Tuesday 7 May 2013

A Letter to the President of Boston College

I have just emailed a letter to the President of Boston College, as my requests for answers via Twitter met with nothing more than a gauche attempt to block comments....

--

Dear Fr Leahy,

I am a Catholic.

You can imagine my distress and confusion, therefore, to read that Boston College is honouring the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, by awarding him an honorary degree and inviting him to deliver the Commencement Address this year.

Or perhaps you cannot.  

Maybe you are unaware that on April 30th, Kenny's coalition government introduced legislation with the  title "The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013," which seeks to legalise abortion in Ireland on the grounds of preventing the suicide of pregnant women (despite the fact that no medical text suggests abortion as a treatment for suicidal ideation).

Maybe you are unaware that there is no gestational age limit to the measure, so that it will in practice mean abortion on demand, under threat of suicide, through all nine months of pregnancy.

Maybe you are unaware that Catholic hospitals will be forced to comply with the proposed law. 

Maybe you are unaware that the bill has no conscience clause protections for physicians, nurses, and other health care workers. 

Maybe you are unaware that Kenny has threatened to expel pro-life Catholic TDs from the Fine Gael parliamentary party if they refuse to vote for measure,

However, now that I have brought all this to your attention, my question is this:

Do you still think that it is consistent with the Catholic ethos of your University to honour this man, in this way, at this time?

If so, I would be keen to understand why.

If not, I would be keen to know what you are going to do about it.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Trovato

--

I suggest others do the same.  His email address is William.Leahy.1@bc.edu


1 comment:

Unknown said...

If no response is forthcoming from Fr Leahy (or even if it is), perhaps we should bombard the Nuncio, Cardinal Vigano, with messages asking how this invitation is compliant with the provisions of Ex Corde Ecclesiae ( the Apostolic Constitution governing the Catholicity of Catholic institutions of higher education and asserting the authority of the diocesan bishop in such matters). Personally, I am disappointed that Cardinal O'Malley's only response is to plead a prior engagement.

The Nunciature's email address is nuntiususa@nuntiususa.org