inherent problem when people have good intentions but bad outcomes. Many Jesuits have by their own admission have partnered themselves with the political left. When you mix Liberation Theology and Democrat politics you get something called Jesuicrats. The Society of Jesus in America needs to detoxify itself of Democrat alignment. Why can not the Society advocate "Good Government" instead of Pelosi/Kennedy style politics? Or at the very least integrate evenly with both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party?
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