By Matt Archbold / August 30, 2017
Notre Dame hires Obama’s pro-choice chief of staff
The University of Notre Dame has named Denis McDonough, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, as an executive fellow of the Global Policy Initiative in the university’s new Keough School of Global Affairs where he will teach graduate students, The South Bend Tribune reports.
McDonough has called Obama “our most Catholic of presidents,” despite his strident support of abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research, the HHS contraception mandate, and transgender policies.
Before becoming chief of staff, McDonough was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, John Podesta’s infamous leftist lobbying group that was exposed in leaked emails to be attempting to undermine the Catholic Church.
McDonough once wrote a piece arguing against excommunication for pro-abortion politicians, and in another one, he argued that Catholic bishops should not support criminalizing abortion.
Notre Dame’s Fr. Jenkins wants last word on Land O’Lakes
Father John Jenkins, CSC, president of the University of Notre Dame, continues to vigorously defend a document that helped usher in the secularization of Catholic higher education.
Notre Dame will host a panel including Fr. Jenkins and the presidents of Boston College, Fordham University, Trinity Washington University, and the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) to once again consider the history and legacy of the infamous Land O’Lakes statement upon its 50th anniversary.
Not surprisingly, each of those institutions is a prime example of the secularization and scandal in much of Catholic higher education since 1967.
This event, according to Notre Dame’s website, is co-sponsored by the Office of the President and will “consider the statement’s lessons and relevance for today.”
Catholic school strips campus of religious art
Catholics across the country are raising their eyebrows (and now their voices) over a California Catholic school’s decision to remove 162 religious paintings and statues—including one of Mary and Baby Jesus—due to fears that they were “alienating” prospective students.
Parents of prospective students of San Domenico School expressed concern about the artwork, said head of school Cecily Stock, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
“If you walk on the campus and the first thing you confront is three or four statues of St. Dominic or St. Francis, it could be alienating for that other religion, and we didn’t want to further that feeling,” she said. “Over the last few years we’ve had fewer Catholic students as part of the community and a larger number of students of various faith traditions.”
The artworks, according to news reports, were either relocated or donated.
Kimberly Pinkson, director of marketing and communications, summed it up by saying the decision “reflects our commitment to continuing a 167-year tradition of inclusive education.”
Inclusion by excluding Jesus and Mary? Why not just be honest and shed the “Catholic” descriptor entirely?
Shannon Fitzpatrick, whose child attends the school, said in a letter that the move is simply the latest evidence of the school’s de-Catholicization that, in her words, is “afraid and ashamed to celebrate” the Faith.
Americans believe parochial schools are best
A majority of Americans believe that private and parochial schools do a better job than public schools, according to a new survey from Gallup. That’s not surprising, and neither is the divide between Republicans and Democrats who responded to the survey—but it demonstrates how even something like teaching faith to children has become a political football.
The Catholic News Agency reports that about 63 percent of Americans said parochial schools (those supported by a particular church or parish) provide an excellent or good education, according to the poll. In comparison, 44 percent had the same opinion of public schools.
About 71 percent of Republican or self-identified Republican-leaning respondents had a positive view of parochial or church schools, compared to 56 percent of Democrats or Democrat-leaners. Republicans had a lower opinion of public schools than Democrats.
And 46 percent of Americans rated homeschooling as excellent or good, with Republicans or Republican-leaning Americans far more likely to support.
Australian Catholic Church vows to fire teachers in illicit marriages
While the debate about “same-sex marriage” rages Down Under, the Australian Catholic Church has announced that it will fire employees (including teachers) if they legally marry a same-sex partner, according to Australian News.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said the Church has informed its 180,000 employees that they should adhere to Church teaching “totally” and that any public breach of doctrine would be treated “very seriously.”
“I would be very emphatic that our schools, our parishes exist to teach a Catholic view of marriage,” Archbishop Hart said. “Our teachers, our parish employees are expected totally to uphold the Catholic faith and what we believe about marriage.”
Catholic colleges embrace gender ideology
The New Haven Register reports that many colleges across the country are acquiescing to the demands of gender ideology, and it seems some Catholic colleges, including Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University, are falling in line.
“Fairfield University is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive community,” said Jennifer Anderson, the university’s vice president of marketing and communications. That inclusivity includes gender-neutral residences and restrooms to accommodate those who claim a gender different from their sex.
Sacred Heart’s director of communications, Deborah Noack, took it a step further by saying, “We embrace a positive view of [LGBTQ] identities and relationships by producing a safe space where people are free to express who they are without fear of reprisal, and we do our best to fulfill all requests for needed accommodations.”
A “positive view” of inclinations that the Church deems “objectively disordered”?
Sacred Heart, she added, is “extremely inclusive” and allows students to “define, determine and declare who they are.”
By contrast, faithful Catholic schools honor God for determining who we are.
Vatican astronomer talks about need for faith, science
Vatican Observatory Director Fr. Guy Consolmagno, SJ, stopped by a small Kentucky Catholic school on his way to view the solar eclipse a few weeks ago, and he talked about the need for good science and strong faith, according to Crux Now.
“The Vatican Observatory was founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XII to show that the Church supports good science and, to do that, we have to have good science,” he said.
The Jesuit priest called on scientists who are also believers to “come out of the closet.”
“More scientists who are church-goers need to make their science known to their parishioners,” he said. “They should set up their telescopes in the church parking lot, or lead natural trails for youth groups.”
Professor accused of racism for saying ‘all cultures are not equal’
An avalanche of criticism and even accusations of racism have greeted an essay co-authored by a University of San Diego law professor.
The editorial by the University of Pennsylvania’s Amy Wax and USD’s Larry Alexander, which appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, appropriately criticizes America’s embrace of birth control and divorce. That would be enough to stir opposition in a society that is quick to deem traditional morality “offensive.”
But the authors also defend America’s lost “bourgeois culture” for its embrace of “family values” and assert that “all cultures are not equal.” They decry the rise of children being born out of wedlock and immigrants resisting assimilation.
Abovethelaw.com has disparaged the piece as “laughable swill” and a “thinly veiled avatar for white male supremacy.”
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