It’s taken almost fifty years but, finally, a president of a prestigious Catholic university in America has stood up to confront the radical principles espoused by twenty-six Catholic College presidents (or representative officials of the same) who were responsible for the break away Land O’Lakes manifesto of 1967. Actually, CUA president Msgr. David O’Connell has taken strong stands before when almost all other Catholic university presidents either caved in to pressure or directly advanced the dictatorship of relativism. In his stewardship he has faithfully supported Pope John Paul II’s mandate for Catholic institutions as stated in Ex Corde Ecclesia: “I consider,” he said, “any pro-choice advocacy — whether deliberate or accidental, whether presented under the guise of academic freedom or right to free speech — as incompatible with that fidelity and not worthy of The Catholic University of America Rev. F. Raymond Fowerbaugh, Assistant to the President of CUA, was one of the signers of the Land O’Lakes Statement in 1967.
Among other things, Msgr. O’Connell took Notre Dame to task:
“Obama goes to Notre Dame and everyone gets their pants in a twist; 80 bishops pile on saying Notre Dame shouldn’t have done that; the president comes and gives a speech . . . However, the university “still turns away 1,000 students; they still get a million dollars in contributions; they honor the [papal] nuncio. … They’re back in the good graces of the church – what happened as a result of this?”
“I’d like the Holy See to say ‘Ex Corde’ is normative,” he continued, “not Land O’Lakes. To appeal to Land O’Lakes as a source of vibrancy in Catholic education is mistaken.” Read full CNA article here.
