Rites of spring: commencement protests

National Catholic Reporter, May 21, 2004 by Dennis Coday

May is commencement time across the United States. You know what that means: "Pomp and Circumstance," academic robes and commencement addresses. And, of course, protests against speakers whose views don't match certain constituencies.

Some speakers never hear the protests because they never make it to the stage after invitations are withdrawn. The diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., has been especially busy this season. Bishop John M. D'Arcy has squelched the appearances of two speakers this year.

The University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne had invited Dr. Nancy Snyderman, a Fort Wayne native and former medical correspondent for ABC News, to address commencement May 1. The school rescinded that invitation April 27 in a fax that reached Snyderman a few hours before she was to board a plane for Fort Wayne. The invitation had been extended nearly two years earlier.

On Easter, D'Arcy informed university president Sr. Elise Kriss that he would not attend the ceremony because Snyderman has "positions on unborn life that I as a Catholic bishop found unacceptable."

In a written statement, D'Arcy said "I specifically said that I did not expect [Kriss] to withdraw any honor from Dr. Synderman, but simply said that I could not be present." He did, however, forward to Kriss "material which I received concerning Dr. Snyderman's position so [Kriss] would know the reason for my decision." He also sent the material to Kriss' religious superiors.

D'Arcy had a transcript of a report Snyderman had done for ABC in 1997 about an Iowa woman pregnant with septuplets. She had reported that many doctors will suggest reducing the number of fetuses to two, three or four to increase the chances of survival for the remaining fetuses.

The fax sent to Snyderman said her "comments appear to be contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church. As a Catholic university, we have no choice but to rescind our invitation."

Synderman did make the trip to Fort Wayne to visit her parents, and a week after commencement wrote an open letter to D'Arcy in the local newspaper. She wrote: "Do not presume to know me. That is offensive. I hold my political and social views very close and very few people could tell you my opinions on such matters. In my 20 years as a journalist I have been careful to separate my personal views from the facts of medicine and science.... On the rare occasion when I have voiced an opinion, I have labeled it as such. None of those occasions included the subject of abortion."

With no speaker and graduation four days away, St. Francis university asked D'Arcy if he would address the graduates. He declined. "My presence at the graduation itself might be seen as divisive or distracting on a day so beautiful for the graduates," he said. But D'Arcy wasn't finished yet.

April 30 he ordered St. Joseph High School in South Bend, Ind., to withdraw an invitation for Gov. Joe Kernan to address the graduates because of his policies on abortion. Kernan is a St. Joseph alumnus.

Kernan, a Catholic, said through a spokesperson that he personally opposes abortion, but supports a woman's right to choose abortion in consultation with her family, physician and spiritual advisers.

Bishops are not alone in bird-dogging Catholic universities' choices of graduation speakers. The Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society has this as a full time avocation.

The society supplied D'Arcy with the transcript of Synderman's 1997 report on the septuplets. The Cardinal Newman Society president, Patrick J. Reilly said, "Her reporting on national television was clearly biased in favor of 'selective abortion.' ... How can a Catholic institution ignore that?"

The society says its mission is the renewal of Catholic identity in Catholic higher education in the United States but it seems focused on abortion and sexuality issues. It is protesting commencement addresses at 19 Catholic colleges and universities this spring. The list is on the group's Web site.

The society has released a 56-page report, "The Culture of Death on Catholic Campuses: A Five-Year Review," that documents, according to their news release, "inroads made by advocates of abortion, contraception, premarital sexual activity, and physician-assisted suicide onto Catholic college campuses since 1999."

Just the section on campus speakers and honorees lists 200 incidents at 74 Catholic institutions. Among the offenders are politicians (Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Al Gore top a long list), jurists (Margaret Marshall and Maryanne Trump Barry), media personalities and entertainers (Michael Moore, Cokie Roberts and Pete Seeger), and religious figures (St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean and Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

The report also looks at schools with health services that may provide contraceptives and abortion referrals, faculty and courses that deviate from official church teachings, and student organizations and newspapers that publicize or advocate gay rights, pro-abortion views, premarital sex and contraception.

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