Georgetown University and its latest controversy
As a member of the Society of Jesus, it was embarrassing. As a member of the Society of Jesus, it was distressing, to say the least. It was right there in all the papers: life had become cheap—very cheap—happening at one of the first institutions the Jesuits established in the United States. There, on the nightly news and on the front page of the newspaper, we read how some people at one of the Jesuit schools had made their living buying and selling human beings. It was reported how some profited in declaring that a person who might look a bit different than those who are white and wealthy, were not fit to live, let alone be treated with dignity. It was a sad moment, and something in me needs to apologize to all those good Catholic parents, Christian parents, Muslim parents, and all parents of good will who entrust their children to Jesuit schools.
What am I talking about? It turns out that in 1838, some of the early Jesuits at Georgetown sold some of their slaves in order to keep the university solvent. Back then, our superiors in Rome insisted that to sell slaves meant, first, that they had to be sold with families remaining intact, and only to places where these families could still receive the sacraments. This is embarrassing enough. This is sad enough. It therefore rightly demands an apology. Accordingly, a task force has been set up to find the African-American descendants of these poor people, and to offer them a scholarship to the oldest Catholic University in the United States, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. As sad as this scenario is, however, I am referring to a very recent event at Georgetown University concerning a new form of selling life. I am lamenting this new way of disregarding those we find inconvenient because our own way of life is at risk.
Last month, the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, was invited to Georgetown University to deliver an uncontested talk, which concerned the unapologetic need for the destruction of unborn human life. The Lecture Fund of the university predictably defended her invitation on “free speech” grounds. (I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that this comes from a recognized campus group who invited a well-known pornographer, Larry Flynt, to speak about First Amendment rights at Georgetown University on May 15, 1999—the same Larry Flynt who produced XXX-rated publications, like Hustler Magazine).
At stake here, however, is not only the nature of Jesuit and Catholic education, but also the issue of how we train our young people to understand what is meant by “freedom,” and the inherent duty of each of us to defend the most vulnerable life entrusted to the human family. Americans glibly stand by the mantra that one has the right to do whatever one wishes with one’s own body. Perhaps. But the very moment a woman becomes pregnant, it is no longer just involving “her own” body, but the unborn child’s body developing inside her as well. She now shares her life with another, forever. Abortion kills, it divides, and I have never met any female who was truthfully grateful to the clinic or the person who caused an abortion of her unborn child.
When Planned Parenthood’s lucrative industry was threatened in the selling of procedures and abortifacients causing the destruction of innocent unborn human life, another Supreme Court decision—this time in 1992—decided in favor of PP. It argued that:
These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State. (Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1992; 505 U.S. 833, 852)
A half-millennium before Christ, the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, famously taught that a man cannot step into the same river twice. According to this way of thinking, everything is in such constant flux, that nothing has any stable nature or purpose to it. While this remains a possible undercurrent in philosophical schools throughout the centuries, Heraclitean instability reappears in a more noxious form in modern existentialism. Thinkers, like Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, prepared the way for Planned Parenthood v. Casey by arguing that “existence precedes essence” in such a way that one now is forced to make life “purposeful.” It is now up to the human agent to decide whether or not his or her life will have any kind of goal or meaning. Today, we are all able to create our own world, and our own understanding of who can live (or not) in our fabricated fantasies. Presently, any common discourse, any common care for one another, any kind of convergence or communion becomes a threat against my own way of wanting to be. Ideas do really matter. It may take a while, but thoughts form actions, and actions determine destinies.
Catholic Social Teaching demands that we are creatures made for communion: “…man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself ” (Gaudium et Spes §24). We are cheating our students by not showing them that their truest self lies in the heart of the other; true human excellence begins when I begin to see my own self in the other. This is the entire point of the incarnation: God chose to dwell as one of his own creatures. In Christ Jesus, there are then found all people, and whatever we do to the least of each of these persons, we do even to Christ himself (Matthew 25).
More often than not, the story of the human race has been one of competition and conquest. When God himself came into his own creation in Christ, this was all supposed to end. The Victim now hangs on the Cross, wooing all those with plans of destruction and domination to lay down their violent impulses, and see instead in Christ what it is that they are really seeking. As such, trading in human lives, or selling them, or killing them, is not God’s plan for us.
This is why we should all recoil at the headlines of slaves being sold, and families being divided—all the worse, when some of Christ’s own priests are complicit. Nolo contendere.
But when modern day slave traders are invited onto a Catholic campus to deliver a panegyric encouraging the right of the strong to destroy the weak in the womb, and portraying it as a matter of “justice,” something has gone terribly wrong. Planned Parenthood is responsible for the taking of 300,000 innocent little lives each year in our country. When representatives from this deadly organization are given access to our students, we should worry: souls of these students are endangered, a grave scandal occurs. In charity though, we all should recall the fact that our real enemy is not made of flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). From that perspective, I therefore pray that Cecile Richards, and her constituents—as well as those running our Catholic schools—would realize that fact as well.
About David Vincent Meconi
Accommodation and worldliness: twin paths of destruction that liberal Catholicism inevitably leads to.
I’m no expert, but it seems to me to be a problem of Metaphysics which Georgetown, Planned Parenthood, and Secular Culture, see as an epistemological one, so can be addressed by Epistemology. Is the problem, therefore, not in inviting these people, per se, but the (shared erroneous) ‘mentalist’ presuppositions – a QED, rather than a Quiddity – from which they are carrying out their business?
We know taking another’s life, at what ever stage that life is, is inherently wrong. It is written on our hearts by the Source of Life, God Himself. An institution of suggested higher learning, offering degrees in every esoteric field of endeavor, shows its own crass ignorance and indifference to humanity, and belittles each of us when it confuses freedom of thought and expression with the right to live.. Georgetown belittles us all with its pretense at education. Academic freedom cannot exist at Georgetown or anywhere else, as long as it does not fight against the injustice of abortion with every thing it has in its moral arsenal. Apparently there is no moral arsenal at Georgetown worth risking one’s immortal soul. When is the Church of Jesus Christ going to put an end to allowing such open
and blatant hypocrisy to exist under its own banner? When is the hierarchy going to wake up to what
every humble pew sitter knows….and do something about it?
Simply stated…..Georgetown is no longer Catholic. Teresa, you have spoken a simple and profound truth that the “world” cannot fathom.
Thank you, my dear brother, for speaking up for Clare Marie. Although I took her life at only 12 weeks of age, I’ve never stopped regretting it, as you know. Those ministers & counsellors & professionals who assured me she was “only a clump of cells” lied. Those who stand by complacently now & hide behind the Figleaf of Philosophy lie. As I am responsible for her death, so are they, no matter how many letters the have after their names.
Thank you for your transparency, surely a fruit of Pentecost, Glenna. As I read your words, I can only hear St. John Paul II: “I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child” (Evangelium Vitae #99).
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Thank you, Fr. Meconi, for speaking out against the insanity that has come upon even the most prestigious of our Catholic institutions of higher “education.” Georgetown, Notre Dame, and others – how has this come to be? The betrayal of the name “Catholic” erupts first one place then another, like ugly festering sores, revealing deep sicknesses that we did not know about! Catholic politicians, Catholic universities, individual Catholic clergy – priests here, bishops there – when will it stop! Gold plated chalices on the outside, corruption and death within. God help us!
I think the world is too much with us. I think we love the world and the things of the world much too much. We seek the praise of men and we receive it, their titles, their accolades, their applause, their approval. “How can you believe,” Jesus asked, “who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:44) A very wise and holy Jesuit priest I was privileged to know, until his passing, once said, “Pharisaism is the number one temptation of religious men.” How we need holy priests, deacons, bishops!
My dear brother, I thank you. A great silence exists within the Order (US)on these matters.
A …”great silence’ does exist within the Order. It’s affects are being felt at a great number of Jesuit institutions of higher learning who seem to have forgotten the reality of Christ’s life and message.
Why, why, haven’t the responsible bishops taken the absolutely necessary step of removing the title “Catholic” from these MANY colleges and universities? Long overdue! There seems to be too much politics and fears about losing money that is preventing this action.
And, when are the bishops going to publicly label the political dissenters from Catholic doctrine for what they are–scandalous dissenters that are damaging the Church and the faithful?
Yes. And I appreciate your frustration. But when has any punitive action as you’re suggesting been effective in bringing about the desired result in modern times, rather than acting as a recruiting soldier to the very thing the action aims to rectify? Don’t people these days just stick two fingers up at this sort of behaviour? ‘Naming and shaming’ these days – especially within religion – encourages support, not censure, and makes us even more something to be ridiculed, no? The only time I have seen it work, is when the leaders have asserted themselves as a tyranny, and have the attendant power to enforce their will.
The old solutions worked in the old culture. Today, it’d be completely counterproductive, wouldn’t it?
What then do you suggest to stem the tide of evil? If not directly confronting it, then what?
Hi there, Dave.
I like to ‘people watch’ and, from doing that, it seems to me too many people seem to be confronting others, not evil. Might the confrontations I observe be driven more by evil than the supposed things being confronted? For, to me, they seem to have a ‘spirit of confrontation’, and so, in most cases, they would be considered bullies or narcissists in any other setting.
What you call ‘Naming and shaming’ , and claim to be counterproductive, seems right and righteous when Jesus drove out the merchants from what was to be God’s House of Prayer, and when He explicitly named the religious leaders of the day “hypocrites”, and publicly judged their actions unworthy and harmful. All anger is not righteous! but there is righteous anger, and as I look on the ecclesial landscape today, I see much cause for it.
Hi there, Thomas. Thanks for the reply, and I agree (as I normally do with what you write). :)
I think what I’m getting it is in relation to ‘wisdom’ – within the domain of epieikeia, phronesis, recta ratio agibilium, prudentia, etc. – that there is no boilerplate, but we have to use our wits and our capacity to deal with a situation appropriately.
There’s a time for X’ing or not X’ing, and what I meant was that too many people just seem to ‘X’ in every situation, because people say it’s ‘right’ or ‘true’, to ‘X’, irrespective of context. Some people go off, ‘all guns blazing’, and simply cause the person to entrench or stick two fingers up at them, whereas if they took a broader, and more long-term view, they might have a convert on their hands. Trouble is, it means far more work for, and commitment from, us, and are we prepared to pay the price?
It’s the difference between ‘relevance’ and ‘contextualisation. Relevance changes the content to fit round the environment, whereas contextualisation keeps the content pure, whilst being sensitive to the environment.
In this sense, it seems to me, we must not capitulate, but at the same time, act wisely, diplomatically, and winsomely enough to give them as much chance to see things differently, with an ‘agreeing to disagree’ being the last resort, rather than complete alienation from the get-go which is likely to be counter-productive, as it seems to me they’ll then be just more vociferously against, and look for more evidence to bolster their position…
God bless you and keep you, Father. The Church has to be our moral compass in a world in which evil has been labled “good”. Unfortunately, our shepherds are mere humans and thus tempted by the same worldly “goods” as other humans. Especially in the academic world, the desire to be considered an “intellectual,” is both powerful and directly linked with acceptance of the “new ways of thinking.”
Thank you for resisting that force.
Thank you, Fr. Meconi for the truth. The Powers that be at Georgetown are presumably cognizant of what the pernicious Cecile Richards is actually selling. Since the probability of invincible ignorance exculpating them is practically nil, we must assume that these cognoscenti are willfully granting this apparatchik of the Culture of Death a supposedly Catholic platform from which to sell her homicidal wares. Richards and her ilk have nothing to offer intellectually or, a fortiori, morally. In any Catholic educational milieu deserving of that name, she should be barred from entry to campus or, if found there, firmly escorted to the nearest exit and unceremoniously invited to return to the cesspool that is Planned Parenthood whence she was dredged. Richards is promoting the infernal message of the principalities and powers constituting the real enemy of the human race; but, let’s not facilitate that agenda.
The insanity at Georgetown is as old as Original Sin. Non serviam. It appears the difficulty amongst the powers that be at Georgetown simply, yes simply, is the display of pride. Many mourn for Georgetown.
The comments about bishops not removing the name “Catholic” from certain universities in the name of ” what good would it do” are perhaps short sighted. Over the last 40 years many Catholic parents have trusted the Jesuit Catholic name on the university catalogue to mean, “here my child will be exposed to and nurtured in truth.” Not so. If we keep refusing to name that the truth is not taught in many philosophy and theology and english departments anymore we simply add to this accumulation of graduates who attended a college which called itself Catholic but simply functioned as an agent for the skimpy thought patterns of relativism and political tolerance. Alternative: State Universities with orthodox Newman Centers. James Keating
I agree. I strongly feel the time is coming that the Bishops need to make an example out of “Catholic” universities by drawing a line in the sand saying change or lose your “Catholic” name.
Personally, I think University of San Francisco or College of The Holy Cross in MA should be first.
Both are embracing Gender Ideology in Housing Policies.
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4880/Catholic-Colleges-Embrace-Gender-Ideology-in-Housing-Policies.aspx
While, I hope that schools will regard their Catholic ID, this is false advertising.
My niece is at a state college and fantastic Newman Center!
Purposefully, I waited to be able to read others’ comments/thoughts on this amazing piece. They prove that there is a ground-swelling, Fr. Meconi, to have your editorials/articles published in hard-copy form that can be shared person to person, taken to the Chapel and prayed over, underlined, kept… in one bound copy! WE NEED YOUR PIERCING CLARITY, HONESTY, GENTLE STRENGTH & ENCOURAGEMENT in giving us VERITAS!! Take it from this Dominican — WE ALL WANT GOD!! Keep giving Him to us in your powerfully compelling manner!
Concur with Sr. Joe.
Fr., thank you for taking the initiative to speak up regarding this and for comforting us with the fact that at least there are Jesuits who follow after the heart of your Founder and the Lord – who care about what Catholics put out there – especially highly regarded and respected religious orders like the Jesuits! I live in Canada now but was born and raised in Calcutta, India – my parish being St. Ignatius for all my life there. My parents were married in that Church and I received all my sacraments there – inc marriage. St. Ignatius is very dear to our hearts. My pastor growing up is a secret saint in heaven – the holy Fr. Celeste van Exem – Bl. Mother Teresa’s 1st Spiritual Director who helped her start her Order! She visited our parish very frequently since ours was also the 2nd poorest in Calcutta. So yes, we have an intimate connection with the Jesuits. I studied under them too in University. So yes, reading about Georgetown’s decision to do this was heartbreaking for us!! However, we are still wondering why have the Jesuit stalwarts who know this is wrong, not stepped up to do anything? What about the Superior General and other senior Jesuits? These decisions to let people like her have a voice is like choosing to have a dialogue with the devil! Purposeless! Better to keep her out and pray for her conversion instead! Georgetown has given a very, very incorrect view of Catholic teaching to the rest of the Catholic world and the secular world too! Something the Jesuits in authority will have to answer for before the Lord one day…. Hope they tremble in fear, see their error and never let something like this happen again…. God help us all….
It seems to me that most bishops are not taking action against colleges that say they are Catholic yet do not accept Church teaching. There are options: forcing them to remove the designation “Catholic” from communications and curricula, removing facilities from all clergy on campus, cancelling papal degrees (STD, etc.), not allowing diocesan employees to take classes or teach, etc. I don’t think these collages (Georgetown, Notre Dame, etc.) really care about the corrective letters and speeches of bishops — some probably see them as a badge of honor.
What happened to the concept of In Loco Parentis? Why didn’t the Jesuit community simply say “No!” to the kids who organized this horrendous event? Or at least refuse to allow it to take place on university property? Who really runs Georgetown?
I just listened to Cardinal Dolan’s remarks at Benedictine College. I believe there is still hope for Catholic education amid the dismal and misguided thinking of some who would support false thought and a misunderstanding of their God-given freedom.
Fr. Meconi, where have you been all these years?
For more than half-a-century the Jesuits have been de-Catholicizing their institutions of higher education.
For example, in the early 1960s while Vatican II was in session, a well-known Jesuit college – through the auspices of its then-Jesuit/academic dean – had the Jesuit co-author of the notorious Dutch Catechism as a visiting theology professor. That academic dean later became the college’s president and invited the Jesuit co-author back for a “return performance.”
Popes are to blame. They can do what Bishops can’t with one phone call to a college head…” stop it or close by next month”. Canon law says their power is ” immediate” and “supreme”. It’s being used rarely if at all. It needs to be used constantly as long as the Newman Society website can produce dysfunctional after dysfunctional testimony….8 lavender graduations at Catholic colleges; coed dorm visiting part night at 90% of Catholic colleges; pro choice speakers..on and on and on for decades because Popes are authoring instead of threatening. Threatening is tough work so its avoided…Jeremiah wrote, ” But I have sat alone because thou hast filled me with threats”. Popes have morphed since Vatican II from ruling to authoring. That’s how the sex abuse lasted for decades. No Pope sent out a simple memo…” turn them over to the police.” After 60 years, the memo finally exists.
All chaos goes back to Popes making adminsitrative work 7% of their work week. It should be 90% but the world media awaits the newest comment by a Pope on areas they are untrained in….penology, science, economics. Or they await the newest trip to a host of different countries and a fossil fuel bill that contradicts the next global warming speech. It’s about Popes. Truman: ” the buck stops here” not down below with Bishops. If Bishops haven’t acted in a sitation within two years, it becomes a Pope’s fault for not doing something about that same neglected situation. Catholic writing on the web curiously never holds the highest office responsible…but Truman said that ultimate responsibility is in the highest office. If Popes continue to be 7% or 15% administrators per work week, then when we are 100 years old, these offending college essays and stories will be even more abundant.
Over the past month I have sent two letters plus a phone call to the Editor of America Magazine asking them what their official position was on the recent Georgetown Univ. scandal regarding Planned Parenthood . I have not received a response from them and thus I must conclude that the flagship Jesuit Magazine has buried the issue concerning the flagship American Jesuit Univ. into the graveyard of Ameica’s issues that might cause them embarrassment. What prevents them from issuing an official response to this egregious situation? Sadly, after supporting them for over thirty two years as an Associate I officially DE-ASSOCIATE my wife and I from them. Sadly, in today’s mileui it much easier to be politically correct and not take a correct moral stance and issue a corrective response even if it offends your religious colleagues. TRUTH ALWAYS! ALWAYS TRUTH
Harry D. Carrozza, MD.
President, Tucson Catholic Physicians Guild
Re: my May 27th comment that not only underwent moderation but extinction by your Editors concerning America Magazine’s failure to take an official position on the recent scandal at Georgetown Univ. My comment was no more combative or inflammatory than the author’s article,great Jesuit priest, or the comments made by the other thirty individuals with whom I fully agree. This matter of America Magaziine’s quiietness deserves root cause analysis as to why no comment has been issued by them. I challenge your editors to let your above mentioned commenters make a judgement call on my original mind speak.
In Roger Scruton’s latest book “I Drink Therefore I am” he recalls a dear priest from his Cambridge years , Msgr. Gilbert ,an Apostle of Christ ,who believed it was the nature of truth to give offense.
TRUTH ALWAYS! ALWAYS TRUTH!
God bless your HPR
Harry D. Carrozza, MD
President, Tucson Catholic Physicians Guild
CORRECTION & APOLOGY : HPR DID NOT MODERATE OR EXTINGUISH MY FIRST COMMENT.
ALSO THE MONSIGNOR’S LAST NAME IS GILBEY.
OUT OF KILTER THIS WEEKEND WHEN I LEARNED OF THE DEBT TO BE ASSUMED BY MY TWO OLDER GRAND DAUGHTERS WHO WILL BE ATTENDING LAW SCHOOL & MEDICAL SCHOOL ie IN EXCESS OF $250,000 EACH