{"id":230,"date":"2007-10-10T18:37:30","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T18:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/10\/just-say-no.html"},"modified":"2007-10-10T18:37:30","modified_gmt":"2007-10-10T18:37:30","slug":"just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/10\/just-say-no.html","title":{"rendered":"Just say no"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:\u00a0 <\/u>Holy Cross stands firm:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Holy Cross officials stressed that the school, a Jesuit institution, is not affiliated in any way with the conference, but added that it will fulfill its contractual obligations.
\n\u201cHoly Cross in no way supports or endorses Planned Parenthood, NARAL, or other organizations that engage in or promote practices contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church,\u201d said the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, school president.
\nHe said the college \u201cfully affirms and promotes\u201d Catholic teaching on abortion and \u201cthe sanctity of all human life,\u201d but he added that the meeting organized by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy will help professionals address health matters affecting at-risk youth.
\nMeanwhile, Patricia Quinn, senior director of public policy and programs at Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, said the organization was surprised by the uproar, considering that the group\u2019s annual meeting has been held at Holy Cross since 2001.
\n\u201cTo be honest, this all came out of the blue,\u201d said Ms. Quinn. \u201cWe\u2019re disheartened by the opposition.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of you might be aware that a controversy has recently arisen over a program on Teen Pregnancy, to be held in space rented by Holy Cross College to the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. The controversy centered on the involvement of Planned Parenthood and NARAL in the workshops.
\nToday, Bishop McManus of Worcester issued a statement:<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

A controversy has arisen at the College of the Holy Cross that has resulted from the College\u2019s renting space for a conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy.\u00a0 The conference involves workshops presented by members of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts.\u00a0 Both organizations promote positions on artificial contraception and abortion that are contrary to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have received numerous complaints from people who are shocked and outraged that a Catholic institution like Holy Cross would have anything to do with such groups.\u00a0 They have appealed to me to ask Father Michael McFarland, president of the College of the Holy Cross, to revoke the College\u2019s agreement to rent space to the Massachusetts Teen Alliance.\u00a0 I have done so.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As Bishop of Worcester, it is my pastoral and canonical responsibility to determine what institutions can properly call themselves \u201cCatholic.\u201d\u00a0 This is a duty that I do not take lightly since to be a Catholic institution means that such an institution conducts its mission and ministry in accord with Catholic Church teaching, especially in cases of faith and morals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The moral teaching of the Catholic Church on respect for life at all stages of its development is manifestly clear.\u00a0 Life is a fundamental good that must be protected and respected from the moment of fertilization to natural death.\u00a0 This teaching is so basic and important that it provides the foundation upon which much of the Church\u2019s moral and social doctrine rests.\u00a0 It is beyond modification and compromise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Both Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice are notorious for their policies and practices that directly reject the Church\u2019s teaching on artificial contraception and abortion.\u00a0\u00a0 The College of the Holy Cross should recognize that any association with these groups can create the situation of offering scandal understood in its proper theological sense, i.e., an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.\u00a0 Certainly it is understandable how people of good will could interpret the college\u2019s allowing presentations to be made by such groups as truly scandalous.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I strongly contend that the confusion and upset to the Catholic faithful and others that flow from the perception that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross supports positions contrary to the fundamental moral teaching of the Church must be avoided.\u00a0 To deny Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice a forum in which to present their morally unacceptable positions is not an infringement of the exercise of academic freedom but a defensible attempt to make unambiguously clear the Catholic identity and mission of the College of the Holy Cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is my fervent wish that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross will unequivocally disassociate itself from the upcoming conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy so that the college can continue to be recognized as a Catholic institution committed to promoting the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic church.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update:\u00a0 Holy Cross stands firm: \u00a0Holy Cross officials stressed that the school, a Jesuit institution, is not affiliated in any way with the conference, but added that it will fulfill its contractual obligations. \u201cHoly Cross in no way supports or endorses Planned Parenthood, NARAL, or other organizations that engage in or promote practices contrary to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nJust say no - Via Media<\/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\/viamedia\/2007\/10\/just-say-no.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just say no - 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}