The Cardinal Newman Society

Catholics for Choice
December 20, 2012

http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/news/pr/2012/documents/CardinalNewmanSocietywithlinks2012.pdf

[with pdf]

“ The most unhappily and inappropriately named society on the planet”

INTRODUCTION

The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) claims that its mission is “to help renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education,” but there are many clergy, staff at Catholic universities, students and laypeople who don’t recognize themselves in the organization’s vision of Catholic identity. Some, like the National Catholic Reporter, have pointed out the striking contrast between Cardinal Newman the man and the society that bears his name: “the most unhappily and inappropriately named society on the planet.”

The Cardinal Newman Society devotes its energy to pointing out supposed breaches of dogma within Catholic universities, engineering negative publicity primarily by instigating letter-writing campaigns and posting online petitions. America magazine criticized the society’s “watchdog tactics” for employing a negative rather than positive definition of Catholicism — that is, it aims to prune away perceived deviations from orthodoxy, rather than cultivating a Catholicism that is something more than mere conformism. ...

KEY FINDINGS

The Cardinal Newman Society:

• Incorrectly portrays itself as a voice for all Catholics, when its views are substantially to the right of all but the most conservative members of the hierarchy;

• Uses the threat of negative publicity to target schools, calling on them to cancel speakers or dismiss faculty;

• Depicts a Catholic higher educational system that is threatened by heretics in order to justify its narrow worldview and strong-arm tactics;

• Fosters a contentious environment in which instructors and administrators fear they must choose between policing or being policed; and

• Makes judgments on the basis of a short checklist of issues, such as reproductive rights and LGBT rights, rather than encompassing the wealth and depth of Catholic teaching.