Pro-life group forced to cancel event amid backlash...at Catholic university?
A pro-life student organization at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. was allegedly "pressured" to cancel an event featuring pro-life speaker Abby Johnson.
The event took place, but with a different host.
The president of a pro-life organization was forced to resign after being “pressured” to cancel an event featuring pro-life speaker Abby Johnson.
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Cardinals for Life, a pro-life organization at Catholic University, cancelled an event featuring Johnson after facing pressure from the university Chaplin, Fr. Jude DeAngelo.
“I am writing today to inform you that I am resigning from my position as President of Cardinals for Life at the Catholic University of America, effective immediately, because of how I was pressured, against my conscience, by the University Chaplain in his capacity as adviser to Cardinals for Life, into making a decision to postpone indefinitely an event with Abby Johnson,” Anna Stephens, the former president of Cardinals for Life, said.
However, the College Republicans at Catholic University decided to host Johnson on February 9 after Cardinals for Life cancelled the original event.
[RELATED: Students at Catholic Georgetown feel ‘unsafe’ by pro-life speakers in optional, virtual event]
Catholic University student Emily Tremblay told Campus Reform that “not a lot of people on campus had any clue who Abby Johnson was until College Democrats, and various diversity groups, posted on Instagram that they don’t think she represents the campus community or values.”
Tremblay told Campus Reform that the university leftist community used aggressive Instagram comments as a way to protest the event. She pointed out that the comments were mostly “slander based, rather than productive comments.”
Catholic University College Democrats posted a statement on Instagram before the event saying that they stand “unequivocally with those calling for revoking Abby Johnson’s invitation to address members of the Catholic University community.”
A petition on MoveOn.org gained more than 2,300 signatures protesting Johnson’s appearance on campus.
In the few days before Johnson’s event was scheduled to take place, the Student Government Association Diversity and Inclusion Initiative organized a counter-event at the exact same time, titled “Recenter, Refocus, Remind: A Conversation on the Consistent Ethic of Life” to lure viewers away from the College Republicans event.
[RELATED: Young, pro-life activists across US make their voices heard in pandemic era March for Life]
In a statement posted on Instagram, the Chaplin, Fr. Jude DeAngelo, apologized to the campus community and the Cardinals for Life for how he handled the situation.
”I can tell you that even this week Cardinals for Life has had extensive conversations about the dilemmas they face with this invitation. I have attempted to help them realize that they are in a lose-lose situation,” DeAngelo wrote.
Campus Reform reached out to Catholic University for comment but did not receive a response.
Follow the author of this article: Addison Pummill
