MANASSAS, Va. — Black and Catholic leaders have issued a statement in support of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., for its refusal to recognize and fund a student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Cardinal Newman Society released the statement Sept. 6. Catholic University denied the group's request this spring, citing the civil rights organization's support for legal abortion. Signers of the statement, who included Father Robert Stoeckig, vicar general of the Diocese of Las Vegas, and several officials of diocesan black Catholic ministry offices, rejected NAACP president Kweisi Mfume's charge that CUA's decision was “racist.” They called on the NAACP to cancel its threats of legal retaliation.
Stating that a black child is twice as likely to be a victim of abortion as a white child, the signers charged: “It is the NAACP's position that ignores the plight of African Americans who are disproportionately victimized by abortion.”
Student clubs that already exist at CUA, including two devoted to black concerns, can “carry on the struggle for civil rights without affiliation with the NAACP,” they said.
(Register staff)