Last week, TFP Student Action published a piece, as well as a petition, regarding the University of San Diego (USD), which is Catholic, if only in name, and the recognition of the pro-abortion group Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ). As the piece mentions, USD has had issues in the past when it comes to being consistent with its Catholic identity, including on the abortion issue. The piece also mentions that LSRJ has had a pro-abortion presence on other campuses, including other ones which claim to be Catholic. It would seem that this group not only endangers the lives of unborn children and their vulnerable mothers, but does so while disrupting the Catholic identity of where it sets up shop.
Perhaps what is the most disturbing, though, is that while LSRJ certainly has an agenda to promote, Catholic institutions which are true in their faith should know better. However, this is what John Ritchie, the author of this piece, had to say about what happened when he wrote to the university:
However, after I expressed my concern about the LSRJ club’s pro-abortion presence at the Catholic University of San Diego, I received a troubling reply from Dr. Timothy L. O’Malley, vice-president of university relations. In short he attempted to justify the club’s existence: “The fostering of legal expertise in all aspects of the law is consistent with the educational objectives of the USD School of Law,” he wrote.
But the truth is this: abortion advocacy is never consistent with Catholic education.
Now, if this were coming from a non-Catholic university, it would be troubling and unfortunate, but we could brush it off as universities being liberal institutions, or some excuse like that. The University of San Diego is supposed to be Catholic, though, and thus maintain Catholic teachings. Some may regard LSRJ as a group which involves “fostering of legal expertise in all aspects of law,” but if so, we expect such persons and institutions to be secular, and not of a faith which should promote and adhere to the Church’s teaching on life. Has Dr. Timothy L. O’Malley forgotten that USD is Catholic? Has he forgotten that abortion is not consistent with the fundamental teachings of Catholicism? If either of these are true, then perhaps Dr. O’Malley shouldn’t be holding such a position. Maybe we can’t really just blame him, though. Perhaps USD shouldn’t be regarded as Catholic anymore if it keeps having integral identity issues with its faith.
You don’t have to be Catholic to be pro-life, but if you’re Catholic and not pro-life, you don’t have much justification or excuse.
