Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 3:46am

The University of Scranton: Reclaiming its Catholic and Jesuit heritage…

 

The University of Scranton’s President, the Reverend Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., has announced plans to terminate the institution’s health insurance coverage of all abortions.

Since the 1990s, the University’s healthcare policy allowed for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother was endangered by a pregnancy. This policy was implemented so as to comply with the limits of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania law for traditional insurance plans.

However, that was then and this is now.

letter-header

In his letter to the campus, Fr. Quinn  stated that the coverage of any abortion is inconsistent with the University’s Roman Catholic faith:

…the moral teaching of the Church on abortion is unequivocal. Circumstances, “however serious or tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being,” and “[n]o one more absolutely innocent could be imagined” than the unborn child. (Evangelium Vitae, no. 58)

Why the dramatic change in policy?

The University of Scranton is now self-insured, meaning  that “we can, and therefore must, offer insurance plans that are free of all abortion coverage,” according to Fr. Quinn.

Aware of the problems this change in healthcare policy will likely provoke–in particular, with the faculty union because the University’s contract with the union will need to be adjusted–Fr. Quinn wrote an eloquent, proactive defense:

…fidelity to our mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution is the abiding theme of our history, regardless of the times and trials.

Remaining faithful to our identity as a Catholic institution calls us to serve the world in unique and inspiring ways. It has also, over the years, led the University to adapt its institutional practices to ensure harmony with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church….

Would that all of the presidents of the nation’s Catholic universities and colleges experienced a similar conversion or, at least, learned that it is possible to overcome their timidity, defend Church teaching at their institutions, and tred where angels fear!

Fr. Quinn’s defense of Church teaching raises substantive questions:

  1. Should not what is unique about a Catholic institution of higher education–its “value added”–be its role in integrating faith and reason, first, by propagating the Catholic faith and its values and, second, building upon that foundation? After all, shouldn’t one know what one is critiquing before critiquing it?
  2. Why ever would anyone pay tuition to attend a Catholic university or college in order to be strategically de-Catholicized? Aren’t there already enough officially secular-humanist institutions of public higher education available in the United States?

Kudos to Fr. Quinn and the University of Scranton! May his leadership inspire his colleagues in U.S. Catholic higher education to tred where they’d rather not…by becoming self-insured and, then, ending all abortion coverage as part of their healthcare policies.

 

 

To read Fr. Quinn’s letter, click on the following link:
http://www.scranton.edu/about/presidents-office/emails/letters/2015/our-mission-healthcare.html

To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
http://richard-jacobs-blog.com/omnibus.html

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Philip
Philip
Monday, February 16, AD 2015 8:08am

The Dark side looses one! Praise God!
Catholic in name and substance.
What a breath of fresh air.

Mary De Voe
Monday, February 16, AD 2015 9:23am

“A person is a person, no matter how small” Dr. Seuss. Science has proved Dr. Seuss correct in the rational, immortal human souls of Snowflake babies, those sovereign persons, begotten in a glass dish, frozen and brought to term and in the DNA of their individual human bodies. Their innocence is the standard of Justice for our nation and every nation. What is Roe v. Wade waiting for? …for the nation to collapse from the violation of its citizens, the murder of its constitutional posterity and for the eradication of the truth? Taxation without representation. Every swindle, lie and perjury is a violation of the Justice due to the individual citizen.

Mary De Voe
Monday, February 16, AD 2015 9:30am

“Since the 1990s, the University’s healthcare policy allowed for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother was endangered by a pregnancy.”
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The mother’s death must be imminent, right here right now, but not in some nebulous misdiagnosis. Abortion because of incest and rape punishes the innocent child for the crimes of his parents. That is like me going to hell because my father committed a mortal sin. What ever happened to informed consent which is how rape and incest violate the sovereign person, and the Justice in due process of law,; the Rule of Law?

trackback
Monday, February 16, AD 2015 10:47am

[…] The University of Scranton: Reclaiming its Catholic & Jesuit heritage – The Motley Monk Some Wisdom from John of the Cross – Ryan Kraeger, Ignitum Today Gonzaga: “We Hide the Word ‘Catholic’ From Prospective Students” – Jim Infantine, FT Protecting Students from Catholicism At Marquette – Anne Hendershott, Crisis Mgzn An Atheist Haunted by God: My Conversion to Catholicism – Jennifer Fulwiler, Aleteia∝ Pittsburgh’s ‘Church Alive’ Fundraising Campaign Sets Record – Peter Jesserer Smith What Is It About the Virgin Mary that Enrages Feminists? – Father Robert McTeigue SJ 12 Things to Remember If You Keep Falling Into the Same Sin – Fr. Dwight Longenecker For the WEDNESDAY BYZANTINE EDITION (2-11-15) click here. […]

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Monday, February 16, AD 2015 1:34pm

Will Jesuits reform themselves before Pope Francis suppresses their order? It’s a race between two snails.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Tuesday, February 17, AD 2015 2:08am

It’s about time someone in leadership stopped being a hypocrite!

Father of seven
Father of seven
Tuesday, February 17, AD 2015 2:20am

The article asks rhetorical questions, that is if one is Catholic. It is time to end the false advertising, though. We do have enough “officially secular-humanist institutions of public higher education” in the United States. We also have way too many so-called Catholic colleges as well. It’s easy to teach my children to spot the wolves. It’s harder to get them to see the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesuit institutions of higher education come to mind.

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