By Kathleen Gilbert
RICHFIELD, Minnesota, February 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Minnesota Catholic high school has decided against giving a state legislator an award he was scheduled to receive after the school learned he has consistently supported abortion legislation.
Rep. Paul Thissen, who is running for Minnesota governor, was expecting to be presented with the Academy of Holy Angels (AHA) Activities Hall of Fame Alumnus Award last month, when he received a call from AHA president Jill Reilly asking him to withdraw his name.
When he refused, he was told the award would be revoked due to his position on abortion.
According to the school, the primary criterion for the award is the alumnus’ record at the academy, but the committee also takes into account later conduct and professional record.
“Mr. Thissen had an outstanding activities career at Holy Angels and has had much success beyond,” the school’s president, Jill Reilly, said in a prepared statement.
“That being said, the nominating committee was not aware of Mr. Thissen’s voting record in the Minnesota legislature regarding right-to-life issues. As a result of Mr. Thissen’s public and professional position to actively support pro-choice issues, with regret, AHA has chosen not to include Mr. Thissen among this year’s inductees.”
“It’s not the biggest thing in the world, but the school was and is important to me,” Thissen told the Star Tribune.
“When I heard about this, I really was disappointed, not so much because of the award, but because the award was for something that had nothing to with my position on giving women the choice of what to do during a pregnancy.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2004 directed that pro-abortion politicians “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions” by Catholic schools. Such politicians are considered automatically excommunicated from the Church.
Thissen, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, has reportedly supported state funding for embryo-destroying stem cell research, and opposed legislation to block taxpayer funding of abortion providers.
To see the USCCB document, go to: https://www.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml