News Roundup: Georgetown Students Want More “Catholic Thought”, Growing Numbers of Lay Leadership at Catholic Colleges

Georgetown’s student editors want more ‘Catholic thought’

“Georgetown’s students and Catholic identity would be better served if Catholic thought was more integrated into the core curriculum,” writes the editorial board of The Georgetown Hoya in a piece that is otherwise critical of the late William Peter Blatty and The Cardinal Newman Society.

Referring to Blatty’s efforts to strengthen Georgetown’s Catholic identity by filing of a canon law petition, the editors defend “ideas which compete with Catholic teachings” but admit that “Georgetown’s Catholic pedigree is an integral component of Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage that all students ought to engage with during their years at Georgetown.”

…the lawsuit is correct in wishing to preserve Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage. The [Cardinal Newman Society’s accompanying] report notes students can graduate from the university without directly enrolling in a class focused on Catholic teaching and that the presence of Jesuits on campus has decreased from 122 in 1975 to 64 in 2011.

Unlike our Catholic peer institutions such as Boston College, Notre Dame and Villanova, Catholicism does not explicitly play a role in Georgetown’s core theology curriculum; even the university’s hallmark course offering, “Problem of God,” depends almost entirely on the preferences or academic background of the professor.

St. Thomas University offers abortion drug coverage, refers to abortion center

It’s hard to imagine—or to stomach. LifeSite News reports that the board of directors of St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada, recently voted to offer students the abortion drug cocktail Mifegymiso under the university’s health plan for a $5 co-pay.

The Cardinal Newman Society also found that the university’s telephone directory includes “Clinic 554 (Sexuality and Reproductive Health/Abortion Services)” among its “emergency numbers,” as does a resource for “students in distress” produced by the university’s department of student services.

St Thomas University claims to teach “within a humanistic and Catholic tradition,” and its chancellor is Bishop Robert Harris of Saint John. Something is very wrong here!

Lesbians, radical feminists, drag queens at USF’s ‘global’ women’s forum

California Catholic Daily reports on the University of San Francisco’s upcoming “Global Women’s Rights Forum,” which will feature sexual activists and drag queens.

The Jesuit university’s event on March 7 and 8 will discuss “Feminism of Color and the Politics of Print,” “the intersections of sexuality, race and gender with different forms of citizenships and borders,” “Gender, Sexuality and the Latin American Left” and “Hookup Culture, Culture, Sexual Politics and Campus Rape.”

A drag queen named “Fauxnique” will perform something called “The F Word.” The USF website elaborates, “The F Word is FEMINISM! No longer unmentionable, now on everyone’s lips—let’s hear it from the painted mouth of a lady drag queen.”
CalCatholic laments that “the subject most universally, one might even say ‘globally,’ relevant to university-age women, marriage and family—which would also be of interest to any genuinely Catholic university, is completely ignored.”

Loyola Chicago theology prof blasts pro-lifers

Theologian Susan Ross of Loyola University Chicago blasts pro-life Catholics and defends legal abortion in a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Please continue reading at The National Catholic Register>>>

*subhead*Put Your Blurb Here.*subhead*