Oct 12, 2007 / 07:27 am
Bishop Robert J. McManus of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts has condemned the decision by the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross to rent meeting space to a conference that includes Planned Parenthood and NARAL workshops. He has asked the college president, Father Michael C. McFarland, to cancel the event's reservations. The president's refusal could endanger the college's official Catholic standing.
The Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy's Teen Pregnancy Institute is scheduled to use the college's conference facilities on October 24. Some of its speakers will discuss contraceptive methods and initiatives to provide teens access to such methods.
The chancery received hundreds of complaints from Catholics outraged about the college’s assistance given to the conference. The archbishop attacked the college's actions as "truly scandalous" for supporting "an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil." He said that the college's apparent support for positions contrary to Catholic teaching was confusing and upsetting for the Catholic faithful.
He also clarified Catholic doctrine: "The moral teaching of the Catholic Church on respect for life at all stages of its development is manifestly clear. Life is a fundamental good that must be protected and respected from the moment of fertilization to natural death. This teaching is so basic and important that it provides the foundation upon which much of the Church's moral and social doctrine rests. It is beyond modification and compromise."