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This is from the CNS:
‘Abortion Doula’ Professor Posts Video, But Catholic College Defends Employment
A professor at The College at Mount St. Vincent in New York recorded a video blog detailing her work as an “abortion doula.” [SICK! A “doula” is a woman who assists women during labor and childbirth. What a sick, twisted contradiction of terms.]
In 2011, The Cardinal Newman Society first reported on the scandal of Bianca Laureano teaching a course titled “SOC OF HUMAN SEXUALITY” for the Catholic college while volunteering as an “abortion doula.”
But in this video blog, discovered by a Campus Reform reporter in a follow-up to Newman Society’s reports, Professor Laureano discusses how she comforts women undergoing abortions and sometimes fundraises for women who have difficulty paying for the procedure. [That sounds like material cooperation to me. I suspect that, if true, and if those abortions were in fact procured, she has incurred an excommunication. If that is the case, she should not be teaching in a Catholic school.]The Cardinal Newman Society asked the College to verify Laureano’s current employment status, but spokesperson Belle Hann replied, “The College of Mount Saint Vincent has a policy whereby we do not comment upon the employment status of faculty and staff.” The College’s website reveals that Laureano was teaching a “Human Sexuality”course as late as last summer.
Hann also forwarded a comment from the president of the College, Charles Flynn Jr., defending Laureano’s employment. “The college is an independent institution deeply committed to its Catholic identity and mission,” he wrote in a letter to alumni. “We cannot and do not require that employees share faith in Catholic teaching, even the most fundamental Catholic teaching.”
?!?
Is there a disconnect in that last part? Am I missing something?
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Sure, they can’t force employees to be totally on-board with their views. But that doesn’t mean they’re obliged to go out of their way to provide an abortion advocate/teacher. How strange.
Fundraising specifically to enable women to have an abortion, given the situation that she is in no way obliged to do this, is in fact formal and not merely material cooperation in abortion. You only fundraise for a woman to have an abortion if you wish to assist a woman to have an abortion.
Having teachers like this at a ‘Catholic’ institution makes one wonder what is the point of Catholic institutions. Either they are Catholic – in which case there are expectations from staff and students – or they are not.
Very surprised here to hear of the term “abortion doula.” There is a doula in the parish here and I am quite sure that she would never assist at an abortion. In fact I suspect that many traditional doulas would be very upset to know that this term is being applied by abortion accomplices.
This is a situation that cries out for oversight. This is the missing link! Everybody has a boss, or so I always thought, but, apparently Catholic Universities don’t. The responsibility for correcting this flagrantly anti-Catholic and evil behavior should rest on SOMEONE. That person or entity is not doing their or it’s job.
Ok, then what? Identify who’s next in the food chain, beyond that entity, and entreat them to do something about it. The entire problem is basically someone failing to correct by whatever means necessary, evil that is blatantly occurring at a “Catholic institution”. It is easier to do this when that institution is in your vicinity, as you can try to gather like-minded people to create a fuss. It can still be done though. Once that food chain is identified, you go at it, emails, letters, phone calls, questions, meetings, and so on. Publicity used to help, maybe still does, if there are any authentic Catholics who are alumni who might care. Those may be dwindling.
But anyway the question is…WHO or WHAT is the entity when one goes further up the food chain?
I know nothing about how religious institutions work. But clearly there is a lack of oversight here, as there often seems to be. If it is not a matter of oversight but of duplicity, that is a different matter, and one can only identify that, then find the next higher authority.
Eventually, one may run out of people and ends up with God.
“We cannot and do not require that employees share faith in Catholic teaching, even the
most fundamental Catholic teaching”. “The college is an institution deeply committed to its
Catholic identity and mission”.
I don’t buy what the president of Mount St. Vincent is trying to sell. I’m pretty sure that if an
employee of that (once) Catholic college was exposed as a member of the Klan or NAMBLA
they would be swiftly and rightly canned for acts contrary to the goals of a Catholic institution.
Organizing public animal sacrifices to satan might still get someone kicked off the faculty of a
Catholic college, but abortion? Naaah, they’re cool with that.
I notice that the president’s letter was addressed to alumni– I assume that President Flynn was
concerned about damage control and bad PR among the donor pool. Who wants to bet he
has yet to offer one word of explanation to the Bishop?
“Deeply committed”? It is to laugh, were it not so pathetic.
I know many self-proclaimed Catholic institutions “do not require that employees share faith in Catholic teaching”; they’re the ones that don’t mind giving scandal to the Church.
But “We CANNOT … require that employees share faith…”??? Why not? As Kathleen10 asks, who’s in charge? Who’s the decision-maker? Who is the person/entity that does the hiring, and by what/whose rules is the hiring done? Are they beholden to secular laws because they take government money?
If they are prevented from NOT hiring a teacher because of his lack of adherence to basic, fundamental Catholic teaching, are they also prevented from NOT hiring an avowed atheist? A practicing Satanist? A strident anti-Catholic?
Is it really so very hard for a Catholic college to find teachers who are not only competent in their field, but also who are actual faithful, practicing Catholics? Why do they think they must scrape the very bottom of the barrel?
This makes no sense at all.
Fr. Z is killing it today! I love these article comments. They really should hire you to be the editor for the LA Times, Father. You have a wonderful gift for language.
Disconnect? Wow! That’s an understatement.
quote
“deeply committed to its Catholic identity and mission,”
“We cannot and do not require that employees share faith in Catholic teaching, even the most fundamental Catholic teaching.”
unquote
What part of “deeply committed” don’t they understand.
I had seen a picture of this tattooed “professor” on another blog.
She’ll really capture your attention but not by what she teaches.
Mesmerize is more like it.
If she’s a vision of “Catholic identity” I wonder what heresy looks like.
I checked her page at RateMyProfessors.com: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1650760
According to the student comments, she was teaching as recently as this past spring, but one of the commenters says “It is very sad that she is leaving the school”
I guess that answers CNS’s question.
This infuriates me knowing that there are many kind and faithful younger Catholics looking for teaching work! We have to do what is right by our own, and so long as these folks insist on not actually hiring Catholics, we will not see Catholic teachers.
The vast majority of New York Catholic colleges officially dissociated from the Church by going to entirely lay boards and adopting the canard that they are in the “Catholic tradition” so as to comply with some state laws dating from, I believe, the 1970’s.
Of course, that has now come back to bite them in the *** because the NLRB doesn’t believe they are even Catholic anymore.
It’s really the responsibility of the Bishop to now declare whether they are Catholic or not. Mount St. Vincent’s doesn’t claim to be in union with the Bishop, but simply “recognizes its connection with the universal Catholic Church” . Read their identity statement below:
__________
Statement on Catholic Identity
Introduction
The College of Mount Saint Vincent is a liberal arts college rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition and the mission of its founders, the Sisters of Charity, “…to share in the ongoing mission of Jesus by responding to the signs of the times…and by revealing God’s love in our lives and in our varied ministries with and for all in need, especially the poor.” Built on this foundation, the College is committed to excellence in all things, truth and integrity at all times, and respect for human dignity in all dimensions of the ethical and moral way of life. This identity is lived out in our faith, academic and community lives.
Faith
Deeply rooted in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as lived out in the Catholic tradition, the College provides opportunities for spiritual growth for all its members. These include liturgy, prayer services, retreats, discussion opportunities, sacramental preparation, symbolic and artistic expressions, as well as interfaith prayer and dialogue. The College provides myriad opportunities for service. A key component in this effort is a vibrant Campus Ministry. While the College recognizes its connection with the universal Catholic Church, at the same time, it welcomes students, faculty, and staff of all religious traditions and of no religious tradition as valued members of this community of study and dialogue. As each person deepens his/her personal relationship with God, we are all enriched.
Academic Life
The College of Mount Saint Vincent exists within the Catholic intellectual tradition which holds that faith and reason form a profound and indissoluble unity. Both are needed to pursue the search for truth, wisdom, and learning. The College, therefore, encourages critical thinking and intellectual inquiry in all areas of study and affirms the vital significance of philosophical and religious traditions. The College respects multiculturalism, welcomes people from diverse ethnic, religious, and philosophical traditions, and invites reflective study of these traditions. Where appropriate, students are provided with the opportunity to become acquainted with the Catholic position on matters that arise in their courses of study.
Community
The College, faithful to the liberal arts tradition, promotes appropriate discussion of questions of meaning and value. It maintains a strong values orientation that is consistent with the spirit of the founders, the Sisters of Charity, and the history of Catholic social thought. In this regard, it is committed to social justice and encourages a spirit of service in all its constituencies. The College expects all its personnel to uphold high ethical standards and encourages students to develop a strong values system and a set of ethical principles which will help them to make reflective and caring decisions, rooted in personal integrity and responsibility towards others. The commitment of the College is further directed to fostering respect for the dignity of each individual person with the effort to build a community that is personally and socially enriching.
Based on so many comments written herein over the years, one is left to wonder, who in the hierarchy of The Church, is accountable for ensuring that institutes of higher learning (and for that matter, any organizations and publications) claiming to be ‘Catholic’ bodies are indeed in keeping with the teachings, tenets and core beliefs of The Catholic Church? More importantly, why are responses by those accountable to correct problems in this regard all-too-often seemingly neither swift nor decisive?
One tiny note regarding the comment on certain Catholic colleges describing themselves as “in the Catholic tradition”– this is sometimes used out of necessity by institutions faithful to the Magisterium and to their local Ordinary which have not been recognized by him as an official “Catholic insitution” as outlined in the CIC (eg. para. 216). Of course, I don’t think that is the case in this isntance…!
*instance, that is…and I even previewed that before posting! Time to wake up.
This makes me sick. I honestly don’t understand how a Catholic college can be “deeply committed” as an institution unless its staff and faculty are. If the people aren’t Catholic, how can the college be Catholic? It’s just empty words.
There’s no reason why they can’t require their faculty to take the Oath of Loyalty to the Magisterium. No reason whatsoever. If they want to hire secular faculty, fine, but they can still restrict what is taught and bind those professors to what is in line with the Church.
What really makes me sick is that I am sure there are parents sending their kids to Mount St. Vincent and thinking that everything’s fine because it’s a “Catholic college”.
ajf1984, you are absolutely right. I send my own children to a grade school/high school that does this so that it can teach the Faith integrally without the diocesan religious planners coming in.
(Though we do have diocesan Priests offer Mass each day at an old high altar :-) )
The New York laws are peculiar and followed in the wake of the Land O’Lakes statement on the nature of Catholic colleges. The laws are peculiar to New York, and status of the University depends on whether the University registered with the state as having a primarily religious purpose.
Additionally, New York extended non-discrimination statutes to most religious universities in a way that goes beyond the scope of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights act. Additionally, they include sexual orientation as a non-discriminatory protected class.
LiteratureAddict–you’ve hit upon the very reason organizations like the Cardinal Newman Society (and its wonderful publication Choosing a Catholic College) must exist and must continue their important work. The simple fact that a school has “Catholic” in its “About Us” page, or “Saint” in its name is not a valid indicator of its orthodoxy (and hasn’t been for a long time).
No, Father Zuhlsdorf, you aren’t missing anything. The President of the College who was quoted as describing the college as an
missed something.
To be specific, he omitted the appropriate modifier before “deeply,” which would be “skin” (as in skin-deeply).” Perhaps a legal complaint against the college for false and misleading advertising would be in order. Or, lacking that, a public relations campaign to make more widely known the college’s lack of adherence to authentic Catholic teaching, which would at least aid faithful Catholic students and their parents in identifying the wolves in the sheepfold.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
Speaking of sins that cry to heaven for vengeance…
As someone who has, quite recently, been educated by an institution “Catholic Higher Education,” let me assure everyone… yeah this happens everywhere. Thank goodness for the Cardinal Newman Society for bringing as much to light as they can, but this is an extremely pervasive issue that is not getting nearly enough attention in “traditional” (which is unfair, because morality and opposition to evil aren’t “traditional” rather than true) circles.
We often focus on the seminaries and the appointments to Sees… and we are right to be encouraged over the past several years that Pope Benedict and now Pope Francis have undertaken to root out a great deal of moral corruption in seminaries and have installed effective shepherds as the “biological solution” presses ever onward.
However, the talons of “rupture” are lodged deep in education. The dual edges of “tenure” and “academic freedom” have overrun many of our colleges. My suggestion is not, as some might have it, to scrub clean dissent from colleges or to see special investigations of academics. However, my suggestion is twofold:
1) As Pope Francis has said regarding certain diminishing religious orders: perhaps their mission is at an end. Encouraging the lay faithful to attend other schools is a powerful economic incentive for change. Many of these institutions are (probably wrongly) driven by a profit margin (instead of a prophet margin?) and will quickly address the issues for declining revenues.
2) Bolster Catholic High Schools. Send these kids into Catholic Colleges prepared for the times when they have a professor advocating for intrinsic moral evil. That’s not to say that kids should act like know-it-alls and disrupt classes, but rather to say that a firm, reason-based foundation in Catholic thought will prevent them from drifting along with the current.
I’m sure there are other suggestions out there, but these are battles that the laity can fight effectively if we try.
govmatt says:(14 August 2013 at 9:59 am)
I like these words very much re: Catholic schools that ‘miss the boat’ in Catholic teaching.
1) “…Encouraging the lay faithful to attend other schools…
2) “…a firm, reason-based foundation in Catholic thought…”
Thank you very much for them.
Like most of the problems of the past 40 years this can be laid at the feet of the bishops. Someone asked who in the Church is responsible for ensuring that Universities that pass themselves off as Catholic truly are? It is the bishop and it doesn’t matter whether they have temporal control over the institution or not. It doesn’t matter whether the state or even national laws support this position. Even if the bishop cannot legally force the school to take “Catholic” out of its name or solicitation materials he can speak forcefully and publicly against the orthodoxy of the institution.
The largest problem from a parent’s point of view is that most parents (absent the very informative Cardinal Newman Society’s Choosing a Catholic College, which many don’t know about) are relying upon either reputation, which is often based on pre-VII information about the institution, or the expectation that they must be true to Catholic teaching because otherwise how could they call themselves “Catholic.” These institution promote their founding by religious orders, without admitting that the no longer have any say in their operations, or are dissident themselves.
How many parents who care about the Catholicity of the school to which they are sending their child would even look at an institution that he local bishop has declared dissident? But the bishops refuse to speak out clearly, as they have done on every issue since VII. Sure they’ll say abortion is wrong, but they won’t talk about the intrinsicly evil platform the Democratic party and say no Catholic should vote for any Democratic candidate as long as that platform embraces those positions. They don’t speak out strongly enough against Republicans who support the death penalty in conditions which the Church has deemed it unnecessary (which is most times in the modern Western world.) They don’t speak out strongly enough against contraception, no fault divorce, or other issues either.
And they won’t tell parent they should not send their children to Fordham, or Notre Dame or College of Mount Saint Vincent if they want them to have a Catholic education.
This woman drags the name doula through the mud. For millenia, doulas have served pregnant women altruistically and eased their deliveries. She has perverted the name doula, the same way others have perverted the word marriage.
Mount St Vincent’s should, no, is obliged to, kick her to the curb immediately.
Alanmac:
AMEN! You’re spot on.
Frequently one sees on this site and others people bemoaning that the government seeks to impose secular laws at variance with Catholic morals on “Catholic” institutions – e.g., contraception coverage, etc. Then, when the courts uphold the government position, a wail and cry goes up. Like it or not, it’s stuff just like this that is to blame – not the government. The government simply reacts to the voters and the voters can’t see where colleges like this are anyway different from any other college that must follow the law. Rightly so, I might add.
After 12 years of “Catholic Schooling” it was obvious to me that “Catholic Schools” really were marketed as private schools better than public schools but cheaper than secular private schools. The mass apostasy and mal-catechesis of its graduates, is ample proof to me. Why is anyone surprised?? Things seem to be getting better at last, but there is a long way yet to go.
After years of working in healthcare, why is anyone surprised that “Catholic Hospitals” really are simply tax exempt hospitals no different from the secular taxable hospital across town? The gyrations I’ve seen to reach an accommodation with free standing “surgery” centers would not surprise anyone who has done this work. Are things getting better? Maybe, but I’m waiting to see.
The problem is not in the stars, Horatio….(or Obama or the Democratic Party or the Courts or the Republican Party)…the unpleasant truth is the problem starts and ends with us. Our own venality, spinelessness, reliance on someone else to take the hit, unwillingness to state unpleasant truths….those are the seed and manure of the tangled garden of horrors we see today. This is just another reminder that we have no one to blame but ourselves.
I think that you will find that most people on this list have no problem stating the unpleasant truth. However in the wider Catholic world many good Catholics have been lead astray. As parents they counted on the leadership of Catholic schools to be orthodox. They expected the shepherds who were appoint over them by mother Church to be doing their appointed tasks and keeping the wolves off, rather than aiding and abetting them.
I as a layman can only do so much if my pastor support heterodox teachings and is a dissident. If I complain the the bishop and he is either unwilling to intervene or worse yet agrees with aforementioned heterodox beliefs then I am relegated to moving my family to another parish, if I can find one, or engaging in a constant, disruptive battle in my parish. It’s been know to happen and has in a least one case resulted in the layman being banished from the parish. Actually banished under a secular court order.
It is not ourselves. Many people here have taken the hit, from our gentlemanly host, who had to struggle to find an orthodox seminary where real Catholicism was taught and genuine vocation was recognized on down to the many poster struggling to deal with poorly formed clerics who have never been taught authentic sacrificial theology, and all of us watching as bishops support programs and organizations of dubious conformance to Christian principles.
The problem exists and whatever its origin it is certainly not ourselves.