Bishop Disapproves Pro-Abortion Activist's Visit to St. Norbert College, 26,000 Sign Protest
Over the last three months, more than 26,000 students and concerned parents have asked St. Norbert College through this TFP Student Action petition not to host radical pro-abortion activists Gloria Steinem and Bell Hooks.
On January 8, the Most Rev. David L. Ricken, bishop of the diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, published a column in The Compass, expressing his firm disapproval of St. Norbert College's decision to invite Gloria Steinem to speak on April 21, 2015
Bishop Ricken states: "I want to let you know that not only did I not approve of such a decision, I did not know about it. As bishop, I have the responsibility to ensure the Catholic identity of the Catholic colleges in our diocese... I have conveyed my strong disapproval to the abbot, the president of the college and the chair of the Board of Trustees."
Apparently, St. Norbert College wants Gloria Steinem to talk about reducing domestic violence. However, that concern cannot be credibly addressed by someone such as Steinem who favors and promotes the most barbaric and wholesale violence of our century, the deliberate taking of innocent life through the sin of surgical abortion.
The bishop's column points to that contradiction: "Unless she [Steinem] has radically changed her position on abortion, which I hope she has, the connection of abortion rights to the feminist agenda is a sad one and calls into question the logic of such an enterprise. The reason her position ought to be called into question is that it is an internal self-contradiction. One cannot build one’s claim to a right based upon the denial of another’s fundamental right to life."
Dissident Catholics have attempted to justify Steinem's visit to St. Norbert, claiming that her talk would not directly favor abortion. But Bishop Ricken dismantles that argument, recalling how Steinem's "whole career and life is a grand affirmation of the pro-abortion movement."
Faithful Catholics hope and pray that the leadership at St. Norbert College will heed the voice of their shepherd and have the courage to cancel Gloria Steinem's planned appearance, as well as Bell Hooks one-week residency.
"How refreshing it would be if St. Norbert College were to decide to be a vibrant Catholic College that embraces the church and her teaching in its entirety, not just the social justice teachings (which SNC does so well), but also the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Gospel and the church," Bishop Ricken stated.