May 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Dallas Catholic school administered by Ursuline nuns who have reportedly expressed their support for billionaire Melinda French Gates’ campaign to inject millions of women with contraceptive drugs has received at least $8.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation during the past decade, LifeSiteNews.com has learned.
According to statements posted on the Ursuline Academy of Dallas website, Gates gave $5 milllion to the school in 2006, “the largest single contribution received in the history of the Academy,” for the creation of the French Family Science, Math and Technology Center, which was given in Gates’ maiden name, “French.”
In 2007, Gates followed up with another $2 million “for science, math, and technology education as part of the Academy’s strategic plan for campus renewal and growth.”
In 2012 Gates gave another $1.5 million to the school during a fundraiser recorded on the website as well.
Gates, who is married to billionaire tech mogul Bill Gates and who claims to be a “practicing Catholic,” recently told Newsweek that she intends to spend $4 billion to bring contraceptives to 120 million impoverished women by 2020. She emphasizes the injectable drug Depo-Provera, a hormonal contraceptive that also causes abortions, and that has been associated with a variety of serious health problems, including bone loss and cancer.
Gates told Newsweek that following the original announcement of her new campaign at the the Berlin TEDxChange conference in early April, the Ursuline nuns from the Academy called her at her hotel to tell her: “We’re all for you. We know this is a difficult issue to speak on, but we absolutely believe that you’re living under Catholic values.”
“It was just so heartening,” Gates said of the phone call.
Following the Newsweek story, published on May 7, the Academy’s president, Margaret Ann Moser, issued a statement declaring that “the nuns are “proud of Melinda French Gates, her dedication to social justice, her compassion for the underserved, and the great work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
“Melinda Gates leads from her conscience, and acts on her beliefs as a concerned citizen of our world,” adds Moser, explaining, “The mission of Ursuline Academy of Dallas is to educate young women for such leadership.”
While claiming that “Ursuline is committed to the moral and doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church” and recognizing that “Melinda’s beliefs on birth control are different from those of the Catholic Church,” the sisters nonetheless say they “respect her right” to “speak from her research and experience of the world we live in.”
The statement does not affirm nor deny that the sisters called Gates to support her contraceptive campaign. LifeSiteNews has been told that for the time being the Academy will not be making further statements. A follow-up request for an interview has not been answered.
Following the nuns’ statements, Dallas Bishop Kevin J. Farrell was said by his communications director to be “communicating” with the Academy, although details were not given. A statement has also been posted on the diocesan website, “in light of recent news events,” reaffirming the Catholic Church’s condemnation of contraception.