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Blogger's Posting of Catholic University's Invite to Abortion/Euthanasia Activist Results in Cancellation

University states speaker Ann Lamott was "inappropriate choice" but only because this was "a featured lecture"

By Meg Jalsevac

OMAHA, Nebraska, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday, August 26 the Catholic blog Defend Us In Battle.org publicized the fact that Creighton University of Omaha, Nebraska, a Catholic institution, had scheduled abortion and euthanasia activist Ann Lamott to give the keynote address at a 2007 Center for Health Policy & Ethics lecture for women on September 19th.  Lamott is nationally known as an author and speaker who promotes her own self-proclaimed perspective as a "Jesusy" individual who is a "Christian and feminist." 

The blog, authored by Omaha resident Jeff Baker, encouraged readers to contact the Director of the Creighton Center while 'cc'ing the President of the University and the Archbishop of Omaha.  Apparently, Baker's readers did just that. 

Within 36 hours of Baker's posting, Creighton published a statement on their website announcing that the University and Ms. Lamott had "mutually agreed upon cancellation" of the September lecture.  The statement reads in part, "After careful review of Ms. Lamott's most recent writings (which postdated her contract agreement), we have concluded that key points are in opposition to Catholic teaching which, in our judgment, makes her an inappropriate choice for the Women and Health Lecture Series."

Lamott has made national news in recent years for her promotion of abortion and euthanasia.  Lamott frequently refers to her own abortions and her own experience in helping a terminally ill friend to commit suicide.

In February of 2006, the Los Angeles Times carried an article authored by Lamott in which she proclaimed that, "that pro-choice people understand that there are two lives involved in an abortion - one born (the pregnant woman) and one not (the fetus) - but that the born person must be allowed to decide what is right." 

Lamott continued in the same article in a blatant contradiction of her own previously quoted words, stating, "it was not a morally ambiguous issue for me at all. I said that fetuses are not babies yet[.]"

In another article in June of 2006, Lamott unapologetically wrote of how she diligently assisted an old friend to commit suicide by crushing up pills and mixing them with applesauce saying, "He grimaced when I fed it to him, like a child swallowing medicine." 

Lamott explained her pro-euthanasia stance in the same op-ed piece.  "I believed that life was a kind of Earth school, so even though assisted suicide meant you were getting out early, before the term ended, you were going to be leaving anyway, so who said it wasn't OK to take an incomplete in the course?"

Creighton is a Jesuit university but is not foreign to similar controversy.  Just recently, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the Archbishop of Omaha severed ties with the Center for Marriage and Family (CMF), a ministry center at Creighton University (CU), for its proposal in support of premarital cohabitation.

The cancellation notice of the Lamott event on the Creighton website explained the school's official position on speakers who do not adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Faith.  "[As] an authentic university, Creighton does respect other views and regularly has speakers, panelists and others who do not necessarily agree with all aspects of our beliefs. At a featured lecture like this, the degree to which the speaker's views do not harmonize with our Catholic mission becomes more salient. As a Jesuit university, Creighton is a place of intellectual honesty, pluralism, and mutual respect where inquiry and open discussion characterize the environment of teaching, research and professional development."

In contrast to the Creighton statement, in June of 2004, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement entitled "Catholics in Political Life," which mandated: "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."

Since the publication of Creighton's cancellation of Lamott's lecture, a group called Connections, made up of a handful of Christian churches of varying denominations, has scheduled Ms. Lamott to give a talk in the Omaha region entitled "Faith and Writing and Whatever: A Night With Anne Lamott."

Baker commented to LifeSiteNews on the Connections talk saying, "While there exist serious differences in doctrine between Catholicism and the various non-Catholic Christian expressions of the faith, I'd think everyone would agree bringing in an author/speaker like this is a poor choice on any number of moral fronts.  We are, after all, talking about a woman who unrepentantly brags of the termination of her own unborn child and the occasion she mixed poison in her friend's applesauce before feeding it to said "friend.""
 
Read Previous LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:

Archbishop Severs Ties with University's Center for Marriage and Family over Sex Before Marriage Proposal
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07062902.html

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