Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 2:15pm

Forget “Occupy Wall Street”: It’s now “Occupy Anna Maria College”…

Those who follow The Motley Monk might recall an April post in The American Catholic—“What’s A Bishop To Do?

In that post, The Motley Monk discussed how academic administrators at Anna Maria College (AMC)—a small Catholic college located in the Diocese of Worcester (MA) and having close ties to the Diocese—had withdrawn their invitation to the widow of Senator Ted Kennedy, Victoria, to  deliver the institution’s 2012 commencement speech.  The invitation was withdrawn due to the opposition of Bishop Robert J. McManus, who cited Kennedy’s moral views that conflict with Roman Catholic teaching.

 

 

For those who thought the story would end there, they thought wrong.

Ensuing controversy over the withdrawal of the invitation to Kennedy is now threatening to mar the event.  Rumors persist that protesters might demonstrate.

Think of the threat as “Occupy Anna Maria.”

Apparently, the threat has AMC’s President, Jack Calareso, and the Chairwoman of the AMC’s Board of Trustees, Sister Yvette Bellerose, so concerned that, according to The  Boston Globe, they recently met at the diocesan offices and politely disinvited Bishop McManus, claiming “the bishop would be a distraction to the event.”

A spokesman for Bishop McManus said: “He was going to  attend, but that’s not going to happen now.”

AMC’s academic administrators subsequently issued a statement indicating that the relationship between AMC and the Diocese of Worcester “remains strong.” In addition, they promise “the two organizations will continue to work together with respect and collegiality to advance the goals and values of quality Catholic education.”

 

In the world of the politics of Catholic higher education, The Motley Monk would observe, those words are the refrain for the hit tune “Tit for Tat.”

 

 

To read The Motley Monk’s post in The American Catholic, click on the following link:
https://the-american-catholic.com/2012/04/02/whats-a-bishop-to-do-wink-and-nod/

To read the Boston Globe article, click on the following link:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-05/metro/31574538_1_gay-marriage-graduation-exercises-commencement-speakers

To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, click on the following link:
http://themotleymonk.blogspot.com/

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Mary De Voe
Monday, May 7, AD 2012 6:48am

When Obama visited Notre Dame, Catholics protested, were arrested and prosecuted by Notre Dame, 85, I believe. They were found innocent by reason of Notre Dame being public property and they, being public citizens. Are these people so fearful of conflict, of having to stand up for the truth, that they would sell out the truth? I am sure Bishop McManus would have helped pay their legal fees. The spirit to fight for the truth is not in their constitution. They are already slaves.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
Monday, May 7, AD 2012 7:12am

It’s perhaps time then to “disinvite” them from being able to call themselves officially CATHOLIC. What’s the problem? Just do it.

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Monday, May 7, AD 2012 10:57am

[…] Street”: It’s now “Occupy Anna Maria College”… | The American Cathol… Forget “Occupy Wall Street”: It’s now “Occupy Anna Maria College”… | The American Cathol… Posted by Fr. Tim Moyle at 7:57 AM Email ThisBlogThis!Share to […]

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Monday, May 7, AD 2012 1:32pm

[…] Forget “Occupy Wall Street”: It's now “Occupy Anna Maria College … Posted in Occupy Wall Street | Tags: amc, apparently, calareso, maria-college, motley, occupy wall street, president, published, published-monday, the-threat, threat /* […]

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, May 7, AD 2012 4:08pm

One word courses through Shaw’s alleged mind: “spineless.”

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Monday, May 7, AD 2012 6:01pm

[…] Now “Occupy Anna Maria College” – The Motley Monk, The American Catholic […]

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Tuesday, May 8, AD 2012 4:07am

One recalls the Land O’ Lakes Statement of 1967
“The Catholic University today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. To say this is simply to assert that institutional autonomy and academic freedom are essential conditions of life and growth and indeed of survival for Catholic universities as for all universities.

The Catholic university participates in the total university life of our time, has the same functions as all other true universities and, in general, offers the same services to society. The Catholic university adds to the basic idea of a modern university distinctive characteristics which round out and fulfill that idea. Distinctively, then, the Catholic university must be an institution, a community of learners or a community of scholars, in which Catholicism is perceptibly present and effectively operative.”

Robert
Robert
Thursday, May 10, AD 2012 12:18pm

The key to understanding how we got here is in the College’s own words:”the two organizations”… See, the College and the Diocese are equal. All this stuff about the “teaching authority of the Magisterium” is so much balderdash. The academics have zero interest in receiving moral guidance from the episcopate, and zero intent in following it.

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