Pro-Obama lawyer resigns from Franciscan U. board

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- A Catholic law professor who served on a high-profile panel formed to address the church's clergy sexual scandal has resigned from the board of a conservative Catholic university after writing a column supporting Democrat Barack Obama and declaring the abortion battle lost.

Nicholas Cafardi, former dean of the Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, voluntarily offered to resign from the board of trustees at Franciscan University of Steubenville, the school said in a statement.

On Sept. 29, Religion News Service published a column by Mr. Cafardi in which he described backing Mr. Obama in spite of the candidate's pro-abortion rights position.

"While I have never swayed in my conviction that abortion is an unspeakable evil, I believe that we have lost the abortion battle permanently," Mr. Cafardi wrote.

-----

In an e-mail yesterday, Mr. Cafardi said: "When it became apparent to me that some Catholics, who disagreed with my position on how to end the horror of abortion in America, were using my association with Steubenville to try to harm that great university, I thought that the best thing for me was to resign so as to prevent that harm."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08284/918949-100.stm

[sasquatch]

1. Awesome

[DebbieCDC]

2. While this is great news that Mr. Cafardi is taking a stand

"Steubenville Franciscan University" is a VERY VERY small right-wing Catholic school in southeastern Ohio. They are so pro-rethuglican it's disgusting.

Do you know what Steubenville is really famous for? It's Dean Martin's home town and they filmed some of the scenes for "The Deer Hunter" there. It's a hole in the ground. I know -- I grew up 12 miles from there in ANOTHER Ohio hole in the ground.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. FU is as about as right wing as you can get

They are one of a 'select' group of Universities that ultra-conservatives think are the only "Catholic" ones.

To them it is the extreme "pro-life" position or nothing, which usually means rabid GOP voting or nothing. Thinking outside the official box created by a few one-issue bishops is not allowed. It is a small but very well financed and coordinated movement (see related EWTN, Ave Maria Radio, any Ave Maria enterprise, (ir)Relevant Radio, Catholic Answers, etc...).

[ShortnFiery]

6. And yet they tout the word "Franciscan" ... how Orwellian?

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/peaceprayer.asp

Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

[damntexdem]

4. Way to go, anti-choicers: harm a Catholic university to prevent open discussion.

The only ethics you care about is YOUR take on abortion: You're a one-trick pony in a one-horse town.

[Doodler71]

5. I graduated from a Catholic University

One of the things I took away with me was the sense of responsibility for restorative justice and speaking for the unheard and unseen. I don't believe that should be limited to a 'potential' group, but should focus on the people that are already here and suffering, those in torture camps, victims of racism and ethnic cleansing, children already born but allowed to die minute by minute from starvation and neglect, girls and women raped every 4 minutes in Africa by militia.

The world of injustice is not limited to the unborn and turning a blind eye to the other injustices to focus on one... well, that is hubris and not restorative justice.