It appears that “pro-choice” Victoria Reggie Kennedy has been invited again to Anna Maria College, which disinvited her last spring. This time she will share a stage with a Catholic congressman who has a 100 percent rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL.
As reported by The Cardinal Newman Society in March, Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts, honored the wishes of Worcester Bishop Robert McManus and disinvited the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy as commencement speaker because of concerns about conflicts with Catholic moral teaching. Then the college asked Bishop McManus not to attend the commencement ceremony, claiming he would be a “distraction.”
Now the college reportedly has invited Kennedy to speak on October 24 as part of its fall symposium on “Faith and the Public Square: Balancing Religious Beliefs with the Common Good.”
Since when do Catholics “balance” their faith with the common good, as if the two are contradictory? Sounds like the perfect venue for anyone who dissents from Catholic teaching.
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According to the Telegram & Gazette:
In a press release yesterday, Anna Maria President Jack P. Calareso said, “We are extremely pleased that Mrs. Kennedy has agreed to join Anna Maria College as we consider the important issues of practicing both our faith and our commitment to the Common Good in today’s global society.”
In the same release, Mrs. Kennedy said, “This symposium will provide a place for an energetic discussion of the role of faith in the public square.”
In an interview, Mr. Calareso said the symposium is an academic event scheduled by the college. He said Bishop McManus will not attend the symposium but provided suggestions for panelists.
“We wanted to make sure the panel was balanced and we did meet with him and he was very helpful,” he said.
Mrs. Kennedy will also meet with students in Anna Maria’s honors program.
Kennedy reportedly will be one among several speakers including two Lutherans and a professor from a nearby non-denominational theological school. Also on the roster is U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-3rd), a dissident Catholic who has a 100 percent rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL and has voted against banning partial-birth abortion.
The Communications Office of the Diocese of Worcester confirmed to The Cardinal Newman Society that Bishop McManus has not opposed the event and anticipated that at least one of the speakers, Father Richard Reidy, a canon lawyer and diocesan priest, will present a faithfully Catholic perspective.
This article originally appeared on Campus Notes, the blog of the Cardinal Newman Society, and is reprinted with permission.