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The Church in the U.S.
April 13, 2012
Anna Maria College rescinds invitation to Victoria Kennedy PAXTON, Mass. (CNS) — Anna Maria College has rescinded its invitation to the widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to speak during spring commencement ceremonies after a local bishop said he found her an “objectionable” choice because of her association with organizations whose points of view are contrary to Church teachings. Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, said he told the president of the college that he would not attend the May 19 commencement if Victoria Reggie Kennedy were the speaker and the recipient of an honorary degree from the institution. “My difficulty is not primarily with Mrs. Kennedy,” Bishop McManus told The Catholic Free Press, newspaper of the Worcester Diocese. “My difficulty is with the college choosing her to be honored by allowing her to be commencement speaker and giving her an honorary degree. “My concern basically was that to give this type of honor to Mrs. Kennedy would in fact undercut the Catholic identity and mission of the school,” he said. “And that in so far as that that happens, the ‘communio’ (communion) or the unity that exists between the local Church and the local Catholic college is strained and hurt.” Bishop McManus did not specify which of Kennedy’s public appearances or statements raised concerns, but he said he was concerned that if Kennedy, who is Catholic, were honored by the college it would have given the impression that “someone can hold a position that is contrary to the Church’s teaching (and still be honored).” “That cannot be allowed,” he said. Some news reports have said Kennedy supports same-sex marriage and keeping abortion legal. Her husband, a lifelong Catholic, was a longtime proponent of access to abortion and pushed for expanded rights for gays and lesbians. A March 30 statement from the 1,100-student Catholic liberal arts
college located in central Massachusetts said the invitation was withdrawn after “hours of discerning and struggling with elements of all sides of this issue.” Citing Kennedy’s contributions on social issues such as gun control and child safety, the statement also said college officials still believed the late senator’s wife was an appropriate choice as speaker and honorary degree recipient. “As a small Catholic college that relies heavily on the good will of its relationship with the bishop and the larger Catholic community, its options are limited,” the college’s statement said. The college said it apologized to Kennedy and appreciated her understanding of its position. Kennedy expressed disappointment that she would not be able to address Anna Maria College’s class of 2012. In a statement issued after the college’s announcement, Kennedy said she accepted the decision of Anna Maria College President Jack P. Calareso and the executive committee of the college’s board of trustees and “regretted the position” in which they had been placed. “I have great respect and admiration for Anna Maria College and the class of 2012 and would not want my presence to hurt the school or detract from the graduates’ special day in any way,” Kennedy’s statement said. “Nevertheless, I am disheartened by this entire turn of events,” the statement continued. “I am a lifelong Catholic and my faith is very important to me.” She is a member of the board of directors of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, a nonprofit organization that brings together leaders from the worlds of business, finance, academia, philanthropy, nonprofits and the Church to serve the Catholic Church in the United States in the areas of management, finances and human resources development.
SINGING PRAISE — Members of a choir sing during a stop along the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The annual Good Friday event, which ends near the World Trade Center site, is sponsored by the worldwide Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Santa Rosa Diocese will ‘shut down’ if HHS mandate imposed, bishop says
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — If the Diocese of Santa Rosa is required to cooperate with the Obama Administration’s mandate requiring most religious employers to provide no-cost contraceptive coverage, the diocese won’t, said Bishop Robert F. Vasa. “If they shut me down, they shut me down,” the bishop said following a speech on Catholic health care at a three-day conference on Catholic health care reform hosted by Life Legal Defense Foundation and the Christus Medicus Foundation. The Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Sacramento, Oakland and Santa Rosa were among the sponsors. In an interview with Catholic San Francisco, however, Bishop Vasa said he believes the Church will prevail on the issue because religious liberty is “enshrined in our Constitution.” “Precisely because Jesus healed the sick, the Church is involved in healing ministry,” Bishop Vasa said in his keynote address to the conference, stressing the Catholic Church’s commitment to health care. “We are involved in this based on the conviction that each person has unique dignity.” Catholics must unite as they never have before if they hope to prevail against the federal contraceptive mandate, because the alternatives are bleak, according to speakers at the March 29-31 conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. “I think we have to mobilize our Church in a way we never have before,” said William Cox, president and CEO of the Alliance of Catholic Health Care, an association of California Catholic hospitals. “This is something we cannot fight unless we are united,” said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. A remedy that the U.S. bishops are urging Catholics to support is the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, said Doerflinger. Supporters may send their lawmakers a note in support of the legislation through a link at www.usccb.org/conscience. The proposed measure will ensure that those who participate in the health care system “retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral convictions.” It would amend only the new mandated benefits provisions in Title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to include the conscience protection that is al-
ready part of other federal health programs, according to the U.S. bishops’ website. U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., introduced the bill in the House, where it remains in committee; it now has more than 200 sponsors. In the Senate, the bill’s chief sponsor was Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., but senators voted March 1 to table it. Blunt has said, “This fight is not over.” In the Santa Rosa Diocese, Bishop Vasa said he has taken the first steps to changing its health insurance coverage — an action he has taken twice before in Lincoln, Neb., and Baker, Ore. Bishop Vasa was a priest of the Lincoln Diocese from 1976 to 1999, when he was appointed bishop of Baker. He requested that Anthem Blue Cross send him all 20,000 or more codes for procedures and payments so he can analyze exactly what is and is not covered. In the past, as an official of the Diocese of Lincoln and as bishop of Baker, Bishop Vasa said he changed health insurance to a self-insured plan that did not offer morally objectionable benefits to anyone. In Baker and in Lincoln, Bishop Vasa broke from the established health insurance carrier to go with a self-insured plan that conformed completely to Catholic values, including opposition to contraceptives, sterilization and abortion. Most plans cover those procedures and drugs, even if they are not explicitly stated, Bishop Vasa said. “I don’t do business with people who don’t think the way I do,” Bishop Vasa said. “Catholic health care is about more than excluding any particular procedure. It is about being knowledgeable about what is in your plan and making a conscious decision about what you want covered and what you do not want to have covered,” the bishop said in a recent speech. He said he not only expects the plan to exclude abortion and contraceptives but it should also cover treatment after an attempted suicide, restoring fertility by reversing vasectomies and tubal ligations, and repairs after a botched abortion. “Good morals make good medicine,” the bishop said. A new federal proposal issued March 21 suggesting third-party administrators pay the costs of contraceptives for religious employers reinforced the mandated coverage for self-insured Catholic hospitals and social service agencies. The U.S. bishops said that even with the new proposal, the mandate “remains radically flawed.”