 "Photo: The Phoenix/Annalise Weck")
The Cardinal Newman Society has declared that Loyola and nine other Catholic colleges and universities wrongfully offer students credit for internships at organizations whose missions directly contradict the views of the Catholic church.
The internship opportunities are at pro-choice, or as the Cardinal Newman Society puts it, “pro-abortion” organizations.
The Cardinal Newman Society, a self-appointed organization dedicated to maintaining Catholic identity in Catholic colleges and universities, said that Loyola’s Women’s Studies and Gender Studies department Web site lists internship and volunteer opportunities at Chicago’s chapter of the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Planned Parenthood and the Chicago Abortion Fund.
Betsy Jones Hemenway, Ph.D., the director of the Women’s Studies and Gender Studies program, said that the internships are no longer listed on the site.
“We had a very long list of agencies where people could do internships, so out of the 75 or so that we had on our Web site, there might have been five that were objectionable according to the Cardinal Newman Society,” she said.
The department was already in the process of revising and reassessing the internships when the Cardinal Newman Society criticized Loyola, and they decided that it would be best to take down the list for the time being and put it back up when the revision process was done.
Junior Liz Kelliher-Paz thinks that it’s good that Loyola offers these opportunities. She said that it’s “important to allow students to make up their minds about what they believe rather than being indoctrinated.”
She added that “the organizations mentioned…aren’t just ‘pro-abortion.’ They uphold a lot of other ideals that are important, and students should get to decide what they think.”
Hemenway also said that there are no students who are participating in the internships in question.
“We have a separate faculty member who coordinates the internships,” she said, “and according to her, it’s been a very long time since we’ve had a student doing an internship, if ever, with an agency that is on this questionable list.”
In an article by the Catholic News Agency, Patrick J. Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society asked, “Under what definition of ‘Catholic education’ do students receive academic credit to work for leading pro-abortion organizations?”
Senior Chris Balmaceda, who is majoring in social work, emphasized the education part of “Catholic education” in his response.
“We must understand that not all students are Catholic, not all students are Christian, not all students are at Loyola or a Catholic university because of the religious affiliation,” he said. “Students are at a university for an education. Providing education through the experience of an internship is the most important goal, especially at a university that prides itself on being a home for all faiths.”
Hemenway said that it’s a difficult situation for her department.
“It’s something that we constantly struggle with and talk about amongst ourselves,” she said. “How do we, as responsible feminists but also as responsible and ethical people within the university, advise students and guide students and give credit to students for work that they do?”
She said it’s important for the university to encourage a lively and respectful debate for faculty and students to be able to voice their opinions.
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