Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Sr. Hilary Clinton, O. Cam?



"Calling USF a Catholic school is like saying Hillary Clinton is a Carmelite nun," a philosophy professor at the Jesuit-run university told the archdiocesan weekly Catholic San Francisco in a story published in its June 12 edition.
Fr. Privett defended bringing controversial and dissident speakers to the Jesuit university in the interest of constructive dialogue. "When we bring these speakers onto campus, we don't bring them as spokespersons for a position with which we disagree," Fr. Privett told Catholic San Francisco. He said critics of the school “only see the commencement speaker or ‘The Vagina Monologues.' They don't see the other 240 days. They're not at Sunday liturgies. They're not at student retreats. It's the tip and not the whole iceberg." But Professor Dennehy suggested Fr. Privett’s idea of dialogue is one-sided. "Dialogue is having speakers both pro and con," Dennehy told the archdiocesan weekly. "This is giving an award, and you can bet your bottom dollar that (USF) would not do that if (the speaker) were anti-gay marriage."


“Dennehy said the university has set out to form a Catholic identity separate from the Church's teaching on issues like abortion and homosexuality, citing examples like the invitation of Pelosi and the appointment to head of campus ministry of Jesuit Father Donal Godfrey, an outspoken proponent of gay-friendly theology,” reported Catholic San Francisco. "USF has chosen to go its own way, and there is no one here to stop them,” Dennehy told the newspaper. “What is Catholic teaching? What is the so-called ‘institutional Church' if we don't have to pay attention to it?"


To read the full article from Catholic San Francisco, Click Here.


In May of 2004, USF honored Leo McCarthy, a pro-abortion politician and three-term Democratic lieutenant governor of California, at its commencement exercises. McCarthy was a USF graduate and, in 2001, donated $1 million to the university to found the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. The center became embroiled in a 2003 controversy when a pro-life Republican candidate for mayor of San Francisco was not permitted to participate in a candidates’ forum held there. “There may be a reason why the Leo T. McCarthy Center was not struck by the oddness of a debate that includes only pro-abortion Catholics,” said an Oct. 10, 2003 editorial in the archdiocesan newspaper.


To read earlier coverage of the USF commencement controversy, Click Here.

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