Back to the June 2005 Newsletter Index

Keeler Boycotts Loyola's Graduation

Cardinal William Keeler publicly chastised Loyola College of Maryland for refusing to cancel its commencement speaker, pro-abortion former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, following a vigorous protest campaign by Defend Life and the Cardinal Newman Society.

After unsuccessful efforts to privately persuade Loyola College Interim President David Haddad to withdraw Giuliani as speaker, Cardinal Keeler went public with a May 18 open letter notifying Haddad that neither he nor any representative of the Archdiocese would attend the graduation.

The terse but strongly worded letter alludes to “an earlier exchange of correspondence in which you state the reasons for inviting former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to receive recognition at Loyola’s graduation.”

It concludes with the cryptic statements, “I am confident that by now, you understand many of the consequences that spring from an invitation having been extended to former Mayor Giuliani to receive an honorary degree at Loyola.

“May the Lord make of this event a teaching moment for many.”

Keeler’s public spanking of the liberal Jesuit college electrified the local media.

The Baltimore Sun on May 19  carried the story front page above the fold.

That same day Defend Life and the Cardinal Newman Society held a joint press conference in front of the Catholic Center, covered by three of Baltimore’s TV network affiliates and the Associated Press.

At the May 20 graduation ceremonies at Baltimore’s First Mariner Arena, Defend Lifers stood in a soaking rain carrying signs reading, “Hey, Loyola!  Real Catholic colleges don’t honor pro-aborts!”

Protester Jim Flood held a hand-printed sign that said, “Too bad Giuliani’s heroism doesn’t extend to unborn babies.”

Although the protest turnout was lower than expected, due to the weather and other factors, it was again widely covered by local TV and radio media.

The Loyola commencement protest was part of a larger, ongoing effort to reverse the trend of secularization and outright opposition to Catholic teaching and principles rampant at many of America’s 219 Catholic colleges and universities.

The Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity at these institutions, has been at the forefront of this effort.

In April, CNS wrote Interim President Haddad, urging him to cancel both Giuliani’s honorary degree and his commencement address, “in order to preserve fidelity to the college’s Catholic mission, obedience to your bishop and public trust in your commitment to not lead astray the college’s students, its employees and the general public.”

An April 27 CNS letter to Cardinal Keeler urged him to “take immediate action to prevent scandal in the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” first by privately communicating with Loyola College, but without “waiting until it is too late to inform the public that the invitation is in direct conflict with the U.S. bishops’ statement and the Church’s expectations for Catholic colleges and universities.”

By early May, Defend Life had joined the fray, urging pro-lifers, via its website and e-mails, to voice their objections regarding Giuliani to Haddad and Keeler.

In fliers handed out during a May 17 picket outside Loyola College, Defend Life pointed out that in honoring Giuliani, Loyola is clearly violating a 2004 mandate by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stating, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.

“They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

Giuliani has been a strident supporter of abortion “rights,” opposing federal and state bans on partial-birth abortion as well as restrictions on government funding of abortions.

Both Defend Life and the Cardinal Newman Society urged Cardinal Keeler to withdraw official recognition of Loyola as a Catholic college if it refused to rescind its invitation to Giuliani.

Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution on Catholic universities issued by Pope John Paul II, gives local bishops the responsibility of determining whether colleges can bear the label “Catholic.”

Since it was issued in 1990, bishops have ended recognition of four historically Catholic colleges.

The most recent is Marymount Manhattan College, declared “no longer Catholic” in April by Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, after protesters objected to its scheduled commencement speaker, pro-abortion Senator Hillary Clinton.

Cardinal Keeler’s boycott of Loyola’s commencement mirrors the actions of Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans, who publicly chastised Loyola University of New Orleans for honoring pro-abortionists U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitchell Landrieu.

Hughes also refused to attend the university’s commencement ceremony.

The honoring of Giuliani is just one in a long series of negative events at Loyola College, which has been in moral free fall ever since Fr. Harold Ridley became its president in 1995, said Defend Life Director Jack Ames.

Ames blames Ridley, who died in January, for intimidating the college’s pro-life group, Evergreens for Life, virtually out of existence, refusing permission for it to display a Cemetery of the Innocents on campus in 1997.

The college has condoned an active student gay/lesbian group for years, and last year welcomed a similar group for faculty and staff.

Loyola also hosted the notoriously immoral and salacious play, The  Vagina Monologues, in 2004.

“Loyola got a huge black eye because of the boycott of the graduation by Cardinal Keeler and the Archdiocese,” said Ames.

“Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call to Loyola College and the Board of Trustees to name a good new president to turn Loyola around – and also to other Catholic colleges to scrutinize whom they invite to speak at graduation ceremonies and award honorary degrees.”