PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, April 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Undeterred by the Notre Dame scandal, another Catholic University has invited a pro-abortion celebrity to address the school and receive an honorary degree at this year’s graduation ceremony.
St Joseph’s University of Philadelphia announced in March that political commentator Chris Matthews, a vocal proponent of abortion, is due to offer the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate in communications at the 2009 Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 16.
Despite his avowed identity as a Roman Catholic, Matthews is known for his strong support of legalized abortion.
Matthews recently sparked criticism on the March 2 edition of his program, MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” for a statement comparing pro-life advocates to terrorists.[reference]
Well if the most prominent Catholic university in the U.S. can bring in the most radically pro-abortion President – then big deal if another one brings in one of his supporters. Actually we need to get all of these culture of death Catholics together for an award ceremony. The Iscariot Awards would be the perfect ceremony for them especially on Spy Wednesday.
8 comments
I go to Villanova, and unfortunately Matthews gave the commencement address here a few years ago, also. I was an officer in our student pro-life group at the time, and we organized a protest, but it fell on deaf ears.
This isn’t as big of a scandal as Notre Dame, but it’s still unacceptable.
(Also, I totally tried to type in the Greek letters. I switched to my Greek font and everything! Mine are δελβα 😛
Here I go again!
Seems to me St. Joe’s is scraping the “bottom of the barrel.”
Was Father Pfleger already booked for Georgetown?
My eldest missed his college graduation because he was competing in a national athletic championship. I paid his airfare and lodging. Not having to listen to “the World’s Greatest Orator” or “He of the soiled trousers” – PRICELESS!
Shame. It seems The People will not vote to control their public schools or their private ones.
Must be Sarah Palin’s fault.
“The Iscariot Awards would be the perfect ceremony”
EXCELLENT!
Actually better, in my opinion then Bp Doran’s comments (btw, his whole letter was excellent).
In it he said: “…please have the decency to change the name of the University to something like . . . “’Northwestern Indiana Humanist University.’”
The Church in the U.S. is being challenged/tested. So far it looks like we’ll need a come from behind rally to emerge victorious. Crucified Lord, have mercy on us!
Several years ago St. Joseph’s invited then Senator Rick Santorum, a faithful Catholic, to give the commencement address. The announcement was greeted by weeks of vociferous opposition among faculty and students. During the address, a minority of faculty actually got up and walked out of the hall.
I recall that during the controversy, local radio host Dom Giordano interviewed a student who was among the leaders of those who opposed Santorum’s invitation. The student tried to make the case that the opposition was all about upholding Catholic values. When asked for an example of where Santorum fell short, the best the student could come up with was to claim that Santorum supported capital punishment, as if doing so necessarily violates Catholic values or doctrine. Giordano also interviewed a Jesuit who was among the protest leaders. This Jesuit claimed that the protesters were not against conservatives speaking on campus per se, as the university had (allegedly) hosted conservative speakers before without any trouble. When asked for an example of a conservative who had previously appeared on campus without protest, the Jesuit cited Avery Cardinal Dulles. Gee, that was very big of a Jesuit to not oppose the appearance of a CARDINAL. He actually thought a Cardinal should count as a conservative speaker. Perhaps there were no other conservative speakers.
St. Joseph’s University also hosts an annual gay pride week, which is devoted to celebrating the homosexual lifestyle and promoting the homosexual activist agenda. This week was originally titled “Rainbow Week”. After this event became a public issue a few years ago, the event was renamed “Unity Week.” The Jesuits at SJU don’t ever seem to correct anything on campus which is counter to the faith. They just rename things in the hope that they’ll fly under the radar. At one point I counted three pro-gay student organizations on campus (and “COURAGE” wasn’t one of them). A google search would confirm this. The university might be reticent to list these organizations at sju.edu. Also, I suspect that Unity Week does not appear on the official school calendar.
JM: Perhaps it is time for another edition of “Jesuits Gone Wild,” given all the thrills going up legs?
St. Joe’s is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, under Cardinal Rigali–who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, I believe.
His response should prove interesting.