Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Worcester Diocese welcomes Cathleen Kaveny


Tom, a faithful Catholic of the Worcester Diocese and a contributor to this Blog, writes: "The February 10, 2014, Diocesan Dispatch publicizes the following upcoming pro-abortion speaker at Holy Cross College:

'TALK ABOUT PROPHETIC SPEECH AT HOLY CROSS
Legal scholar and moral theologian M. Cathleen Kaveny, the newly named Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, will give a lecture titled “Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square” at the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday, Feb. 13 ...'

The Irish Rover, an alternate student newspaper at the University of Notre Dame (where she formerly taught) and the Sycamore Trust, a group of faithfully Catholic Notre Dame alumni have written of her pro-abortion views and of how Notre Dame has lionized its former professor:
Cathleen Kaveny, a Catholic professor of law and of theology, is listed on the Notre Dame News website as an expert in the ethical aspects of assisted suicide, bioethics, biomedical ethics, cloning, death and dying, the pope, and the papacy.

Kaveny expressed pro-choice beliefs during a Princeton University conference on abortion in the fall of 2010: 'I do not believe [the mother] has an obligation to provide life support to the unborn if pregnancy imposes a significant burden on her health or if she was raped,' said Kaveny.  'Under those circumstances I think those actions are describable as intentionally ending the burden of the pregnancy and can be described differently than intentional killing.'

Kaveny also said the unborn have no moral rights until 14 days after conception, a stance that could permit embryonic stem cell research."

This is a clear rejection of Catholic moral teaching. In his Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, No. 57, Pope John Paul II writes, "..by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.

The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to a good end. It is in fact a grave act of disobedience to the moral law, and indeed to God himself, the author and guarantor of that law; it contradicts the fundamental virtues of justice and charity. 'Nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing, either for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action'"

It was Father Thomas Euteneuer who correctly observed that, "Abortion is blood sacrifice of innocent blood to the devil. The clinics are like temples, the doctors are like priests, the medical table is like their altar. It’s a ritualized sacrifice. They have a dogma called choice, a hierarchy called Planned Parenthood, and guardian angels in the form of police guards that will arrest you if you try to stop them."

In the New Order, man has no special value. Human beings will be subject to the tyranny of technological impersonalism in the service of devils. Many have grown weary because they have lost their faith. And barbarism will follow. As men move away from the Church and her sacraments, the world continues to degenerate into madness, or as Fr. Miceli put it: "..a weird brew of sex, flowers, drugs, incense, tear gas, acid rock, rhetoric, bombs and blood. Enter the Antichrist, ruler of the Moloch World?"

The question has to be asked: Why does Bishop McManus tolerate (and at times even approve of) speakers who dissent from revealed Catholic teaching - even on the subject of abortion?

5 comments:

Ellen Wironken said...



This is utterly despicable. Robert Spencer can't give a presentation at the "Catholic Men's Conference" but Thomas Groome and Cathleen Kaveny are free to speak.

Is there really any doubt that the Diocese of Worcester is in free fall?

NoterDoter said...

Your loss is our gain.

Tom said...

A recent item on the Cardinal Newman Society's Catholic Education Daily ("Students Tout 15 Years of ‘V-Monologues’ as Play Continues on Several Catholic Campuses" www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/2978/Students-Tout-15-Years-of-%e2%80%98V-Monologues%e2%80%99-as-Play-Continues-on-Several-Catholic-Campuses.aspx#sthash.hIrOPwlN.dpuf ) notes that Cathleen Kaveny has written in defense of the performance of that vulgar play at Catholic colleges (and criticizing those who oppose such performances and the play itself) in the March 9, 2009, issue of the liberal "Catholic" Commonweal magazine ("Be Note Afraid" https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/be-not-afraid-2 ). She also wrote a similar piece in the May 8, 2006, issue of the Jesuit American magazine ("The Perfect Storm" http://americamagazine.org/issue/571/article/perfect-storm ).

Worcester's Holy Cross College is one of the 10 Catholic colleges (thus far identified by the Cardinal Newman Society) as having not one but two performances on campus.

Lynda said...

Wholly irrational. Seems to be a requisite to be an "ethicist". Oh, yes, we only become persons 14 days after we come into existence. Absurd and evil.

Tom said...

Her lecture on February 13th cancelled because of a snowstorm but has been rescheduled for early April. Will the Worcester Diocesan Dispatch publicize the new date?

The Cardinal Newman Society has "picked up" the story:









Controversial Professor to Lecture on ‘Prophetic Rhetoric’ at Holy Cross

February 21, 2014, at 10:32 AM | By Matthew Archbold |


College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., will be hosting Boston College’s controversial law and theology professor Cathleen Kaveny to speak about "Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square,” according to the Holy Cross website.

The lecture was originally scheduled to take place this month but inclement weather forced the college to reschedule the event in April.

Kaveny recently left the University of Notre Dame to join the faculty at Boston College. The Irish Rover reported that, during a Princeton University conference on abortion in 2010, Kaveny said, “I do not believe [the mother] has an obligation to provide support to the unborn if pregnancy impose sa significant burden on her health or if she was raped.”

“Committed Christians often feel caught between two obligations,” Kaveny explained on the Holy Cross website. “On the one hand, we experience a call to speak prophetically, calling attention to moral scandals in our society. On the other hand is the conflicting demand to speak politely and respectfully, taking into account the concerns and needs of those who disagree.”

The upcoming lecture will be sponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross which, according to its website, “supports programming that explores basic human questions of meaning, morality, and mutual obligation.”
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/3006/Controversial-Professor-to-Lecture-on-%e2%80%98Prophetic-Rhetoric%e2%80%99-at-Holy-Cross.aspx#sthash.eeTCFlDB.dpuf

Site Meter