Church Controversy is in Georgetown's DNA
May 20, 2012
By Peter Manseau
When Georgetown University students gathered on the Healy Lawn for their graduation this past weekend, they did so within sight of a stately seated statue of John Carroll, the university’s founder and the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States. Born in Maryland in 1735, Carroll was educated and ordained in France, where he became a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. He returned to North America only when his religious order came under attack across Europe, supposedly for their tendency to interfere in matters of state. The Jesuits had a knack for giving voice to opinions that threatened their spiritual and political rivals.
Given this history, Bishop Carroll would likely not be surprised to find his university embroiled in a controversy concerning the appropriate place of religious groups in civil affairs. He might be surprised, however, to learn that this time an attack on a Jesuit institution was instigated not by forces outside the church, but those within.
Earlier last week the Archdiocese of Washington released a statement describing as “shocking” Georgetown’s invitation to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius as a commencement weekend speaker. According to the statement, Sebelius’ role in defining which institutions would be exempt from the Obama administration’s health care mandate to provide coverage for contraception presents “the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history.”
The Catholic higher education organization, the Cardinal Newman Society, presented a petition to the university’s president, John DeGioia, to rescind Sebelius’s invitation. They also produced a video that did everything but show the famous “Exorcist steps” to suggest that Georgetown had gone to the devil.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/5998/church_controversy_is_in_georgetown's_dna/
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