Over at Catholic Education Daily, Kimberly Scharfenberger has done a yeowoman’s job in culling together some data concerning the nation’s Catholic colleges and law schools:
- They boast 65 alumni who are members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
- That’s 15% of the House’s membership, twice the number of Catholic 4-year institutions of higher education in the United States.
Is that political clout something about which the Church should be proud?
Scharfenberger reports that 50%+ of these Catholic college alumni/ae—38 to be precise—have votes on abortion that “should mortify their alma maters.”
Pro-abortion organizations such as the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood have rated most of those 38 alumni/ae at 100%. In contrast, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) has rated many of them at 0% when the vote comes to significant life-related issues.
Here’s the roll call of those 38 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who were educated at Catholic institutions and have consistently voted in favor of abortion rights:
- Brad Ashford (NE)
- Brendan Boyle (PA)
- Mike Capuano (MA)
- David Cicilline(RI)
- Gerry Connolly (VA)
- John Delaney (MD)
- Rosa DeLauro (CN)
- Mark DeSaulnier (CA)
- Deborah Dingell (MI)
- Sam Farr (CA)
- Lois Frankel (FL)
- Steny Hoyer (MD)
- Jared Huffman (CA)
- Hakeem Jeffries (NY)
- Eddie Bernice Johnson(TX)
- Bill Keating (MA)
- Ann McLane Kuster (NH)
- Ted Lieu (CA)
- Zoe Lofgren (CA)
- Stephen Lynch (MA)
- Sean Patrick Maloney(NY)
- Betty McCollum (MN)
- Gwen Moore (WI)
- Jerrold Nadler (NY)
- Rick Nolan (MN)
- Bill Pascrell (NJ)
- Nancy Pelosi(CA)
- Mike Quigley (IL)
- Charles Rangel (NY)
- Kathleen Rice (NY)
- Bobby Scott(VA)
- Albio Sires (NJ)
- Adam Smith(WA)
- Chris Van Hollen (MD)
- Juan Vargas(CA)
- Filemon Vela, Jr.(TX)
- Pete Visclosky(IN)
- Peter Welch(VT)
Another interesting factoid: Of those 38, 27 attended Jesuit institutions. 11 of them—25%—attended Georgetown University.
Something about which the Church should be proud? No.
About which the Church should boast? No.
Something those institutions should honor? No.
But, why did those obviously bright women and men choose to attend Catholic institutions in the first place? It mustn’t have been to learn to think about important matters—like the law and significant life issues—as Catholics do, to paraphrase Blessed John Henry Newman in his Idea of the University and St. John Paul II in Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Or, for that matter, natural law.
No, it must’ve been the institution’s reputation, the prestige associated with the degree awarded, and other such worldly honors and accolades.
“By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16).
To read Kimberly Scharfenberger’s article, click on the following link:
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/
DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4125/Most-Catholic-College-Alumni-
in-House-of-Representatives-Vote-for-Abortion.aspx
To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
http://richard-jacobs-blog.com/omnibus.html
“Friend, how did you come here without your wedding clothes?” Matthew 22:12
Will the fate of the (c)atholic’s by name only, be that of the man coming to the wedding dressed in soiled clothes?
I doubt that they have even considered the possibility.
“Then the King said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”13
14-“For many are called but few are chosen.”
I wouldn’t attach the word “eminent” to a Congressman or woman.
.
Here’s the problem as I see it from reading an annual report/statement of my so-called Catholic alam mater. The section tilted “Catholic Identity” read like a secular humanist manifesto. There was no mention of conversion, Christ, Mass, salvation, etc. Only 65 progressive buzzword like human dignity, peace, jsutice (a=whatever that is), etc.
.
Finally I’m pretty sure you won’t get into Heaven if you aided/abetted the mass murders of tens of millions of God’s children, unborn or otherwise.
It is heartbreaking to consider how different our society would be if only our so-called
‘Catholic’ colleges, law schools, and universities had been fulfilling the mission for
which they’d been founded. Instead, in the nearly fifty years since the Land-o-Lakes
declaration severed the bond between bishops and Catholic higher education, these
schools have been producing pagans, accelerating the decline of this nation.
.
Catholics account for ~25% of the population of this country. If Catholic schools had been
doing their job, would we still have the absolute, unfettered abortion license we see today?
Would ‘same-sex marriage’ have been pushed on us by the courts in the way it’s been?
In short, would we be less decadent today if our ‘Catholic’ schools had actually been
giving catholic educations to our future social, political and cultural elites– rather than
turning out well-connected pagans for the past fifty years?
.
The Cardinal Newman Society produces an annual list of Catholic colleges and universities
that fulfill its very basic criteria — schools that have access to the Mass on campus, whose
theology teachers hold a mandatum from the local bishop as required by Canon Law,
etc, etc. Their requirements to make the list are all no-brainer, minimal standards– and
yet out of the roughly 240 so-called ‘Catholic’ schools in this country, only about 1/10th can
make the list. I think a good case could be made that those 216 other schools posing as
Catholic are simply frauds.
.
It’s obvious that Catholic schools in this country have lost all interest in the purpose for
which they were founded. When will it be acknowledged that rather than helping the
Church pass on the Faith to the next generation of Catholics, these institutions’ loyalties
lie elsewhere?
Clinton.
Amen to everything you have said.
How many of those 38 have a “D” next to their name, and how many an “R”?
.
You know. Just for the record.
Sigh. And how many of those public advocates of abortion have been publicly corrected by their bishops?
Please, let’s be part of the solution. None of these schools should ever be described as Catholic anymore. They should be identified as “formerly Catholic Georgetown University”, ect. That will help with the false advertising that lures Catholics into thinking their children are at a “Catholic” university when, in fact, they are not.
Father of seven.
Why not call them by their true identity;
Anti-Catholic Universities.
Until they have earned the Right by demonstrating adherence too doctrinal beliefs and not opposing them.
Until then, let them be known as Anti-Catholic!
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