Nov 15, 2008 / 04:11 am
Doug Kmiec, a pro-life Catholic who vocally supported President-elect Barack Obama, defended his position in a lecture Tuesday at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. The law professor told attendees that if Pope Benedict told him that his support for the pro-abortion politician was out of line with the Church’s teachings, he would stand by the Magisterium.
About 30 to 40 protesters against Kmiec’s speech stood in silence outside the seminary gates, an attendee who requested anonymity told CNA. Inside the seminary, nearly 300 people listened to Kmiec’s speech, the Thirteenth Annual Newman C. Eberhardt lecture.
Father Eberhardt was a long-time history professor at the seminary.
“Several of his students wished that he could be there to demolish Dr. Kmiec’s presentation point by point,” the attendee told CNA, claiming that the setting of the event “causes scandal to the faithful and sows confusion throughout the non-Catholic community.”