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State's Most Pro-Abortion Judge on the Board of Catholic University

By Tim Waggoner

MINNEAPOLIS, July 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews has learned that a notorious abortion advocate and Appeals Court Judge is holding an executive position at a large Catholic university in Minneapolis.

Judge Diana Murphy is the chairwoman of the Executive Committee for the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of St. Thomas. However, throughout her tenure as a judge with the Eight Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals, she has consistently overturned legislation seeking to further the Culture of Life.

On September 11, 2000, the appeals court judge ruled against multiple legislators, pro-life groups, physicians and citizens, who objected to the State of Minnesota paying for abortions with their tax dollars. The federal government had banned such use of taxpayer funds and so had the Minnesota legislature. Murphy and the State Supreme Court, however, found the State ban on funding to be unconstitutional and ruled the plaintiffs had no standing, preventing the case from being reviewed at higher levels.

On October 25, 2006, Judge Murphy ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood, striking down legislation that would have required doctors to inform women that an abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.

Judge Murphy is also a donor and Vice Chair of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), which, according to Dr. David Pence of the DocSociety, is intent on severing the university's ties with the Church. According to its website, DocSociety is "a brotherhood of Catholic men working to restore fatherhood and fraternity among Catholic priests and laymen."

Dr. Pence and the DocSociety have been for years closely monitoring the questionable happenings at St. Thomas University.

"Why is a notorious pro-abortionist judge holding a executive position at a Catholic University?" asked Pence in a LifeSiteNews interview.

Pence said that one might expect that given that the chairman and vice-chairman of the university Board of Trustees are the former Catholic bishop of the diocese, Archbishop Flynn, and former Vicar General of the diocese, Rev. Kevin McDonough, the board of the Catholic university would be composed of members who preserve Catholic teachings. 

But considering the track record of Archbishop Flynn and Rev. McDonough, Pence said he is not surprised that pro-abortion Judge Murphy is chairing the Executive Committee for the Board.

Archbishop Flynn retired from the diocese after years of complaints by faithful Catholics over his handling of a host of scandals involving homosexual activists both within and without the archdiocesan administration.
 
Under his rule, a notoriously pro-homosexual parish, St. Joan of Arc, was allowed to continue openly supporting the Gay Pride parades and the homosexual lifestyle. The parish's opposition to Catholic teaching was so brazen that it resulted in a 2004 rare direct intervention by the Vatican.
 
Flynn was named by homosexual political activists as one of the US's four most "gay friendly" bishops.

McDonough came under fire in 2006 after he attempted to brush off the rampant homosexuality in the diocese, stating, "I don't believe in this archdiocese there has ever been an active subculture of homosexual priests who were sexually active and justifying their behavior."

McDonough's public assertion was surprising, especially since his own brother William McDonough, a priest (active as such at least until 1998) in the diocese, is on public record going against Church teaching on homosexuality.

To add to the controversy, LifeSiteNews covered a story in November of 2007 that saw the board vote unanimously to remove a 125 year-old bylaw that declared the chairman and vice-chairman of the board should be the sitting Bishop and Vicar General of the Diocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.  The board, headed by Flynn and McDonough, made this strategic move just five months before Archbishop Nienstedt was to be installed as the new archbishop of the Minneapolis diocese, thereby preventing him from assuming the position of chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas University.

The board of directors also voted to re-install Flynn and McDonough as chairman and vice-chairman for an extended five year term. The move was feared to be an effort by the university to override the authority of and possible reforms by Archbishop Nienstedt, Flynn's more orthodox Catholic coadjutor bishop who has since succeeded him as head of the archdiocese. 

The vote thereby extended the contracts of chairman Flynn and vice-chairman McDonough for five more years, after which the board could vote in whomever they desire to fulfill the roles - essentially eliminating the Church's and, more specifically, Nienstedt's role in the university.

Archbishop Nienstedt's authentic Catholicity was not welcomed by the Board of Trustees after he said he would not accept a proposed plan by one of the board members that sought to merge the school with a medical association, because the move would involve teaching abortion procedures as part of the curriculum.  This happened only weeks before the vote was cast that saw the removal of the bylaw.

The spokesperson for St. Thomas University did not respond to calls by press time.

See the following DocSociety coverage on Judge Diana Murphy:
http://www.docsociety.org/documents/Abortion%27s_Handmaid.pdf

See the DocSociety's full coverage on the controversies surrounding St. Thomas University and the Diocese of Minneapolis.
http://www.docsociety.org/

Please see related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Catholic St. Thomas University Votes to Sever Historic Ties with St. Paul Archdiocese
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112103.html

Archdiocese of St. Paul claims no "Subculture of Homosexual Priests" Here
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032801.html

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