Boston College & Enda Kelly

The main reason for posting this is to publicise the fact that Boston College is honouring the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, by awarding him an honorary degree and inviting him to deliver the Commencement Address this year. Or as LifeSiteNews brilliantly puts it: PM Foisting abortion on Ireland to be honoured by Jesuit Boston College. This was first reported by Lisa Graas on 5th May. I noticed it on Protect the Pope on Tuesday, and my friend CC Father has written a letter as well. I think Caroline Farrow says it best:

So whilst ordinary lay Catholics are fighting tooth and nail in order to keep abortion out of Ireland, whilst GPs are finding their jobs and families are on the line for speaking their minds, what is happening to that nominal Catholic Enda Kenny? You know the man who closed Ireland’s embassy in the Holy See, who misled the Irish public with regards to the Cloyne Report, pointing the finger solely at the Vatican in a speech loaded with venom and vitriol?

What’s happening to the man who is trying to force priests to legally be compelled to break the seal of confession? Ah yes, that’s right a Catholic University is awarding him an honorary doctorate.

and even Bruvver Eccles has now written to Boston college to express his disgust at their decision! This is my own email. I urge everyone to follow suit and express their own concerns to the President of Boston College. Contact details are:

Boston College President Rev. William Leahy, S.J. at 617-552-3250, 617-552-8000, e-mail William.Leahy.1@bc.edu

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston at 617-782-2544 or 617-254-0100, e-mail ArchbishopSean@RCAB.org

Here is my own effort. I have followed CC Father's template and Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith's advice to keep it short and to the point:

Dear Fr Leahy,

I am a practicing Catholic from the United Kingdom, I believe that means I love life to the fullest and love people, all people, with compassion for their personal circumstances and hope for the gift of salvation which God has bestowed on all of us. In order to better serve God I have undertaken a BA in Theology.

I write to express my immense distress and confusion on reading that Boston College is honouring the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny (who is known here as ‘Endoflife Kenny’), by awarding him an honorary degree and inviting him to deliver the Commencement Address this year. This is causing a grave scandal among many faithful Catholics and will no doubt give the impression that it is compatible with Catholic belief to support abortion.
I beg you to please reconsider.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Lambert

Let us be clear, the Church has firmly and consistently taught that procuring an abortion is a mortal sin against the 5th commandment. This is explicit throughout the Church's teaching and especially in the Catechism where it is explained this way:

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.762272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"77 "by the very commission of the offense,"78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

You can read more in context on the Vatican website.

Enda Kenny is a man from Mayo, he was born in Derrywash in the village of Islandeady near Castlebar very close to where my family hail from. Kenny has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for Mayo since 1975, having succeeded his father Henry Kenny. He is the longest-serving TD currently in Dáil Éireann, which makes him the incumbent Father of the Dáil. I felt very proud when a Mayo man was elected as the Taoiseach, but now I feel sickened and embarrassed by Kenny who has betrayed his heritage and misled the Irish people with opportunistic rhetoric and false claims about the Vatican having supposedly intervened in Irish affairs. He also has attempted to obstruct the Murphy Commission's investigation into Cloyne. Further, I think his naïveté in understanding that intentions and outcomes are not the same thing is shocking. Enda says the Constitution is his book, and then tries to legislate far beyond it, as Greg Daly explains here.

I find Boston's decision to honour him deeply disturbing and will be disgusted if it actually happens.