University of Detroit Mercy Hosted Pro-Abortion Professor

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 13, 2011   |   1:34PM   |   Detroit, MI

University of Detroit Mercy, a Catholic college, is coming under criticism for hosting pro-abortion censured theologian Daniel Maguire, who delivered a lecture at the Jesuit University on April 7.

The title of his lecture was “The Gender Justice Revolution: How Feminism Builds Bridges Between Genders, Races, Sexual Orientations, Classes and Nations,” and it’s not a surprising one given his position in favor of abortion.

The Cardinal Newman Society, a pro-life group that serves as a watchdog over Catholic colleges, said that, in March 2007, the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee declared that the pro-abortion teachings of Daniel Maguire, who is a professor at Jesuit Marquette University, “cross the legitimate lines of theological reflection” and represent outright “false teaching.”

Following this censure by the bishops, The Cardinal Newman Society wrote to the president of Marquette University, Fr. Robert Wild, S.J., where Maguire is a teacher. “The Daniel Maguire scandals must end,” the group said and Fr. Wild wrote back and CNS responded with his own letter.

Then in 2009, The Cardinal Newman Society publicly stated of Maguire and Marquette, “A Catholic university that for many years has refused to discipline or remove a stridently pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage activist from its theology department is guilty of gross negligence. Marquette University does serious harm to the Church by granting credentials to a reckless theologian whose work has been condemned by the U.S. Catholic bishops, who persists in misrepresenting Catholic teaching and who advocates a moral right to killing innocent pre-born children.”

CNS says the Maguire’s Marquette faculty page shows he is teaching two courses this semester.

University of Detroit Mercy has been under fire before from CNS as one of several Catholic colleges across the country criticized because their web sites were linking to pro-abortion groups and abortion businesses. However, it appeared that, when the links received attention in Catholic and pro-life circles and were the subjects of TFP Student Action protests, they were taken down.