The new President of the Catholic University of America was introduced to the university community at a well attended gathering on campus yesterday. Professor John Garvey, previously the Dean of the Law School at Boston College, will take up his duties at the 15th President of CUA later this summer.
It did not take the conservative blogosphere long to impugn this man’s fitness. Never mind that he is, as Archbishop Alan Vigneron, Chairman of the CUA Board, said, “an accomplished jurist, scholar and teacher.” Never mind that his appointment had just been approved not only by the bishop-heavy CUA Board but by the Holy See. Never mind that he has devoted his life as a scholar to studying the ways that faith informs the law, his area of expertise. Never mind that his five children have a total of 92 years of Catholic education.
Garvey’s crime? He donated, over the course of three years, $1,750 to the campaign of his home state Senator John Kerry. And, while Dean of the Law School, he oversaw the awarding of an honorary degree to home state Congressman Edward Markey. Both Kerry and Markey are pro-choice. Now, I can think of a bunch of reasons to vote for or against John Kerry but I do not see how that support, or lack thereof, would disqualify a person from the post of a university President at a Catholic college. And, more than a year ago I let my feelings be known about the awarding of honorary degrees at commencement time. I think both Kerry and Markey are wrong on abortion, but I cannot judge their entire careers based on that fact alone anymore than I can judge George W. Bush’s career simply because he sanctioned the use of torture against suspected terrorists. That, too, is an intrinsic evil.
Link to America Magazine...
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