Professor at Catholic University Blames Pro-Life Advocates for Tiller’s Death
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 3, 2009
Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) — A Marquette University theology professor is coming under fire for blaming pro-life advocates for the death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. The comments come even though alleged shooter Scott Roeder has no connection to pro-life groups and has been denounced by them.
Daniel Maguire, a former Jesuit priest who has been criticized before for advocating abortion, is the man behind the attacks.
Maguire published a statement on the web site The Religious Consultation claiming Tiller was murdered "for honoring the law of the land."
He then adopted the view held by pro-abortion groups that pro-life advocates bear responsibility for creating some sort of miasma that prompted Roeder to kill Tiller.
"He is not the first doctor to so die and unless we get serious about this form of terrorism, he will not be the last," Maguire wrote. "Religious and political leaders who fan the flames of anti-choice, anti-woman fanaticism are not without guilt."
Maguire’s comments ignored the clear and strong denunciations by pro-life groups of the murder, including those from Cardinal Rigali, head of the nation’s Catholic bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
"Our bishops’ conference and all its members have repeatedly and publicly denounced all forms of violence in our society, including abortion as well as the misguided resort to violence by anyone opposed to abortion," he said.
"Such killing is the opposite of everything we stand for, and everything we want our culture to stand for: respect for the life of each and every human being from its beginning to its natural end. We pray for Dr. Tiller and his family," he added.
However, Maguire’s comments are not surprising given his past abortion advocacy.
In March 2007, leading pro-life Catholic groups called on Marquette University to fire Maguire for writing a document claiming faithful Catholics can be pro-abortion.
Maguire claimed abortion is morally permissible and says the Catholic church has always had a "pluralistic" position that allows for Catholic theologians like him to take dissenting views.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine eventually declared his teaching "irresponsible" and a "serious error" of interpreting church doctrine.
The Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International told LifeNews.com later that Catholic parents should shudder at the thought of Dan Maguire teaching theology to their children at a Catholic University."
"I call upon Marquette to stop hiding behind false ideas of tenure and ‘academic freedom’ in the face of theological malfeasance and dismiss Dan Maguire," he said then.
ACTION: Contact Marquette University president Rev. Robert Wild, S.J. about Maguire’s comments about pro-life advocates at: Marquette University, O’Hara Hall, 101/102, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53233, call 414-288-7223, fax 414-288-3161, or email [email protected]
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