Inquisition, Anyone?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the Cardinal Newman Society is calling [click for PDF of their letter] for
a purge of "pro-death" professors at Catholic colleges...for perpetuating "a culture of death" by supporting abortion rights or siding against Terry Schiavo's parents in their efforts to keep her feeding tube.- Art CaplanThe Cardinal Newman Society also says in a fund-raising appeal that administrators at BC, Georgetown University and elsewhere should be warned their school risks being "stripped of its Catholic identity by the bishop who has authority over that college."
Among those named in the letter are the Rev. John Paris, a bioethics professor at Boston College...Boston College did not have an immediate comment, but Paris dismissed the society as "a self-appointed vigilante committee." He also labeled its planned appeal to the bishops as baseless, since the schools are run independently from the Catholic church. "They neither represent the church nor the academic community," Paris said of the society's leaders, "and yet they want to censor the academic community in the name of the church."
The Cardinal Newman Society also named the Rev. Kevin O'Rourke, a professor at Loyola University's bioethics institute; Tom Beauchamp, a philosophy professor at Georgetown; Maxwell Gregg Bloche, Lawrence Gostin and Peter Rubin, Georgetown law professors; Howard Freed, Lauro Halstead and John Collins Harvey, past or current medical professors at Georgetown; Daniel Maguire, a theology professor at Marquette University; Rev. Richard McBrien, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame; Curtis Naser, a philosophy professor at Fairfield University; and Kenneth Wing, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law.
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Inquisition? Its a good thing that we have Arthur Caplan to tell us what is right or wrong. God knows where we'd be otherwise.
Please don't flame me or get irate. This is meant in jest. Have a nice day.
- by Atticus Finch on Aug 17, 2005 at 3:36 AM | link
Inquisition? NOBODY expects the Bioethics Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless Schiavo-like-efficiency .... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Georgetown Mantra....
- by Daughter of St. John on Aug 17, 2005 at 3:49 AM | link
I considered bioethics as a conservative discourse , seeking consensus between irreconciliable conflict of convictions...that often leads to peace rather than justice. It seems that certain fundamentalists fringes of american opinion start fearing this very discourse which is quite disturbing for american démocracy. What is essentially missing is arguments that could construct a pragmatic universalism in the tradition of american optimistic méliorism instead of this "guerre de clochers" that dont help anyone reflect better on the challenges we face absorbing and understanding biotech influence on our social fabric.
Mylène Baum
- by Baum on Aug 17, 2005 at 9:17 AM | link
No doubt the conservatives in the Newman society feel the need to be vigilant about those who are teaching at Catholic institutions who take positions contrary to their own. Dialogue is not their strong suit, neither is it that of the church hierarchy. The message has always been not to question the teachings of the Church. One could argue that the abortion debate is not negotiable within the faith but the Schiavo case raises a very different set of interpretaion questions. This call for a purge is not helpful and one can't help but wonder if it won't have the opposite effect and engender dialogue (hope springs eternal)
- by sotto on Aug 17, 2005 at 11:36 AM | link
The Cardinal Newman Society was founded as recently as 1993 and does not appear to have any relationship to the Newman Clubs that are found on many university campuses. The slant of the Newman Society does not seem especially close to the heart of the author of An Essay on the Development of Doctine, A Grammar of Assent, or Apologia pro Vita Sua.
- by Clayton J. Heydorn on Aug 17, 2005 at 12:30 PM | link
Inquisition at the Smithsonian: http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/comment/klinghoffer200508160826.asp
- by Beverly on Aug 17, 2005 at 12:43 PM | link