A Jesuit university is honoring Sr. Carol Keehan who publicly supported Obamacare against the bishop’s wishes and despite the bill’s federal funding of abortion. Keehan’s support was a huge public relations coup for the Obama administration which believed her endorsement so pivotal they gave her one of the pens Obama used to sign Obamacare into law.
The Cardinal Newman Society sent out an alert stating:
On November 23, 2010, the University of San Francisco (USF) plans to honor Sr. Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, whose support of the healthcare overhaul passed earlier this year by Congress resulted in “a wound to Catholic unity” according to the U.S. Catholic bishops. The Cardinal Newman Society is urging USF to rescind the scheduled honor.
“It is unspeakable that the University of San Francisco should choose to honor someone who severely damaged pro-life efforts in this nation and undermined the express will of the U.S. bishops,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The Cardinal Newman Society calls on the President of USF to rescind the offer of this honor and speaking platform to Sr. Keehan.”
USF’s office of University Ministry plans to honor Sister Keehan at its “Stand 4 Conference” later this month. According to the University, the conference “recognizes religious and spiritual leaders whose actions symbolize a life of courage, commitment, and advocacy.” She will deliver a talk entitled “Health Care as a Social Justice Issue” at the conference.
The USF website reads: “This year we honor Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association. . . in her letter sent to Congress representing 59,000 Catholic nuns and more than 50 heads of religious congregations and organizations she remarks, ‘health care reform is a faith mandate for life and dignity of all of our people.’”
When she says for “life and dignity of all of our people” I assume she means except for the unborn…or the really sick people who won’t receive care under the federal plan.
But other than them Sr. Keehan’s right on target.
The thing that is especially irking about this invitation is while Notre Dame said they honored President Obama despite his stances opposing Catholic doctrine and bishops, the University of San Francisco seems to be honoring Sr. Keehan because of her stance against the bishops.
Cardinal Newman Society is attempting to mount a push to get the university to rescind their invitation. Check it out here.
November 8, 2010 at 10:12 pm
They should "honor" her with excommunication, and themselves too for their muddy thinking.
November 8, 2010 at 10:18 pm
If Sr. Keehan truly meant what she said about not supporting Obamacare had she known that it funds abortion, then she need to publicly denounce and retract her support and not accept any honors for her grave mistake. This will show whether her words were true and her heart is sincere. She and the university are a couple of tools reached by the peddlers of abortion. I hope they both snap of out their giddiness and return whatever blood money was slipped in their drawers before this becomes another publicity stunt to drum up support for defending Obamacare.
November 8, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Of course they will — why do we pretend to be surprised anymore by anything a "Catholic" educational institution does to honor those in complete opposition with Church teaching. I'm sure this is just the tip of a very, very large iceberg for such a university. If Notre Dame went ahead with honoring Obama himself, why should they not go forward in honoring this relatively lowly nun. I hate to say it, but I think the Cardinal Newman Society is simply wasting its energy.
~A Reader
November 8, 2010 at 11:12 pm
@ Reader
The energies supposedly wasted on our fellow men are still seen by God. At least they are remaining faithful, and I commend this society for its efforts. It must also have been seen as a wasted effort by the weeping women for Christ on his way to Calvary. At least that is from your point of view.
November 9, 2010 at 12:07 am
Call me a cynic, but I'm thinking that USF will take as an act of honor now to go through with it, despite the challenge from the Cardinal Newman Society.
November 9, 2010 at 2:18 am
It is so sad to see Catholic Universities answerable to no one when they are so obviously mislead. Such scandal weakens the faith and endangers souls.
November 9, 2010 at 3:24 am
@Patty — There are many battles to fight in this world with limited human resources for jihads doomed from the outset. There is the virtue faithfulness — but it is also best paired with the virtue of prudence. Sometimes drawing attention to these little skirmishes merely gives the bad guys the attention they seek and would otherwise not have received. Any PR is good PR to them…and it does end up working in their favor to get notice. The women of Jerusalem weeping over Christ were giving proper due to a situation meriting the world's notice — the two situations you compare are obviously not of equal weight.
~ A Reader
November 9, 2010 at 3:27 am
The main point of my original post was that this invite is likely the tip of the iceberg of wrongdoing at this university. This may be the more timely issue, but if we were to dig a little deeper, I'm sure we'd find all manner of shocking going against Catholic teaching. Hit at the roots, not the extremities, if you're going to strike at all.
~ A Reader
November 9, 2010 at 7:37 am
This is the same University of San Francisco (USF)that got caught refering students to Planned Parenthood for abortions. So why should this be a surprize?
November 9, 2010 at 6:17 pm
What I find interesting in this is the use of the word "our"in front of the word "people." From what I recall, the collective "we" have no ownership of any person, only God. By denying the fact that these people belong to God, and claiming ownership of these people, Sr. Keehan can truly say whatever she wants about them including when they count as people.
Now, I would guess that it was a simple typographical error except for the fact that it was meant to be an open letter that was to gain national attention. I would think one would be very careful with word choice in that instance.
November 10, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Not surprised. Things like this are what made me leave USF back in my college days. Figured I was better off coming home and going to a secular university than putting more money in their pocket for a "catholic" education.
November 10, 2010 at 6:27 pm
As an alum, I am not surprised. I repeated tell people NOT to send their children to USF. When they call for donations I ask if Fr. Privett is still President. When they proudly say, "Yes!" I let them know that as long as he is President I will not give USF a cent.