National polls show that a clear majority of African-Americans are opposed to abortion, as is the Catholic Church. So why would a Catholic institution celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy by presenting a lecture by a pro-abortion leader?
Such is the case at Siena College (NY), which last week presented Dr. Joycelyn Elders as the speaker for its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. & Coretta Scott King Lecture Series on Race and Nonviolent Social Change.
Elders was forced to resign as U.S. Surgeon General after embarrassing President Bill Clinton with her outspoken advocacy of abortion and contraception, publicly calling pro-life Catholics “fetus-lovers”. Elders has endorsed the “abortion pill” RU-486 and laws permitting partial-birth abortion.
On its website promoting the lecture, Siena College touts Elders’ pro-abortion statement during her Senate confirmation hearings in 1993: “And I would like to make every child born in America a wanted child.”
Previous King lecturers at Siena College have included Marian Wright Edelman (1996), whose Children’s Defense Fund is an ally of Planned Parenthood’s efforts to provide contraception and abortion referrals through high school health clinics; Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (1993), then a trustee and now chairman of the John D. & Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation, a leading contributor to radical and anti-Catholic organizations promoting abortion, contraception and population control; and Eleanor Holmes Norton (1989), then an outspoken feminist and Georgetown University (DC) professor who later became the pro-abortion Delegate to Congress for the District of Columbia.
On January 15, Norton was one of the speakers at Georgetown University’s MLK celebration, which included a panel discussion on the voting rights of Washington, D.C. residents. The panel also included Donna Brazile, a dissenting, pro-abortion Catholic and chairman of Al Gore’s failed presidential campaign.
In December, Pope John Paul II demanded that Catholic university administrators “be vigilant in maintaining rectitude and Catholic principles in teaching and research in the heart of their university. It is clear that university centers that do not respect the Church’s laws and the teaching of the Magisterium, especially in bioethics, cannot be defined as Catholic universities.”
Last week, the Vatican reminded Catholic lawmakers that they are morally bound to uphold “the basic right to life from conception to natural death”. Politicians who claim to be “pro-choice” are opposed to Catholic doctrine.
“It is one of the worst violations of human and civil rights in America, that African American women are targeted for abortion by clinics located predominantly in low-income and urban areas, eliminating a disproportionate number of black children each year,” said Patrick Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society, in a press release. “Is this what Catholic colleges — presumably dedicated to the pro-life doctrine of the Church — wish to highlight and celebrate in honor of Dr. King?”
According to the most recent figures from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, African Americans make up about 14 percent of women age 15 to 44 but account for 32 percent of abortions.
“It seems that these Catholic colleges could find better representatives of Dr. King’s vision of peace and nonviolence, especially among the increasing numbers of black Catholics,” Reilly said in the press release.
Indeed, at least 11 Catholic bishops are African-American, including the president of the national bishops’ conference, Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Illinois. Auxiliary Bishop Leonard Olivier helps preside over the Washington, D.C. Archdiocese where Georgetown University is located.
Other Catholic Institutions Honor MLK AND the Unborn
Other Catholic colleges set a good example with MLK events that were respectful of both Catholic teaching and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy:
This week the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts is sponsoring a Week of Remembrance in honor of MLK, including several lectures, a candlelight vigil, and a play.
On Monday, Villanova University in Pennsylvania held a Day of Service to promote student volunteerism in support of low-income and minority families. On Tuesday, Michael Eric Dyson of the University of Pennsylvania lectured on the life of MLK.
This week the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana jointly offered a series of events including the unveiling of an MLK “peace quilt”, a student forum on current events, and a prayer service and Mass in the Notre Dame chapel.
(This article courtesy of the Cardinal Newman Society and the Catholic Higher Education Alert email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.cardinalnewmansociety.org or email info@cardinalnewmansociety.org.)