{"id":1377,"date":"2009-04-24T18:04:32","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T18:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott.php"},"modified":"2009-04-24T18:04:32","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T18:04:32","slug":"new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW ORLEANS (RNS) New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has told Xavier University of Louisiana he will not attend its upcoming graduation ceremonies because he objects to the university&#8217;s decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist who supports abortion rights.<br \/>\nHughes told Xavier President Norman Francis of his decision about the May 9 commencement by letter, expressing his disappointment with the university, even as he acknowledged its legacy of education among African-Americans.<br \/>\nIn response, a statement from the Catholic university said, &#8220;From the founding of Xavier 84 years ago, our institution has promoted respect for the dignity, well-being and the protection of life for all persons.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe controversy arises a month after Bishop John D&#8217;Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend (Ind.) announced he will boycott President Obama&#8217;s scheduled commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame because some of the president&#8217;s policies contradict church teaching.<br \/>\nBrazile, a Catholic and a native of Kenner, is a familiar advocate on behalf of Democratic issues, working at the national level in support of Democratic values that include defense of abortion rights and pursuit of embryonic stem-cell research.<br \/>\nThe Catholic church opposes those policies, believing both take human lives.<br \/>\n&#8220;As a lifelong devoted Catholic, I am sorry the archbishop will boycott this celebration of the class of 2009,&#8221; Brazile said by e-mail.<br \/>\n&#8220;I will remain faithful to the Catholic Church and my Christian faith which keeps me grounded.&#8221;<br \/>\nBrazile will give the commencement address in addition to receiving an honorary degree.<br \/>\nXavier&#8217;s decision to honor her breaks with Catholic bishops&#8217; determination to present a consistent front of opposition to abortion rights.<br \/>\nThree years ago, Xavier awarded an honorary degree to President Obama, then an Illinois senator and rising Democratic star with a record for supporting abortion rights, without objection from Hughes.<br \/>\nBut archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said Hughes had not been aware of the honor to Obama, which came while the bishops&#8217; common pledge was in force.<br \/>\n<em>By Bruce Nolan and John Pope<br \/>\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW ORLEANS (RNS) New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has told Xavier University of Louisiana he will not attend its upcoming graduation ceremonies because he objects to the university&#8217;s decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist who supports abortion rights. Hughes told Xavier President Norman Francis of his&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NEW ORLEANS (RNS) New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has told Xavier University of Louisiana he will not attend its upcoming graduation ceremonies because he objects to the university&#8217;s decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist who supports abortion rights. Hughes told Xavier President Norman Francis of his&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-24T18:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue","og_description":"NEW ORLEANS (RNS) New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has told Xavier University of Louisiana he will not attend its upcoming graduation ceremonies because he objects to the university&#8217;s decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist who supports abortion rights. Hughes told Xavier President Norman Francis of his&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-04-24T18:04:32+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott","name":"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-24T18:04:32+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-24T18:04:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/04\/new-orleans-archbishop-boycott#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Orleans Archbishop Boycotts Commencement Over Abortion Issue"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}