SPOKANE, February 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Gonzaga University, the Catholic college in Spokane, Washington, owned and run by the Jesuit order, has allegedly made its stand on the side of abortion supporters and homosexual activists against Catholic and pro-life groups on campus.
According to Dr. Mike Adams of the University of North Carolina, in December 2003, the Pro-Life Caucus was denied official recognition at the Catholic university on the grounds that a policy allowing only Christians to hold leadership positions was discriminatory. Numerous observers found this inconsistent since the Jesuit order, which owns the university is a religious organization that presumably discriminates in precisely the same way in its own membership policy and requires that the president of Gonzaga be a Jesuit.
Since then, says Adams, a professor of criminology and a columnist for Townhall.com, several attempts have been made by students to gain recognition for pro-life and Catholic students’ groups. The university has at the same time granted recognition to a ‘pro-choice’ group and includes a Sexual Orientation Diversity Alliance at its law school, says Adams.
Dr. Adams received a letter from a student saying that the university’s claim to be Catholic is ‘fraudulent.’ Adams writes in a letter to Gonzaga president, Fr. Robert Spitzer SJ, “The only two Christian clubs recently formed at the law school have been refused official recognition.” Adams says that according to his correspondents at the School of Law, members of the unofficial Christian club have been persecuted including false charges of honor code violations. Pro-life activists, particularly those in the education wing of the movement will be surprised at these accusations about Gonzaga. Fr. Spitzer is prominent in the pro-life world as the founder at Georgetown of University Faculty for Life. He is the author of the book, “Healing the Culture: a Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues” published by Ignatius Press that is considered a textbook for pro-life speakers. Fr. Spitzer founded the Center for Life Principles in 1993, has been a board member of Human Life of Washington since 1990 and is an internationally respected consultant on ethics. “We live in a strange age, indeed, when a Catholic, Jesuit university would deny a Christian pro-life group recognition because its religious nature is considered discriminatory,” said Greg Lukianoff, spokesman for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Philadelphia. Dr. Adams writes, “Gonzaga Law School’s deplorable conduct towards its Christian students should serve as a warning to Catholic parents everywhere: avoid sending your Catholic children to GU.” Read Dr. Adam’s letter: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050222.shtml hw