USF Commencement II: "She represents the best of what this great University is all about"

At today's USF Commencement for the Graduate Students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Management the speaker was San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.

USF President Stephen Privett greeting Ms. Kamala Harris.

She was introduced by Jeffrey S. Brand, the Dean of USF Law School, who, addressing the graduates, faculty, and families, said:

"She represents the best of what this great University is all about."

As we've pointed out, Ms. Harris is a tireless campaigner for same-sex "marriage," who has characterized Proposition 8 as an expression of “prejudice” and “hate.”

Photo courtesy Rick Gerharter, Bay Area Reporter.

She's referring to 53% of the population of California, the Holy Father, every Catholic Bishop in California, and certainly some (hopefully a lot) of today's graduates. But Dean Brand says:

"She represents the best of what this great University is all about."

A reminder: on November 7, 2008, at the USF Law School PILF Fundraiser, Dean Brand honored Shannon Minter and Therese Stewart, the attorneys who argued (and won) the "Marriages" case before the California Supreme Court. Here he is presenting an award to Minter:

Photo courtesy Stephen Hew, USF.

And to Stewart:

Photo courtesy Stephen Hew, USF.

From USF's story about the event:

"The evening's highlight was the award ceremony for Minter and Stewart, who Dean Jeffrey Brand and PILF Co-Chairs Jeff Kaloustian 3L and Freeman exalted as people that make a difference"

So it's easy to see why Dean Brand thinks that Kamala Harris "...represents the best of what this great University is all about."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE

Our friend Don Margolis has lots of new information about adult stem-cell treatments.

Check out this excellent video from "The Texas Alliance for Life." It's about a man whose heart (damaged by a heart attack) was totally healed using adult stem-cells. The Texas Alliance For Life is promoting a couple of bills in the Texas State Legslature to establish a consortium to further adult stem-cell research, which (unlike embryonic stem-cell research) is morally sound and actually produces results. One of the things I had not known was that when Californians gave $3billion+ to Proposition 71, a stated goal of the ESCR backers was to produce just one treatment within 10 years. This, while adult stem-cells are treating and curing people just about weekly if not daily.

USF Commencement: See, We Told You So

Back on May 3 we posted about the 2009 Commencement exercises at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. We mentioned that Commencement honorees/speakers included South African Bishop Kevin Dowling (who publicly supports condom use) and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris (who supports same-sex "marriage.")

Referring to the Bishop's invitation, we quoted this statement from the "Catholics for Choice" website:

“Bishop Dowling, in an interview about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in South Africa said, 'Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in a marriage is beyond the realm of possibility here. The issue is to protect life. That must be our fundamental goal.' Drawing attention to the especially difficult plight of women in the traditionally male-dominated societies of his diocese he continued, 'My passion is for the women. I'm in that corner.' About the African people, he says, 'They must use condoms,' maintaining his stance despite the Vatican’s continued opposition to such a policy”. Emphasis added.

We then asked:

"Dare we say that Bishop Dowling is being honored because of this position, not in spite of it?"

Well, at yesterday's exercise Bishop Dowling was introduced to the graduates, faculty, and families by Lilian Dube, Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University. And, lo and behold, she quite directly referred to his statement on condom use, and commended him for his "courageous stance."

For video of the commencement exercise go here. Select the "Friday, May 22, 9:00 AM" link. Professor Dube's commends the Bishop's "courageous stance" at about 26:30 into the video.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Oregon Children Face Indoctrination, British Churches Face Takeover

From Carl Olsen at Ignatius Insight:

"Children between the ages of 4 and 10 are being "educated" about "diversity" and "tolerance" in the form of an exhibit that includes a photo and description of a "trans-gendered" person. Some parents are confused and upset, and wonder why their first-grader isn't being taught how to spell and why their third-grader still cannot read but knows being "queer" is a beautiful and natural thing. School officials insist it has nothing to do with sex, but is about "respect," and lecture the confused parents through media interviews about the need for children to learn "acceptance." The thinly veiled suggestion is that if parents don't go along with said approach, they are likely homophobic and intolerant. Surprise!"

Meanwhile, in England, forget indoctrination, it's a simple takeover:

"Law 'will force churches to employ gay staff'"

"Religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers, secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex relationships to be sinful...

Religious leaders had hoped to lobby for exemptions to the Equality Bill but Maria Eagle, the deputy equalities minister, has now indicated that it will cover almost all church employees.

'The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between,' she told delegates at the Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London....

A Government Equalities Office spokesman said: 'The Equality Bill will not force a church to accept someone as a priest regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

Churches, synagogues, mosques and others will continue to have the freedom to choose who they employ in jobs which promote their religion. But where they provide services to the public they will have to treat everyone fairly.'"

The full article is at the Telegraph UK.

h/t New Oxford Review

Alameda Parents Stand Against Indoctrination

From a May 16 article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Uproar in Alameda over lessons about gays"

"Alameda school officials had high hopes the new elementary school curriculum would teach respect and help reduce bullying related to gay and lesbian individuals and families.

So they created lesson plans that talked about teasing and explained the different definitions of family - even throwing in the true story of Roy and Silo, two same-sex penguins in New York.

That's when the firestorm hit."

Under the guise of reducing bullying, the true agenda is the ongoing war against the family. Alameda parents quickly realized this:

"Much of the curriculum deals with what it means to be a family..."

To see what this means, browse the lesson plans for K-5 students, which are posted on the Alameda Unified School District website.

One example: the"required book" for first graders is "Who's in a Family?" by Robert Skutch. The Amazon.com editorial review from the School Library Journal describes the book:

"Kindergarten-Grade 2--Simple declarative statements move readers from one family configuration to the next, from single children to single parents to same-sex couples."

Lesson plans for other grades include: second grade: "And Tango Makes Three"; third grade: "Becoming an Ally." The fifth grade lesson includes a description of 10 famous homosexual/"transgendered" persons.

According to the Chronicle's article "hundreds of parents" attended a meeting on Tuesday, May 12 to make their voices heard. The crowd was so large that the school district scheduled a second meeting on Monday, May 18. Today's California Catholic Daily covered the follow-up meeting:

"Concerned parents began arriving well over an hour before the meeting started, hoping that, unlike last week's meeting, they would be able to find a seat. Moving the meeting to the much larger venue accommodated the hundreds of Alameda citizens passionate about this controversial proposal.

The only speakers allowed during the carryover meeting were citizens who had attended last week's meeting but were turned away by the fire marshal due to the enormous crowd. The meeting lasted five hours, during which citizens addressed the school board about their concerns over teaching the homosexuality-promoting school course. Over 90% of the speakers were in opposition to the curriculum.

Every one of the speakers was courteous and presented well-reasoned, articulate opposition. However, proponents of the curriculum didn't practice what they preach. Hecklers repeatedly booed and hissed when parents and students rose to express their opposition. During her presentation, one young lady was charged by a man angry that he was not permitted to address the audience about his support for the gay schoolwork. Other men in the audience had to defend her from the attacker and forcibly remove him...

The few speakers in favor of the curriculum repeatedly stated that the proposed course is 'just a start' and 'the first step' in teaching equality in classrooms. Only a handful of these supporters addressed bullying; instead they pleaded with the board to implement the curriculum to teach other children about their homosexual families. Some even told the board that no parental opt-out should be allowed because the children of the curriculum opponents needed the instruction even more." (emphasis added)

We've covered the indoctrination programs already being implemented in the San Francisco Unified School District here and here.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

I am a Catholic, but...

The mark of a good Catholic university is success at turning out model Christians who are good citizens, says Cardinal Francis Arinze,  in a commencement address he delivered at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Cardinal Arinze contended that a Catholic institution of higher learning should teach its students "to appreciate that moral rules of right and wrong apply also to science, technology, politics, trade and commerce, and indeed to all human endeavors."
 
"In the complicated world of today, where all kinds of ideas are struggling for the right of citizenship, a university student needs a clear and viable orientation on the relationship between religion and life," he continued. "The Catholic college or university is ideally positioned to help him see the light and equip himself for a significant contribution in society."

"But what does it profit us if a student is an intellectual giant but a moral baby," he asked, "if he or she can shoot out mathematical or historical facts like a computer but is unfortunately a problem for the parents, corrosive acid among companions in the college, a drug addict and sexual pervert, a disgrace to the school, a waste-pipe in the place of work and 'Case No. 23' for the criminal police? It is clear that intellectual development is not enough."

The former Vatican official acknowledged that defending morality can bring difficult consequences. "A person who holds that certain actions, like direct abortion, are always objectively wrong, is regarded as 'judgmental,' or as imposing his views on others," he said.

"If a Catholic college or university answers to its vocation then it will be educating, forming and releasing into society model citizens who will be a credit to their families, their college, the Church and the state," the cardinal stated. "It will prepare for us members of Congress or the Senate who will not say 'I am a Catholic, but ...' but rather those who will say 'I am a Catholic, and therefore ...' (MANASSAS, Virginia, MAY 19, 2009 (Zenit.org)-

Archbishop Chaput on Notre Dame: "No Excuse"

The Archbishop of Denver's statement:

May 18, 2009

Archbishop Chaput on Notre Dame and the issues that remain

"I have found that even among those who did not go to Notre Dame, even among those who do not share the Catholic faith, there is a special expectation, a special hope, for what Notre Dame can accomplish in the world." ~ Reverend John Jenkins, C.S.C., May 17, 2009

Most graduation speeches are a mix of piety and optimism designed to ease students smoothly into real life. The best have humor. Some genuinely inspire. But only a rare few manage to be pious, optimistic, evasive, sad and damaging all at the same time. Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, is a man of substantial intellect and ability. This makes his introductory comments to President Obama’s Notre Dame commencement speech on May 17 all the more embarrassing.

Let’s remember that the debate over President Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame was never about whether he is a good or bad man. The president is clearly a sincere and able man. By his own words, religion has had a major influence in his life. We owe him the respect Scripture calls us to show all public officials. We have a duty to pray for his wisdom and for the success of his service to the common good -- insofar as it is guided by right moral reasoning.

We also have the duty to oppose him when he’s wrong on foundational issues like abortion, embryonic stem cell research and similar matters. And we also have the duty to avoid prostituting our Catholic identity by appeals to phony dialogue that mask an abdication of our moral witness. Notre Dame did not merely invite the president to speak at its commencement. It also conferred an unnecessary and unearned honorary law degree on a man committed to upholding one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in our nation’s history: Roe v. Wade.

In doing so, Notre Dame ignored the U.S. bishops’ guidance in their 2004 statement, Catholics in Political Life. It ignored the concerns of Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Notre Dame’s 2009 Laetare Medal honoree – who, unlike the president, certainly did deserve her award, but finally declined it in frustration with the university’s action. It ignored appeals from the university’s local bishop, the president of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference, more than 70 other bishops, many thousands of Notre Dame alumni and hundreds of thousands of other American Catholics. Even here in Colorado, I’ve heard from too many to count.

There was no excuse – none, except intellectual vanity – for the university to persist in its course. And Father Jenkins compounded a bad original decision with evasive and disingenuous explanations to subsequently justify it.

These are hard words, but they’re deserved precisely because of Father Jenkins’ own remarks on May 17: Until now, American Catholics have indeed had “a special expectation, a special hope for what Notre Dame can accomplish in the world.” For many faithful Catholics – and not just a “small but vocal group” described with such inexcusable disdain and ignorance in journals like Time magazine -- that changed Sunday.

The May 17 events do have some fitting irony, though. Almost exactly 25 years ago, Notre Dame provided the forum for Gov. Mario Cuomo to outline the “Catholic” case for “pro-choice” public service. At the time, Cuomo’s speech was hailed in the media as a masterpiece of American Catholic legal and moral reasoning. In retrospect, it’s clearly adroit. It’s also, just as clearly, an illogical and intellectually shabby exercise in the manufacture of excuses. Father Jenkins’ explanations, and President Obama’s honorary degree, are a fitting national bookend to a quarter century of softening Catholic witness in Catholic higher education. Together, they’ve given the next generation of Catholic leadership all the excuses they need to baptize their personal conveniences and ignore what it really demands to be “Catholic” in the public square.

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George has suggested that Notre Dame “didn’t understand” what it means to be Catholic before these events began. He's correct, and Notre Dame is hardly alone in its institutional confusion. That's the heart of the matter. Notre Dame’s leadership has done a real disservice to the Church, and now seeks to ride out the criticism by treating it as an expression of fringe anger. But the damage remains, and Notre Dame’s critics are right. The most vital thing faithful Catholics can do now is to insist – by their words, actions and financial support – that institutions claiming to be “Catholic” actually live the faith with courage and consistency. If that happens, Notre Dame’s failure may yet do some unintended good.

"Stones for Bread"--A School for Scandal

Professor McInerny comments on Notre Dame's disgraceful honoring of Barack Obama over at "The Catholic Thing" this morning:

"How did it come about that so many Catholics have such a mushy notion of what it means to be a Catholic? The teaching of the faith since the close of Vatican II in 1965 has been scandalously inadequate. In many cases it has been the deliberate substituting of stones for bread. It began with waffling on contraception when theologians, real or self-proclaimed, impudently rejected Humanae Vitae, one of the great encyclicals of modern times. The scandal of the encyclical was that it placed Catholics on one side of a line and the zeitgeist on the other. Yet dissent from it was allowed to flourish. Moral theology went into steep decline and the official body of Catholic theologians issued Human Sexual Morality in which doubt was cast on the long tradition of teaching on pre-marital and extra-marital sex, abortion, masturbation, homosexuality, divorce – a systematic dismantling of Catholic moral teaching...

...And so it was that on Sunday at Notre Dame faithful Catholics were regarded as dissenters."

Those covering the commencement have reported that when protestors objected to Obama's presence (an objection also made by the local ordinary, Bishop D'Arcy) they were drowned out by chants of "Yes, we can!" Faced with a choice between faithfulness to Catholic teaching and whatever it is that President Obama represents, the chanting Notre Dame graduates chose the latter. That is after at least four years of study at an ostensibly "Catholic" university. A school for scandal.

"It's certainly the place for the bishop to be here"

Those are the words of Bishop John D'Arcy, the shepherd of Notre Dame, who joined students today in protesting the University's disgraceful honoring of Barack Obama. From the News-Sentinel:

"SOUTH BEND — Fort Wayne.

South Bend Diocese Bishop John M. D'Arcy helped to rally support against today's commencement speech at Notre Dame by President Barack Obama after saying he would boycott the appearance. However, D'Arcy had a change of heart, briefly speaking this afternoon before about 2,500 people protesting abortion and Obama, who supports abortion rights.

D'Arcy said he changed his mind because anti-abortion Notre Dame undergraduates inspired him Saturday night.

"It is certainly the place for the bishop to be here," D'Arcy said to applause. "John D'Arcy's not important, but the office of bishop is very important and it must always be like Pope John Paul II to stand up for life all the time, everywhere without exception."

God Bless the good bishop! He presents quite a contrast to the weasel words coming out of Notre Dame.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Socialism 101

Why President Obama’s socialist aspirations are doomed to failure:

"An economics professor at a USA college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.  All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.  The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.  

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.  The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.  

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that. " (courtesy Noel Debruton)

Fr. Cameron Ayers Takes Leave of Absence from Jesuits

From the May 10, 2009 bulletin of St. Agnes Church in San Francisco:

"Dear Friends, It must have been quite a shock to many of you when Father Cameron announced his intention to take a leave of absence from the Jesuits so that he could discern his own personal vocation...."

The bulletin message is written by the acting Pastor of St. Agnes, Fr. Raymond Allender, SJ.

"A Shepherd's Voice" has had occasion to comment in the past about certain actions of Fr. Ayers:

• leading his parish in San Francisco's 2006 "Gay Pride" parade;

• hosting the "Alienated Catholics" seminar at St. Agnes (video link);

• donating to the "No on Proposition 8" campaign, at a time when all the Bishops of California were calling on their flocks to not only vote for Proposition 8, but to volunteer and contribute financially to its passing.

Seen in this light, Fr. Ayers' felt need to "discern his own personal vocation" makes sense to us.

We join the parishioners of St. Agnes in prayer.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

More Notre Dame: Disgraced and Dishonored

From Diane at Te Deum Laudamus:

"This is probably one of the most exceptional things I have ever seen: Notre Dame has an 80 year old priest arrested on it's campus as he sings Immaculate Mary. There is something ironic that the most pro-abortion president in the history of the United States is welcome on the grounds of a Catholic university under the guise of "dialogue" while an 80 year old priest is arrested for protesting it."

She has video of the arrest as well.

As Bishop Trautman of Erie, PA said:

"The Golden Dome of Notre Dame, the long revered symbol of a Catholic university,
will be disgraced and dishonored on this coming May 17th, the commencement day of the
university."

They are disgraced and dishonored already.