Twice in as many weeks, Bishop John M. D'Arcy has exercised his episcopal authority to prohibit pro-abortion speakers at educational institutions in his diocese. The University of St. Francis withdrew an invitation to pro-abortion doctor and media commentator Dr. Nancy Snyderman when the bishop objected to her presence.
The diocese issued a statement to the effect that pro-abortion speakers, even those as important as the governor of the state, are not welcome to speak to students at St. Joseph Catholic High School. In this instance, the members of the department of theology of Saint Joseph High School alerted the bishop to the fact that the school's administration had invited Governor Joseph Kernan, an alumnus of the school, to speak at this year's commencement. Unlike the university, the high school is directly under the jurisdiction of the diocese and the bishop has instructed the school to withdraw the invitation.
Kernan, Indiana's first Catholic governor, has been criticized by pro-life groups such as LifeDynamics for his pro-abortion position. Kernan is currently facing an election race against a strong pro-life candidate, Eric Miller, and was contacted by Bishop D'Arcy about his views on abortion. The bishop wrote, “Governor Kernan in conversation with me some years ago, as well as in recent press accounts, made clear his convictions about unborn life. Unfortunately, these convictions are not reflected in public policy regarding the legal protection of the unborn.”
Said Bishop D'Arcy, “A bishop is bound to speak the truth in his actions as well as in his words. Saint Joseph High School is a Catholic school and stands for the truths of the Church. We expect our students and ourselves to apply the truths of our faith to the decisions of daily life.”
See also:
Bishop of Fort Wayne Refuses Honorary Degree Because of Pro-Abortion Speaker
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
Commencement Speaker Reacts to Cancellation
Former ABC News medical reporter Nancy Snyderman has complained that University of St. Francis officials were too hasty to cancel her commencement address last week due to her pro-abortion stance. Acting upon concerns raised by Bishop John D'Arcy about remarks Snyderman made on ABC's Good Morning America on October 30, 1997, the University of St. Francis withdrew its invitation to Snyderman just four days before its commencement ceremony.
However, in media interviews Snyderman claimed she only reports on medical issues objectively, and D'Arcy and the university had no inkling of her personal views.
“To assume you know what someone thinks or stands for is very dangerous,” Snyderman said. A Fort Wayne Journal Gazette editorial said the University of St. Francis acted “shamefully and based on questioned reasoning” in response to “neutral words on a long-ago newscast.” Other news articles seemed to accept Snyderman's claim that she had only reported objectively from a scientific point of view.
However, the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic group which keeps tabs on Catholic universities maintaining faithfulness to the Catholic faith, acquired a transcript of the ABC News broadcast in question which clearly confirms the concerns of the University.
“Snyderman is playing innocent while trying to embarrass the University of St. Francis and Bishop D'Arcy,” said Cardinal Newman Society president Patrick J. Reilly. “But her reporting on national television was clearly biased in favor of 'selective abortion' to kill off a few of the McCaughey septuplets. How can a Catholic institution ignore that?”
In fact, the ABC News transcript of Snyderman's 1997 report, obtained by the Cardinal Newman Society, reveals Snyderman's opinionated exchange with Good Morning America host Charles Gibson about the news that Bobbi McCaughey of Des Moines, Iowa, was expecting seven children.
Asked by Gibson about the septuplets' chances of survival, Snyderman replied that technology is improving: “But I think it's really high time that we look at survivability with quality of life…. [T]he risk for neurological complications, heart complications, severe learning [sic] and mental retardation, those stakes climb higher and higher. And at least for a mother and a doctor, I think the tradeoff is many times not worth it. Now, I know it's an unsavory thought for a lot of people, but selective abortion, where you literally think about not which fetuses to get rid of but how many to get rid of, is something that we really need to talk about openly in situations like this.”
See also:
National Study Reveals Pro-Abortion Related Activity at US Catholic Colleges Since 1999
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
