Washington – Fordham University’s plan to give an award to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has drawn criticism from alumni and the leader of the Catholic church in New York over Breyer’s support for abortion rights.
Cardinal Edward Egan has spoken to the Catholic university’s leaders to ensure “that a mistake of this sort will not happen again,” said New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
More than 1,100 Fordham alumni and others have signed a petition calling for the award to be revoked, according to the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic group based in Manassas, Va., that is leading the protest.
Breyer is scheduled to accept the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize Wednesday at a dinner in New York. He will be the seventh justice to receive the award from Fordham’s law school. Of the six other justices, five voted in support of abortion rights while on the court, and their awards drew no apparent protest.
But the Cardinal Newman Society has been actively opposing Catholic colleges’ efforts to honor people who do not share the church’s anti-abortion views. It also has highlighted campus appearances by Catholic academics who back Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who favors abortion rights.
The group recently objected to Santa Clara University’s decision to honor former Clinton administration official and U.S. Rep. Leon Panetta. Panetta is a graduate of the school and a member of its board of trustees.
Patrick Reilly, the society’s president, has called Panetta “a leading advocate of the Culture of Death.”
The argument against Breyer, who is not Catholic, is that he wrote the majority opinion in a 2000 case that struck down a Nebraska law banning a procedure that abortion opponents call partial-birth abortion. He also dissented in a 2007 case that upheld a federal law banning the same procedure.
Fordham and Breyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Egan has previously criticized Catholic elected officials and candidates who support abortion rights. Zwilling said this is the first instance he is aware of in which Egan has spoken out against giving an award to someone over the issue of abortion.
Associated Press
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posted October 27, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Good for Fordham, which is acting like a real university. Bad for those RCC leaders who are trying to turn Fordham into a mouthpiece for the RCC.
posted October 27, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I find it unfortunate that certain segments within the Roman Catholic Church are so williing to narrowly define the accomplishments of someone based on their stance on abortion. I applaud Fordham for not being afraid to honor Breyer and I hope it stands up to the heavy handed meddling by the church.
Society might be better served if the Catholic Church and other ardent abortion foes would join with pro choice advocates in a joint campaign for preventing unwanted pregnancies, birth control education, and other more positives methods that would lower the need for abortions in the first place. I feel this approach is more productive than their futile efforts of trying to get it criminalized.
I also have a recent post on Bishop Malooly of Wilmington, taking Senator Joe Biden to task for his remarks on abortion. In a careful look at the issue….I think Biden was more accurate than the Bishop.
posted October 28, 2008 at 6:01 am
I am a Catholic. I applaud Fordham. Until the Catholic Church recognizes that if it is going to be pro life, it must get its act together and truly be pro life. That is, they must accept the reposnisibility to fully and comprehensively address those issues that cause and often force women to seek abortion. That is we must not only be advocates but we must assure that this nation and others must address womens issues such as poverty, lack of access to education, women’s labor right, full employment, battered women issues. I find that the church is very self-righteous and heavy handed in the way they deal with those who are pro Life but do accept the way the Church teachings are administered. I believe that the Church sins by their heavy handedness an denying communion to some of our politicians. Their is far more to prolife than abortion. I find it difficult to support the Chruch because it wears so many faces of evil itself.
Dan
posted October 28, 2008 at 6:37 am
That was a beautiful statement, Dan and I wholeheartedly agree. The less stigma and isolation caused by sex and pregnancy in general, the less abortions will be performed.
posted October 28, 2008 at 9:57 am
I was struck by the quote from Cardinal Egan: “that a mistake of this sort will not happen again”. It sems to me that this of bullying is quite the antithesis of what Jesus did. As I read the Gspels he never intimidated people, but offered his message freely. The current leadership of the Church should spend more time reflecting on the Gospels and modeling themselves on Jesus rather than looking into the mirror and modeling themselves on some figure from the Spanish Inquisition.
posted October 28, 2008 at 1:27 pm
More on this at http://www.lifenews.com/state3586.html
posted October 28, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Not sure what to say that hasn’t already been said well by those before me. However I certainly do admire Fordham for not backing down to the self-rightous Cardinal Egan. To try and deny a person, in this case Breyer, an award for a singular stance that Egan (and the RCC?) disagrees with is outrageous. Those guys at the top in the RCC have an incredible ego.
posted October 28, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Shame on Fordham! If you want to label yourself as a Catholic institution, then you had better honor and commit yourself to Catholic values and teachings. There are way too many institutions and people out there who call themselves Catholic but then proceed to pick and choose amongst the teachings they wish to agree with and throw the rest out.
If you’re not going to tow the party line, then get yourself another party.
posted October 28, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Anon,
Apparently humility is not one of the Catholic values and/or teachings. Arrogance seems to have supplanted it.
posted October 28, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Fordham is a University, anon. It is supposed to be a place of higher learning and exploring in order to graduate men and women, so they can enter the world better people for that education. Breyer certainly has helped make other supreme court decisions not relating to the dreaded RCC no-no, abortion. He has a right to this award. The RCC needs a few more people to not tow the party line. The party line needs a lot of revision in a lot of areas, to many to start here.
GO FORDHAM!
posted October 28, 2008 at 4:43 pm
http://www.nrlc.org/ABORTION/pba/PBA_Images/PBA_Images_Heathers_Place.htm
posted October 29, 2008 at 6:27 pm
On a second reading of above article, it was really insulting of the Catholic something or other to say what they did about a United States Supreme Court Justice, one of the highest Judges in America. It shows again the lack of respect that Orthodox Religious people have for their government, and the people in it.
posted October 30, 2008 at 11:15 am
Asinus Gravis, you live up to your name well. Not sure what your comment has to do with anything here.
PS, I agree with the first part of what you said if Fordham was not a Catholic institution of higher learning. But since it is, it needs to fall in line with Church teachings. It’s that simple. If it wants to do its own thing, then it needs to divest itself of its Catholic name, or it is deliberately being deceptive. Now I think you and I would both agree that being deceptive is not a good hallmark of a university.
posted October 30, 2008 at 9:34 pm
In other words, anon, if a person, who is Catholic, attends Fordham, they are not suppose to expand their view outside the teachings of the Catholic church? They’re not to accept that just perhaps a person of merit (Justice Breyer)is eligible for an award from the school, even though he has in his lifetime achieved the position of Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States,just because he is pro-choice? If the only thing that defines a person (in the eyes of the RCC) is their stance on abortion, then the RCC has more problems than I thought they had. You think that the school is being deceptive by giving the award to Breyer? I disagree. I think they are teaching the students that there is more to a person than that person’s stance on abortion. The RCC seems to have a problem with their Catholic students learning even more about the “real” world. Folks disagreeing with the church is part of the real world. Those students are going to enter that world, and they need to be prepared. Showing that the church wants to withhold an award because the person doesn’t happen to agree with some or all of the church’s tenents shows discrimination, IMO.