Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Cardinal Newman Society, Jesuit Institutions And Pro-Life Yahoo's

The Cardinal Newman Society compiled the following list of Catholic colleges and universities whose commencement speakers have publicly opposed or acted contrary to Catholic values on fundamental teachings. Link (here) to the full press release and list.
These are Jesuit institutions on that list.

Boston College (Mass.)

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric (GE), will be the commencement speaker and honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree recipient at Boston College’s commencement ceremony on May 24.  GE has an official company policy permitting experimenting on embryonic stem cells and last year launched a partnership with Geron Corp. to sell products derived from embryonic stem cells. 


Boston College Law School has invited U.S. Senator Scott Brown to address its May 28 commencement ceremony.  While running for office in 2002 in Massachusetts, Brown made public his position in support of legalized abortion with some restrictions.

College of the Holy Cross (Mass.)

Mark Shriver will be the commencement speaker and receive an honorary degree at the College of the Holy Cross on May 28.  Shriver is currently Vice President and managing director of Save the Children.  While a 2002 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland, Shriver stated in a Washington Post interview, “Women's issues are critically important and I will continue to fight for a women's right to choose; family planning funds; maternal and child health funding and education for girls both here and abroad.”

Georgetown University (D.C.)

Baroness Brenda Hale will be the commencement speaker at Georgetown University Law Center on May 23.  In 2004, Hale became the first woman to serve in the British House of Lords as a “Lord of Appeal in Ordinary,” the equivalent of a U.K. supreme court justice.  Hale has argued for gay civil partnerships and no-fault divorces” (The Guardian) and supports gay adoption as well as better rights for “cohabitees”The Independent reported in 2003 that Hale stated: “My present view is that there is a strong case for introducing a legal commitment between people who are unable to marry, principally gay and lesbian partners.”

Loyola Marymount University (Calif.)

The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, was the commencement speaker at Loyola Marymount University on May 8.  Prior to serving as governor, Patrick was assistant attorney general for the civil rights division during Bill Clinton’s presidency.  Patrick’s campaign website boasts that that he "helped lead the fight to keep discrimination out of the Massachusetts constitution and preserved the right of same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts."


Marlene Canter was the graduate commencement speaker for Loyola Marymount University on May 9.  She is a former member of the L.A. Unified School District board.  According to LifeSiteNews, Canter has called the legalization of same-sex marriage an "issue of simple fairness and basic human rights."  The same article reports that Canter has opposed a parental notification abortion law.

Loyola University Chicago (Ill.)

Clarence Page will be the commencement speaker for the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago on May 14.  Page is a syndicated columnist and a senior member of The Chicago Tribune editorial board.  He has written that people who want to ban abortion are “yahoos”.  As a guest on the MSNBC program Hardball last year, Page described proposed pro-life language to the healthcare bill as “worse… because this is declaring that even a woman can’t use her own money to pay for an insurance plan that also covers abortion.”  He has stated, “I stand firmly on the pro-Roe side of the abortion debate.”  Page also supports same-sex “marriage” as evidenced by his editorial “In defense of same-sex marriage”.

University of San Francisco (Calif.)

On May 22, the University of San Francisco will host as commencement speaker Dale Minami, who will also receive an honorary degree.  A supporter of same-sex “marriage,” Minami is lead partner at Minami Tamaki LLP, which in December 2007 sponsored a fundraiser and donated funds to Asian Pacific Islander Equality, a group that advocates for same-sex “marriage.”

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