A great letter to Fordham University by some friends in response to their bestowing the Fordham Stein Ethics prize on Supreme Justice Bryer.
Rev. Joseph M. McShane,
S.J.
Office of the President
Fordham University
441 East
Fordham Road
Bronx, New York, 10458
Dean and Paul Fuller Chair of
Law
Fordham University Law
School
Dear
Reverend McShane and Dean Treanor:
I write you
as Advocate for the Agnus Dei Knights of Columbus Council and on behalf of the
Council's Pro-Life Committee, the Council Officers and its membership to state
our opposition to Fordham’s decision to bestow
the 2008 Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize upon United States
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on October 29, 2008. Please accept these
comments in the spirit of charity with which they are
intended.
Our Council
is located in the Belmont section of the Bronx in the heart of the Fordham
community. Part of our mission as Knights is to promote the culture of life in
our community and to give material and spiritual support to the many pro-life
apostolates that work so hard to advance the culture of life and serve women in
crisis. Given our pro-life mission and
interest in promoting the culture of life at Fordham and throughout the Bronx,
we offer this statement opposing the honor being given to Justice
Breyer.
We take no
issue with Justice Breyer’s intelligence, scholarship or personal integrity.
However, with respect to the foundational issue of our time,
abortion, he is in direct and
violent conflict with the moral truths of the Catholic Church.
The honor that Fordham intends to bestow upon Justice
Breyer does not promote the culture of life and should therefore be rescinded.
In the event that Fordham does not rescind the honor, the Fordham leadership
should on October 29, 2008 make an unequivocal statement of its commitment to
the legal protection of human life from the moment of conception until natural
death.
In 2004
in Catholics
in Political Life, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
declared:
- The Catholic community and Catholic
institutions should not
honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.
They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support
for their actions.
As you know in Stenberg v.
Carhart, Justice Breyer wrote the opinion for the Supreme Court legitimizing
partial birth abortion, a procedure where the body of the baby is born alive and
while the baby’s head remains in utero, its skull is then torn, perforated and
crushed and then finally a suction used to remove the brains of the baby.
Notably on the question of ethics, Justice Kennedy, in dissent,
noted inter alia that American Medical Association publications
describe the partial birth abortion procedure at issue in Stenberg as
ethically wrong.
In
considering our opposition to the honor being bestowed upon Justice Breyer we
thought it would be instructive to compare the Fordham statements regarding
Justice Breyer and the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize with just two recent
statements of United States Bishops regarding the Church’s moral teaching on
abortion.
On August 8,
2008, Fordham University announced that United States Supreme Court Justice
Stephen Breyer had been selected to receive the 2008 Fordham-Stein Ethics
Prize. Fordham stated as follows: “This national honor, bestowed by Fordham Law’s Stein
Center for Law and Ethics, recognizes one individual each year whose work,
according to the prize's charter, ‘exemplifies outstanding standards of
professional conduct, promotes the
advancement of justice, and brings credit to the profession
by emphasizing in the public
mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our
democratic system of government.’”
The statement
continued as follows: "Justice Breyer has devoted his life to the public good,” said William Michael Treanor,
dean of Fordham Law. “He was a brilliant, influential, and path-breaking
scholar. His government service before taking the bench was of the highest
quality. As a jurist, his opinions have
been marked by thoughtfulness, balance, rigor, and a commitment to justice and liberty. He has
been an eloquent and forceful champion of judicial integrity, as we saw this
spring when he participated in a forum on judicial independence at Fordham Law
together with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. In every facet of his extraordinary
career, he has embodied
the great
ideals of the
Fordham-Stein Prize, and he is a superb honoree."
With respect
to the honor due our public servants, our own Bishop, His Excellency Cardinal
Edward Egan stated: “We are blessed in the 21st century
with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within
their pregnant mothers. No one with the
slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous
beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the
world outside the womb.” With respect to justice and ethics, His
Excellency continued: “in
simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the
Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the
most basic of ethical reasons.
They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon
the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they
may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for
any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a
civilized democracy worthy of the name.” Justice Breyer has the same ethical
duty as Speaker Pelosi. In Stenberg, Justice
Breyer chose to legitimize the killing of the helpless and the innocent; a Catholic institution,
particularly a Catholic institution with the responsibility of educating young
men and women, should not honor such killing.
With respect
to devotion to the public good, His Excellency Francis Cardinal George of
Chicago has taught very clearly that the Church’s teaching on the culture
of life “has consequences for those charged with caring for the common good, those who hold public
office. The unborn child, who is alive and is a member of the human
family, cannot defend himself or herself. Good law defends the defenseless. Our
present laws permit unborn children to be privately killed. Laws that place unborn children outside the protection
of law destroy both the children killed and the common good, which is
the controlling principle of Catholic social teaching. One cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and
also be working for the common good.” Accordingly,
contrary to the Fordham statement, legitimizing partial birth abortion does not
reflect devotion to the public good.
For all these reasons it is difficult to comprehend how Justice
Breyer has embodied the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic church and
the great ideals of Fordham and the Jesuit
tradition.
We also note
that in Gonzalez v. Carhart, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 2001
Fordham Stein-Ethics prize honoree, in dissent, joined by Justice
Breyer, summarily denied the reality of post-abortion trauma dismissing it as an
“anti-abortion shibboleth.” On the contrary, the voices of these men and women
are real. http://www.abortionchangesyou.com/. Our
Council stands by and pledges our continued support for post-abortion
apostolates such as the Sisters of Life Entering Canaan and Good Counsel Homes
Lumina/Hope & Healing After Abortion. We ask that Fordham also pledge its
support for these wonderful apostolates and the “abortion changes you” outreach
campaign.
Accordingly,
in the spirit of charity, we respectfully request that the Fordham leadership
rescind the honor that Fordham proposes to bestow upon Justice Breyer and that
Fordham make a clear and unequivocal statement of its commitment to the culture
of life and the legal protection of human life from the moment of conception
until natural death. Please know that the Agnus Dei Council is always available
to assist the Fordham community with the advancement of the culture of life and
the civilization of love at Fordham and throughout the community. Please feel
free to call upon us.
Sincerely
yours,
Agnus
Dei
Knights of
Columbus Council #12361
627 East
187th Street
Bronx, New
York 10458
Pro-Life
Committee
Anthony
Ignacio
Grand
Knight
Joel Greenbaum
Deputy Grand Knight
Guy Lyons
Chancellor
Frank
Kolovic
Financial
Secretary
Dan Marengo
Treasurer
Angel
Rivera
Recording
Secretary