Catholic identity

Richard A. Sokerka

The Catholic identity of Georgetown University — the country’s oldest Catholic university — is being called into question by Catholic leaders, alumni and organizations who are leveling criticism at the Jesuit-run institution for defending a student group’s invitation to have Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, speak there this month. Georgetown has defended the group’s right to invite the abortion advocate, though it said the invitation does not represent an endorsement on behalf of Georgetown.

A statement issued by the Archdiocese of Washington said in part: “The Jesuit community on campus clearly has its work cut out for it and a long way to go as it tries to instill at Georgetown some of the values of Pope Francis.”

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., in a March 8 blog post, wrote, “Persecuted Christians in the Middle East are standing by their faith as part of their very identity, and Catholic institutions must likewise offer this testimony of their Catholic identity. A Catholic university brings to the discussion a vision rooted in the Gospel that necessarily challenges other ways of life,” he wrote.

Quoting from his 2015 pastoral letter, “Being Catholic Today,” he wrote that the world as a whole “benefits” when a Catholic university maintains its faithfulness to Church teaching “because the richness of Catholic teaching can engage the secular culture in a way that the light of the wisdom of God is brought to bear on the issues of the day.”

“Abortion is contrary to an authentically human society,” he wrote, and “thus, it is neither authentically Catholic nor within the Catholic tradition for a university to provide a special platform to those voices that promote or support such counter values.”

The Archdiocese suggested that the student group should have invited a speaker to focus instead on “the lives and ministry, focus and values of people like Blessed Oscar Romero, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Pope Francis.”

This is not the first instance of Georgetown’s Catholic identity being questioned.

Georgetown came under fire in 2012 for inviting then-Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius to speak at graduation after the HHS required many Catholic institutions to provide birth control to employees. Cardinal Wuerl criticized her selection because “her actions as a public official present the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history.”

In the fall of 2013, a Georgetown University law class required students to work with an abortion advocacy group. In their “Regulatory Advocacy: Women and the Affordable Care Act” course, students were required to work with the National Women’s Law Center, a D.C.-based advocacy group whose healthcare platform pushes for abortion, sterilization and contraceptive provision as health care.

And in 2009 Georgetown complied with a White House request to cover up the “IHS” monogram representing Jesus’ name on its speaking platform when President Obama came to give a speech. At the time, some Georgetown students charged the university with “sacrificing” its “Catholic and Jesuit identity.”

Given this pattern, Georgetown needs to reinforce its Catholic identity. It can start this process by immediately rescinding the invitation to the leader of the nation’s largest abortion provider from speaking on campus.