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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/12catholic.html

Catholic Professors Criticize Boehner in Letter

House Speaker John A. Boehner, a Republican who grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family in Ohio, is scheduled to give the commencement address this Saturday at the Catholic University of America in Washington, a prestigious venue in church circles for its affiliation with the nation’s bishops.

But now Mr. Boehner is coming in for a dose of the same kind of harsh criticism previously leveled at some Democrats — including President Obama — who have been honored by Catholic universities: the accusation that his policies violate basic teachings of the Catholic church.

More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching.

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

The letter writers go on to criticize Mr. Boehner’s support for a budget that cut support for Medicare, Medicaid and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. They call such policies “anti-life,” a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied to politicians and others who support the right to abortion.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, responded by e-mail: “The Speaker will be delivering a personal, non-political message at the Catholic University of America that he hopes will speak to all members of the graduating class, regardless of their backgrounds or affiliations. He is deeply honored to have been invited by CUA to address the school’s graduating class, and is looking forward to receiving an honorary degree from the only Catholic college in our country that is chartered by Catholic bishops.”

He included a link to an editorial in a student newspaper on the Catholic University campus exulting that finally the senior class can “brag” that the university had nabbed the third most powerful politician in the country as commencement speaker.

The choice of commencement speakers at Catholic universities has grown more fraught in recent years. The bishops advised that Catholic universities should not honor Catholics who have publicly disagreed with church teachings. But the resulting controversies so far have mostly been about more liberal-leaning Catholics who have taken positions in favor of access to abortion, or gay rights, in opposition to the church.

When Mr. Obama, who is not Catholic, was invited to receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame in 2009, there was an outcry from politically conservative Catholics because of his support for abortion rights. A few Catholic bishops and said the university should withdraw the invitation, but the university administration held firm. Protesters showed up to picket the president’s appearance.

One of the professors who crafted this letter says he wanted to stake out a different approach. Stephen F. Schneck, the director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, at the Catholic University of America, noted that this letter did not call for the university to revoke the invitation to Mr. Boehner.

“We are going out of our way to say, welcome to the Catholic University,” Mr. Schneck said, “but we don’t agree with you.”

As if to say that they are not speaking out of turn, the professors point out that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also recently issued a similar letter expressing the hierarchy’s concerns about budget cuts in programs that aid the poor.

The letter is signed by professors at Xavier University, from which Mr. Boehner graduated, and the University of Dayton, both in Mr. Boehner’s home state of Ohio, as well as at universities such as Fordham, Marquette, Notre Dame and Santa Clara.


Eric D. Schwerin
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