Choiceless

CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, Dec. 6 — So much for “choice” when it comes to debating abortion at one Canadian campus.

Student groups at Ottawa’s Carleton University that are opposed to abortion rights will not be able to receive money or recognition from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) following a revision to the student association’s discrimination policy.

The drive to amend the policy was initiated by campus feminist organizations after the Carleton Lifeline students’ club organized an on-campus debate over abortion in October. The revised policy was approved after a five-hour debate Dec. 6.

During the debate, former Carleton student David MacDonald said that he and his girlfriend might have decided not to abort their unborn child 20 years ago if a pro-life group had been active on campus.

“It was the worst mistake I ever made and she would say the same thing,” said MacDonald. “And there was no voice on campus to represent that.”

Vietnamese Vocations

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Dec. 10 — The mother tongue of most students at Divine Word College near Dubuque, Iowa, isn’t English or Latin. It’s Vietnamese.

Forty-three out of Divine Word’s 67 seminarians are of Vietnamese descent.

According to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Asian-Americans account for 12% of all Catholic seminary students nationwide, even though they comprise only about 1% of Catholics in America.

And most of the Asian-American seminarians are of Vietnamese descent, the Chronicle reported.

“They are replacing the traditional Irish and Italian immigrants who once provided a steady supply of priests in the States,” Len Uhal, Divine Word’s vocation director and vice president for recruitment, told the Chronicle. “We look to Asians, particularly Vietnamese immigrants, to fill the quotas.”

Digital Relics

SETON HALL UNIVERSITY, Dec. 8 — Catholic relics, manuscripts and other religious artifacts have been ushered into the Internet era at Seton Hall University.

Seton Hall’s Teaching Learning and Technology Center has digitized Catholic artifacts such as historic chalices and vestments, and is working on a website where digital photos of the digitized images will be displayed. Researchers will be able to rotate and zoom in and out on the images displayed on the website.

The New Jersey university’s pioneering efforts to preserve and digitize Catholic relics and manuscripts were highlighted at last month’s international conference on “Globalization, Digitization, Access, and Preservation of Cultural Heritage” in Sofia, Bulgaria. Seton Hall co-sponsored the conference.

Christian Frat Okayed

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, Dec. 7 — One day after a Christian fraternity filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit, the University of Georgia announced it will recognize the fraternity as a student organization.

Beta Upsilon Chi filed suit against the university Dec. 6, alleging the fraternity had been denied recognition because its members are required to pledge their belief in Jesus Christ. The university recognized the fraternity as a student group in 2005 but canceled its continued recognition last month.

Along with reinstating Beta Upsilon Chi’s recognition, the university will review its nondiscrimination policy to consider allowing other groups to select members based on religion, the Journal-Constitution reported.