DETROIT, Michigan, April 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The University of Detroit Mercy, a Jesuit Catholic institution, has come under fire for failing to remove links to pro-abortion groups on its website, as well as for keeping a renowned pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” nun on its Board of Trustees.

According to TFP Student Action, at least 11,000 students and concerned parents have petitioned the Catholic University of Detroit Mercy to remove links to abortion promoters from its web site. So far the request has not been granted.

Links to Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women (NOW) are still listed in two places: “career & professional resources” and “external sites of interest.”

TFP Student Action has vowed to continue peacefully protesting the school.

“The average internet savvy webmaster could remove these pro-abortion links with ease in less than five minutes,” said the group in a press release. “Yet this Jesuit-Mercy university has not removed them so far, thus giving scandal to students who are faithful to Catholic teaching on abortion.”

The student advocacy group suggested that the school’s insistence in keeping the links may be related to the presence of Sr. Margaret Farley, a Sister of Mercy, on its Board of Trustees. Farley, who earned her Ph.D. at Yale Divinity School, was one of 40 Catholic religious who infamously signed a 1984 statement by “Catholics for Choice” upholding abortion as justifiable from a Catholic standpoint. Several of the co-signers were subsequently excommunicated.

Since then, Farley has published her dissention from Catholic Church teaching on several key issues, including abortion, homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” masturbation, sterilization, divorce, and women priests. Many of these viewpoints are available in her 2006 book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” in which Farley challenges the “simpler ways of interpreting human experience” of traditional Catholic values on marriage and sexuality, with a new framework for “just” sexual gratification outside of marital relations and family life.

Another co-signer of the “Catholics for Choice” ad, long-time Detroit Mercy faculty member Prof. Jane Schaberg, is a radical feminist and author of the book, “The Illegitimacy of Jesus.”

“What type of faith-damaging message does this send to Catholic college students?” questioned TFP Student Action. “How can we expect the next generation to respect innocent life when professors like Dr. Jane Schaberg and board members like Sister Farley publicly reject Church teaching and Natural Law on procured abortion?”

U. of Detroit Mercy did not respond to LifeSiteNews.com’s request for comment as of press time.

Contact:

President Rev. Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., Ph.D.

University of Detroit Mercy

4001 West McNichols Road

Detroit MI 48221-3038

phone 313.993.1455

fax 313.993.1534

[email protected]