The Politics of Commencement

[CatholicEdHead]

Well, the Cardinal Newman Society, that self-appointed enforcer lay group is pressuring all colleges to have strict rules of commencement speakers. One step away from a perfect following of all dogmas means they are unworthy to speak about anything. This is a continuing narrowing of education at Catholic colleges and universities as you are then only restricted to "approved" speakers. You do not allow many other issues to be debated at all by this narrow minded policy.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/05/12/the_politics_of_commencement/

After repeatedly getting criticized by conservative Catholics, and after years of pressure from the Vatican and some American bishops, Catholic colleges and universities are now shying away from politicians - especially those who, like Kennedy, Kerry, and Pelosi, support abortion rights - as commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients.

Instead, the schools are scrutinizing the public records of potential honorees for evidence of open dissent from key church teachings, especially on abortion, and they are choosing noncontroversial church insiders or nonpolitical figures for their most prominent honors. "I think there's a concerted effort to use the moment of naming people who reinforce the Catholic identity of our institutions, and I'm pleased by that," Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston said in an interview.

.......
The issue of honorary degrees and commencement speakers has been the most visible manifestation of two decades of tension between Catholic universities and the church hierarchy over what it means to be a Catholic university in the United States. In 1990, Pope John Paul II released a document, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, in which he declared that "Catholic teaching and discipline are to influence all university activities."

Some Catholic academics balked at the implications for academic freedom, and, in particular, at a hotly debated measure that requires Catholic theologians to seek approval from local bishops for their teaching. That requirement, approved in 2001 by the US bishops, has been widely, although not universally, ignored.
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[Warpy]

1. Catholics are a pretty contentious bunch

and I wouldn't expect Catholic colleges to knuckle under to the Princes of Rome and their idiotic intrusion into matters they know nothing about: sexuality and the burden of reproduction.

Catholics are, after all, more likely to be pro choice than their Protestant brethren.

The Bishops are fighting a losing battle. The more alienated the laity become, the less power they will actually have. They risk becoming a living museum, a curiosity that nobody even bothers giving lip service to.