Letter to the Archdiocese Newspaper Editor

In regard to this, I wrote the following:

As it would seem that any institution that identifies itself as being Catholic would be loath to sponsor the speech of any individual who enables social conduct that is at odds with Church teachings, I was greatly disappointed to have learned that the University of San Francisco invited Justice Anthony Kennedy to be the keynote speaker at the opening of the Koret Law Center. In case nobody at the university was aware, Justice Kennedy has not only upheld the nonexistent right to abortion (Planned Parenthood v. Casey), he recently penned the incredibly tortured decision whereby consensual sodomy was deemed to be a constitutionally protected activity (Lawrence v. Texas). Defenders of USF will of course try to rationalize the school’s conduct away by arguing that, as an academic institution, USF must be open to differing points of view. Such an argument, however, is disingenuous because it tries to portray an otherwise nonessential public relations gathering into a formal and fairly represented classroom discussion on public policy.

Far from being isolated, the inviting of Justice Kennedy is simply the latest of a number of things that calls into question USF’s commitment to being a Catholic institution of higher learning. If the school is unwilling to recommit itself to this purpose, perhaps USF should just do us all a favor and drop its affiliation with the Church rather than causing confusion over its Catholic identity. In the meantime, I personally will be encouraging parents seeking a faithful Catholic education for their college-aged children to look across the street.