Gonzaga President Responds to Censorship Criticism, Restates Pro-Life Mission
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 4, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Gonzaga University came under criticism in recent weeks from a pro-life group that said it twice refused its efforts to publish a pro-life brochure in its student newspaper. Now, Gonzaga president Robert J. Spitzer is restating the pro-life mission of the Catholic college.
Officials with the pro-life group Human Life Alliance complained that Gonzaga wouldn’t allow its 12-page supplement to appear in its newspaper.
Joe Langfeld, the deputy director for the Minnesota-based pro-life group that has educated millions of college students with its materials, told LifeNews.com that he was "saddened" by the problems with Gonzaga.
When asked about the reasons for rejecting the ad supplement, Langfeld said he was told Gonzaga rejected it because it spoke negatively about pro-abortion groups.
Gonzaga officials responded to the story and told LifeNews.com that the only reason for declining to print the pro-life newspaper supplement was because the college already had its own pro-life publication it has planned to distribute to students.
On Thursday, Spitzer talked about that publication.
"I share with many people around the world a concern for the unborn, and for the sanctity of human life. Gonzaga University has always supported the pro-life movement," he told LifeNews.com in a statement.
He said the Gonzaga Bulletin student newspaper rejected the insert "not from any disagreement with the pro-life cause, but out of a preference to emphasize a positive pro-life message rather than a negative one."
"To meet this end, last week we disseminated on campus ‘Standing for the Unborn’" with the newspaper, Spitzer added.
That is a publication Gonzaga created to highlight the formal Society of Jesus statement on abortion and support for the pro-life cause.
"We have included this insert with the Gonzaga Bulletin in the past," the Gonzaga president said.
"In closing, I would like to again reaffirm Gonzaga University’s commitment to the pro-life movement, in which I have been personally involved for 24 years," Spitzer concluded.
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