Roxanne Martino has resigned from the University of Notre Dame Board of Trustees, effective immediately, in the wake of reports criticizing donations she has made to organizations that characterize themselves as pro-choice.
“In the best interests of the University, I regretfully have decided to step down from the Notre Dame Board of Trustees,” Martino said. “I dearly love my alma mater and remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching and to the mission of Notre Dame. I had looked forward to contributing in this new role, but the current controversy just doesn’t allow me to be effective.”
CMR admits responsibility for inadvertently contributing to a campaign to abort her tenure on the Notre Dame board. Oooop. So sorry.
A good amount of the real credit for this proper development must go to William McGurn. His articles on this travesty at the increasingly awesome National Catholic Register were devastating to Notre Dame and to Martino.
What is not awesome is that the leadership at the University that selected Martino, and then bold faced lied about it, remains in place. Fr. Jenkins should resign as well. It is clear that while he may check “pro-life” on his Catholic bona fides, his commitment to issue (like his commitment to the truth) is about as shallow as a kiddie pool after a Michael Moore cannonball.
Anyway, this is a positive development even if Fr. Jenkins gets away with it (for now.)
See Paul Zummo at American Catholic for additional commentary.
June 9, 2011 at 3:22 am
Awesome, but "(I)remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching " is just not true as she obviously hasn't been commited to the teachings about abortion in a long time
June 9, 2011 at 3:31 am
From ND's web site..
"Martino received her bachelor’s degree in business from Notre Dame and a master of business administration degree from the University of Chicago. She joined Aurora Investment Management in 1990 and now leads the Chicago firm."
Wow! She's arrived!
June 9, 2011 at 3:59 am
For those of you on Facebook who wish to keep abreast of the happenings at Notre Dame, this group may be of interest to you: "Pro-Life Alumni, Students, & Friends of the University of Notre Dame" http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_160896863974103
June 9, 2011 at 4:15 am
Truth has freedom of the press.
@Anonymous: If Martino is so smart why is she so evil?
June 9, 2011 at 7:07 am
"(I)remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching…".
In the words of Colonel Sherman Potter – her comments are nothing but a bunch of bull cookies!
June 9, 2011 at 1:53 pm
How ironic that Ms. Martino "…remains fully committed…to the mission of Notre Dame," since the mission of Our Lady was to birth a child!
June 9, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Pray Tell: just what is an 'aspect' "of Catholic teaching" as in: "I dearly love my alma mater and remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching."?
I suppose one "aspect" of Catholic teaching is that one can ignore it. Another aspect is that one can flaunt it. Another aspect is that one can pay it lip service.
June 9, 2011 at 11:04 pm
The offensive thing about the "fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching" business is a possible implication that the only thing wrong with abortion is that the Church says it is wrong. But hey, if it were up to me…
This is probably not the intended meaning, but it fits in with the general institutional stupidity Notre Dame cultivates. The most charitable assumption about all of this is that none of the principals–Ms. Martino, Fr. Jenkins, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees–knew (or cared) what Emily's list was.
The frustrating thing about Notre Dame is not that the institution makes wrong steps (whether concerning this, or Obama, or the Vagina Monologues, or going all the way back to the Cuomo speech: but, rather, its reaction after the excrement hits the fan. Someone has said a bureaucracy is an organization incapable of learning from its mistakes. According to yesterday's Chicago Tribune: "Dennis Brown, a spokesman for Notre Dame, declined to say whether administrators screen the political contributions of board candidates. He said the selection process would not change going forward" Exactly.