Fordham Feminist: You will be assimilated!

Please use the sharing buttons!  Thanks!

It is almost as if Jesuit-run entities, such as universities and magazines, were at war with the US Bishops.

I picked this up from the Cardinal Newman Society which keeps an eye on what’s going on at Catholic schools.  My emphases and comments:

Catholic Professor: Bishops “Un-Christian” on Coverage for Contraception

A sociology professor at Fordham University has blasted U.S. bishops and Catholic universities that uphold the Church’s teaching on contraception as “un-[C]hristian.”  [So, paying for abortifacients and IUD’s is what Jesus would do.] Writing in the Huffington Post, Associate Professor of Sociology Jeanne Flavin accused the bishops of showing a “staggering disregard for young women’s everyday lived reality, and their futures” for their stance against providing insurance coverage for contraceptives. [She should probably be an Episcopalian.]

Flavin, the author of Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America, [puhleez] seems incensed by the recent decision by Xavier University to stop providing contraceptive coverage and the bishops very public struggle for religious liberty against the HHS contraceptive mandate.

Flavin concludes her piece for the liberal website even more bombastically, saying:

The principle of cura personalis (or “care for the whole person” [Is that what “cura personalis” means?]), central to the mission of Catholic schools, does not come with a qualifier that says “unless you are sexually active” or “except if you are a woman.” [I suspect that the writer doesn’t believe in sin, other than “structural” sin.] While Catholic social teachings communicate powerful and uplifting messages about the dignity of the human person, the contraceptive coverage ban (not to mention the Vatican’s recent rebuke of the American Catholic nuns for not promoting the “Church’s biblical view of family life and human sexuality”) shouts volumes about women’s second-class status in the Catholic Church. [Lemme see here…. the writer applauds the Church’s “social teaching”, but elsewhere (read below) she is in favor of abortion, the ultimate violation of human dignity.  She claims there was a “rebuke of American Catholic nuns”, which at least an error of fact if not an open lie. The CDF, not the USCCB – about whom she is sniveling – instigated a reform of the leadership of the LCWR, not “American nuns”.  And she seems to have a bone to pick with the “Church’s biblical view”. ] This disrespect for the women who are here — in our midst, on our campuses — being shown by a powerful minority of conservative Catholics in favor of purported concern for the unborn must be called out for what it is: profoundly un[-C]hristian. [So the bishops have a dubious, or purported concern for the unborn. She, on the other hand, seems to be okay with killing the unborn. Read on.]

[…]

Flavin wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle in 2008 that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama made her heart “flutter, nay, pound”” [OH, he’s so dreeeeeamy!] when he said he had an abortion litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. She also described the practice of late-term abortionist George Tiller as “compassionate.[What a gal.  Let’s hear it for Fordham!]

[Get this…] Flavin contended in her piece in HuffPo that colleges and universities must take the place of dysfunctional and struggling families. She writes that “to do otherwise is to fail our students.” [The colleges should displace the outdated “biblical” view family and replace it with some sort of collective liberal Sparta.  I had a flash of a Star Trek episode or movie in which we catch a glimpse of Borg baby incubators.]

In light of the Pope’s recent statement that “the Christian vision, presented in its breadth and integrity, proves immensely appealing to the imagination, idealism and aspirations of the young, who have a right to encounter the faith in all its beauty, its intellectual richness and its radical demands,” perhaps, in the end, it is Fordham that is failing its students. [Yes, perhaps.]

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

23 Comments

  1. ContraMundum says:

    So, paying for abortifacients and IUD’s is what Jesus would do.

    Of course! Why, one of the most common themes in the Old Testament was women begging God to close their wombs! I mean, there’s … well, not her, and … no, not her either. Oh well, if they’re not in Scripture, it’s probably because evil bishops have altered Scripture to subvert women’s natural desire to be childless.

  2. Maltese says:

    “…the young, who have a right to encounter the faith in all its beauty, its intellectual richness and its radical demands…”

    Sophistry at its most absurd!

    Perhaps she hasn’t heard of the Didache, which actually predates the Letters of Paul.

    So in supporting late term abortions you are encountering the faith in all its richness? The anti-hero of the Screwtape Letters couldn’t have spoken more diabolically!

  3. Finarfin says:

    Why am I not surprised? One more liberal “Catholic” university defying the authority they should be obeying. If I hear of any more scandals coming from these places, I’ll be hopelessly confused as to who did what crime against the Faith. I just hope that lots of bishops will condemn this school, like they did with Notre Dame and hopefully will do with Georgetown. Better yet, the bishop of the diocese Fordham is located in will take away their Catholic status, like Bishop Olmsted did with that terrible “Catholic” hospital.

  4. Johnno says:

    Is there some kind of contact address where I can give her a piece of my mind?

    Charitably of course… I’ll be brutally honest, but I’ll behave!

    I can e-mail her that obedience picture too. Maybe there’s time to photoshop her in.

  5. kiwiinamerica says:

    I think we must be about due for another papal suppression of the Jesuits.

  6. Clinton says:

    “Flavin contended in her piece in HuffPo that colleges and universities must take the place of
    dysfunctional and struggling families. She writes that ‘to do otherwise is to fail our students'”.

    It’s fascinating. Universities like Fordham were founded to teach young men and women in
    accord with the mind of the Church. Later, that vision was rejected by the universities in favor
    of one where Catholic education would be a morally neutral ‘marketplace of ideas’. Now it
    seems that these institutions are rediscovering their original mandate to form youth– it’s just
    a pity that this rediscovery involves the explicit rejection of Catholic formation. It is revealing
    that Professor Flavin would do so regardless of any wishes of families to have their children
    educated in a milieu where the Church is respected.

    The purpose of Catholic higher education is being stood on its head. Orthodoxy is now “miseducation”. How widespread is this vision of Professor Flavin’s? Just listen for the
    shock and outrage coming from her colleagues in Catholic higher education. Frankly, all I
    hear are crickets chirping.

  7. SonofMonica says:

    Down is up for these people. It’s all the fashion, you know.

  8. John Nolan says:

    So, Ms Flavin is an ‘associate professor’. What on earth is that? A professor by definition holds a chair. I can only assume that she is on a job-sharing scheme. As for sociology, it has been described as ‘history with the history taken out’ or alternatively as ‘the amassing of a vast amount of statistical information in order to state the obvious in the most obscure way possible’.

    So the fact that she talks b******s is par for the course.

  9. bwfackler says:

    johnno:
    http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/sociology__anthropol/faculty/flavin_9324.asp

    Jeanne Flavin, Ph.D.
    Associate Professor of Sociology (at Rose Hill)
    B.A., University of Kansas; M.A., Ph.D., American University, 1995

    Dealy Hall 408C
    441 E. Fordham Road
    Bronx, NY 10458-9993
    tel: (718) 817-3863
    fax: (718) 817-3846

    jflavin@fordham.edu

  10. SKAY says:

    FORWARD–new Obama campaign slogan. His “logo” is inside the O.

    From the Washington Times-

    “The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

    Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

    “The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

    The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.”

  11. Andy Lucy says:

    John Nolan, there are three levels of professors in the US… well… maybe 4. An Assistant Professor is an entry level, non-tenured position. Usually, after a set period of time, they are either granted tenure or are dismissed. An Assistant Professor is a tenured professor, but is considered in the middle level of seniority. A Professor (or Senior/Full Professor) is the top dog in their field at that university. The chair of a department is almost always chosen from among the Full Professors.

    The possible 4th type is sometimes called a Distinguished/Endowed Professor. That is likely what you have in mind when you think of a Professor. Their title might be something like the Pope Clement XIII Chair of Jesuit Suppression Studies.

    Hope that helps… and as someone getting their MA in history, I love the description of sociology as ‘history with the history taken out.’ rotfl

  12. Andy Lucy says:

    Sorry… that should have been the Clement XIV Chair… not his predecessor, who was a Jesuit apologist.

  13. Bryan Boyle says:

    Full disclosure: I’m a graduate of Universitas Fordhamensis. And, on behalf of all the alumni who remained faithful Catholics despite being Jesuit educated, please accept my sincere apologies for the nuthouse that what was a bastion of Catholic higher education has sunk to. Bishop ‘Dagger’ John Hughes, founder of St. John’s Colege, which became Fordham, must be spinning in his grave.

    Two solutions:

    1. Suppress the Jesuits. save the faithful ones (Pacwa, Fessio, etc), throw the rest out.

    2. Seize ther assets, take over the governance of their schools, and turn them over to Opus Dei, FSSP, etc.

    And, oh, implement the mandatum for ALL so-called professors, assistants, adjuncts, instructors, post-docs, or anyone who has any contact any student. no exceptions. and fire those who get ‘creative’ with the Faith.

    Sheeseh, this makes me ashamed to admit I actually went there in good circles.

  14. The Cobbler says:

    I think we probably underestimate the good Jesuits and overestimate the bad ones because the bad ones currently have control of all the forces the order once developed to educate and evangelize.

    That doesn’t really say anything about whether objectively they’re more balanced (as an order, you know) than they seem, though, because I don’t have the foggiest clue how much we under- and overestimate by.

    @Bryan Boyle: As I’m fond of pointing out, there is a third option (apologies for any annoying ads). Once we have a clean, limitless source of energy the left will lose a lot of steam (not all, not even most, but a lot), after all.

  15. aviva meriam says:

    Wait: am I missing something here? Just because she teaches at Fordham does NOT mean that she’s catholic. Unfortunately, many people feel free to criticize, condemn and misrepresent Catholic teaching without necessarily being Catholic (let alone understanding Catholicism).

    And Xavier is also Jesuit……
    There seems to be a very serious split within the order….

  16. wmeyer says:

    Bryan Boyle:
    No shame for you, it was a very long time ago. ;)

  17. BaedaBenedictus says:

    The late Mary Daly at BC makes this woman look like Alice Von Hildebrand.

    But yes, these schools are rotten and should be reformed or dispatched. The scandal has done enough damage already.

  18. akp1 says:

    Sin is the new virtue.

  19. Supertradmum says:

    Borg Queen: “I am the beginning….the end…the one who is many. I am the Borg.” And, his name is Legion in the Bible…

  20. LisaP. says:

    Tom Wolfe wrote a fascinating novel a few years ago about a young woman and college life, “I Am Charlotte Simmons”. Not for the faint of heart, or those avoiding coarse material. It’s an excellent portrait of the “freedom” young women achieve when they are parented by university morality.

  21. Bryan Boyle says:

    wmeyer: you could see the rot setting in back in the 70s with courses (and I’m looking at my transcript as I write this…) such as “Natural Theology” taught by Fr. Donceel which tried to combine pagan thought with Christian imperatives as expressed by reconciling Buddhism/animism with Catholicism, etc.

    You have to remember, FU had recently merged Thomas Moore College (the women’s college) with Fordham College at the end of the 73/74 class year, Jebbies such as the above, Schroth, Privett, etc. were all the rage on campus…and the dorms were coed. ’nuff said, ok?

    The only high point of the University was the radio station, WFUV-FM, where I spent most of my time…:) And, oh, I did graduate, cum laude, with a degree in Communications….:)

  22. wmeyer says:

    Bryan:
    I’m sure you’re right. There seemed to have been some pent-up excitement to go off the reservation, and it was apparently released unchecked after the close of the Council.

    On the broadcasting side, I spent about 40 years in television, first in stations, later in equipment design and manufacturing.

  23. Banjo pickin girl says:

    JohnNolan, an associate professor is a professor who does not have tenure, not yet a full professor, who is someone with tenure. The title has nothing to do with “job-sharing.”

Comments are closed.