Washington D.C., May 9, 2012 / 01:17 am
More than 15,000 people have signed an open letter protesting Georgetown University’s decision to invite U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at an award ceremony during its commencement weekend.
“Our courageous bishops have been vigilant against this threat and they deserve, at a minimum, the respect and support of prominent institutions that claim to be in communion with the Church,” said CatholicVote.org president Brian Burch, who organized the letter.
In a May 8 e-mail to CNA, Burch explained that Georgetown’s decision to invite Sebelius is surprising because her defense of the Obama administration’s contraception mandate “threatens the very freedom of institutions like Georgetown University.”
Hospitals, universities and other institutions threatened by the mandate “represent what it means to be Catholic,” Burch said. “They're inseparable from who we are as a Church.”