Loyola And Mt St. Mary's Target Of Protests ...

Students Picket Pro-Abortion Senators 

At Two Maryland Colleges

Special to The Wanderer
March 30, 1989.

BALTIMORE-- Students picketed to protest the choice of Barbara Mikulski, pro-abortion U.S. senator from Maryland, as recipient of the Andrew White Award at Jesuit-run Loyola College in Baltimore and of Bill Bradley, pro- abortion U.S. Senator from New Jersey, as the speaker for the DuBois Lecture at Mt. St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg.

Loyola College had chosen to honor Mikulski because she had helped obtain $3 million in funding for the college. The Andrew White Award is named after the Jesuit priest who accompanied the first Catholic settlers in Maryland in 1634. The president of Loyola College, Fr. Joseph Sellinger, S.J., refused to make any comment on the protest. On March 17th about 100 students, including many cam- pus leaders, protested before the chapel in which Mikulski was being honored. Ten of the 12 students in the prestigious Green and Grey Society who were to be inducted into Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities at the same ceremony refused to participate in protest against the honoring of Mikulski and pro-abortion Cong. Stenny Hoyer.

Fr. James Farmer, a priest of the Baltimore Archdiocese and a Loyola graduate, asked, "How can a person so at odds with her Church on such a critical issue receive an award from a Catholic college?" Fr. Farmer joined 100 pickets from the community who included Fr. Michael Roach, pastor of St. Peter's Church in Baltimore and professor at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, and Fr. Leigh Fuller, S.J., an associate pastor in Baltimore. Students reported that members of the Jesuit community in Loyola had been forbidden by the Maryland provincial to comment on Mikulski.

On March 14th about 100 students and pro-life activists picketed at Mt. St. Mary's College against the choice of Sen. Bill Bradley as the presenter of the annual DuBois Lecture. This lecture is given in honor of the founder of the college and seminary, Bishop John DuBois. Dwight Campbell, president of Seminarians for Human Life, said that the speaker "perverts the nature and purpose of the DuBois Lecture." The student protesters plan to ask the college administration to ensure that future speakers and award recipients "are not opposed to Catholic principles and moral values."

Dr. Carol Abromaitis, head of the English department at Loyola College, said that the college had made it clear that Sen. Mikulski had received the Andrew White Award in return for the $3 million she had helped Loyola obtain. Student Leader Denise Blair of the Alpha Sigma Nu honor society said that even pro-abortion students were scandalized that the college administration would betray its principles in return for money. One student banner quoted the Loyola College song with an alteration: "Strong truths [not] well lived." Another banner read, "Has inflation caused 30 pieces of silver to be worth $3 million?"

Dr. Leon Podles, president of the Maryland chapter of Catholic Parents United, said that "the Jesuits have announced to the whole world that Catholic principles are for sale. Georgetown University sold out Catholic teaching on homosexuality for a $20 million District of Columbia bond issue, and Loyola has betrayed Catholic teaching on abortion for $3 million. The Jesuits might as well take out an ad in The New York Times tolist the price they will accept to betray each Catholic teaching. I hope they would ask at least $50 million to deny the existence of God."

"Most seriously," Dr. Podles continued, "this prostitution of Catholic principles by the Jesuits has the effect of making pro-abortion legislators acceptable to Catholic voters. Mikulski never misses an opportunity to appear in the good graces of the Church and to get her picture in The Catholic Review, and Church officials are always happy to oblige her. The failure of Church leaders to distance themselves from pro-abortion Catholic legislators is why we have legalized abortion in this country, and why the states with the highest proportion of Catholic voters also have the most fanatical pro-abortion representatives in Congress."

Dr. Abromaitis of Loyola College said that Fr. Sellinger should reflect upon the words of Thomas More to Richard Rich in A Man for All Seasons: "Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . but for Wales?" "Or," Dr. Abromaitis added, "for $3 million?"

Learn more about Leon Podles.