Duplicitous Dalliance

LIFENEWS.COM, March 20 — Being a professor of ethics and theology for a Catholic university did not stop Daniel Maguire from giving the keynote speech at a Planned Parenthood function in Florida.

Maguire, of Jesuit-run Marquette University in Milwaukee, addressed about 400 at a dinner honoring the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. Maguire is also a former priest.

LifeNews.com noted that Maguire has published numerous pro-abortion books, including Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions.

When LifeNews.com asked about Maguire's support for abortion, which contradicts Catholic teaching, a spokesman in Marquette's public affairs department said the professor's position was protected under the school's academic-freedom policy.

Bishop Rejects Ad

CONTRA COSTA TIMES (California), March 23 — As publisher of The Catholic Voice, Bishop Allen Vigneron of the Oakland, Calif., Diocese has rejected an ad by Voice of the Faithful announcing a seminar sponsored by the University of San Francisco.

The upcoming seminar, according to the paper, “gathers scholars to discuss the Catholic Church's future.”

“I was informed that the Voice of the Faithful has decided to withhold affirmation from some elements of authentic magisterial teaching, for example, the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood,” Bishop Vigneron wrote to Peter Davey, the group's East Bay chairman.

Davey denied the group advocated for such changes, but the ad still did not run.

Legionary Launch

SACRAMENTO BUSINESS JOURNAL, March 19 — Legion of Christ-run University of Sacramento has identified a site to launch its graduate program in 2005.

The university has subleased 400 square feet of offices in downtown Sacramento and is negotiating for more. It plans to launch a master's program in liberal arts and education next year, the journal reported.

Cardinal Arinze to Speak

SANTA PAULA TIMES (California), March 26 — Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., has announced Cardinal Francis Arinze as its May 15 commencement speaker.

The Nigeria-born prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will also receive at the ceremony the St. Thomas Aquinas Medallion, which is given to those who have “demonstrated extraordinary dedication to God and his Church,” the newspaper reported.

Pro-Life Students' Win

NEWS & OBSERVER (Raleigh, N.C.), March 22 — Officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have agreed to Carolina Students for Life's request to be included in the school's Women's Week.

Carolina Students for Life president Stephanie Evans was delighted last fall when the school's Women's Center agreed to let the pro-life view be heard. She negotiated with pro-life speakers and established a link with the center to Students for Life's website.

But then, on March 8, two weeks before the Women's Week kickoff, she was told her speakers would not be included and the link removed. So Evans sent a letter to the university's chancellor as well as to the media with her concerns.

The university addressed and resolved in her favor each one.