Pushing Abortion?

The headline “Catholic Universities Push Abortions to Students” (Dec. 22–28) is misleading. To say that Catholic institutions are pushing abortions because a remote link to the Planned Parenthood Web site appears on a university Web site that discusses reproductive-health issues for women is to make an erroneous claim.

With the amount of information available and the range of people able to post information on college and university Web sites today, it is often difficult to safeguard against every piece of information that might be considered objectionable. As your article stated, institutions that were informed about this link on their site took action to remove it. One institution has a policy of disclaiming material on their Web site to make sure its not seen as representing official university policy.

Our institutions are committed to meeting the challenges of Ex Corde Ecclesiae to foster their Catholic identity while at the same time engaging the culture around them. Mistakes are made, but malice need not be assumed, as your article does. Fair, honest criticism based on all the facts is constructive and helpful. Sensationalistic tactics make for exciting headlines but in the long term cause undue harm and help no one.

MELISSA C. DI LEONARDO

Washington, D.C.

The writer is director of communications for the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

An Inadvertent Link

We take exception to the article “Catholic Universities Push Abortions To Students” (Dec. 22 - 28). Your reporter and headline writer were too eager to paint a provocative picture of what, for Santa Clara University—and probably for many others named in the piece—was an isolated, inadvertent occurrence.

The short reference on our Web site to Planned Parenthood was inappropriate. It was one among two score of organizations included in a resource list that covered a wide variety of health issues. To state that this 152-year old Jesuit and Catholic university “pushes” abortion because one reference in one of 140,000 pages on our Web site was inadvertently posted is quite an overstatement. The individual who posted it erred in not noticing the reference when he or she migrated the material to an SCU page. We removed it when someone told us it was there because it is inconsistent with Catholic teaching, and Santa Clara is a Catholic university.

To quote Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach so completely out of context lacks reportorial integrity. To read the full text of his May 2001 Rome speech, from which the quote was excerpted, visit www.scu.edu/Bannan Institute/links.htm on the Internet.

To read the full text of his Santa Clara speech in English, Spanish or Italian, visit www.scu.edu and search for “Kolvenbach” or go directly to: www.scu.edu/news/relea ses.cfm/1000/kolvenbach_speech.html.

Meaningful dialogue among Catholics requires honesty, mutual respect and genuine charity. We invite your readers to visit our Web site and especially to click on the “University on a Mission” link on its home page. We continue to work toward the full expression of this university's distinctive character and mission as a Jesuit, Catholic institution.

SUSAN SHEA

Santa Clara, California

The writer is communications director of Santa Clara University.

Editor's note: Our story reported that the universities in question removed the links from their Web sites. Nonetheless, we would defend the headline's wording.

If a university provided a “where to have fun” link to local hard-liquor stores, we would say it “pushed liquor to students.” If it had a “what to do to relax” page that linked to cigarette sellers, we would say it “pushed smoking.” These sites had a “where to go when you're pregnant” link to Planned Parenthood, which sells abortions. It is unthinkable that a Catholic university Web site would link to sellers of hard liquor or cigarettes. It should be even more unthinkable that it would link to Planned Parenthood.

On the Father Kolvenbach quote: Thank you for the link, but our quote doesn't appear in it. We were quoting this, from Father Richard John Neuhaus' 1998 book Appointment in Rome: “In my interviews with Father Kolvenbach…he has been refreshingly candid.…As to what he meant to say about Jesuit higher education, he answers that ‘for some universities, it is probably too late to restore their Catholic character.’” Neuhaus then refers to the problems caused when lay boards and “smart lawyers” gain control of universities.