That seems like basic, ground-level stuff
King’s University College in Ontario is an odd though not entirely uncommon species of school: A Catholic institution that appears to be divorced from its own Catholic roots. A recent screening of a pro-life film there led to outrage on the part of dozens of faculty members, so much so that the school’s president felt compelled to publicly state that the school “does not have a position on abortion.”
Well. There are few more thoroughly Catholic socio-political issues than abortion; it is one of the principle areas of activism for Catholics, and the Church takes an unequivocal and uncompromising stance on the matter, so much so that if a Catholic procures or helps procure an abortion, he or she is automatically excommunicated from communion with the Church. There’s no real debating it.
For a nominally Catholic school to wash its hands of abortion is thus rather bizarre, insofar as it is difficult to conceive of a Catholic institution that does not take a strong position on one of the strongest Catholic tenets in the Catechism. That raises the obvious question: What is the point of a Christian institution if it is not meant to be thoroughly Christian? What is the point of a school’s professing a faith if it is not prepared to live out even the most basic tenets of that faith?
It’s doubtful that many of the school’s community members would appreciate it if King’s College were to suddenly become an unapologetically Catholic institution rather than, apparently, merely a nominal one. (The protesting faculty demanded that the school “affirm that faculty, staff, and students at King’s University College are not mandated to ascribe to all or any elements of Catholicism.”) Orthodox Christianity has of course never been popular in the modern era. But there is usually a difference in being popular and being right. One would hope that a Christian school would be able to recognize the difference. It’s never too late.
MORE: This Catholic school ‘does not have a position on abortion.’ How is it Catholic?
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