{"id":329305,"date":"2025-04-10T10:38:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=329305"},"modified":"2025-04-08T19:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T00:48:17","slug":"catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland’s former president"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Students at a Catholic college in the U.S. have requested<\/a> that the school’s leadership rescind an invitation to Ireland’s former president, who has been asked to speak at commencement and to receive an honorary degree this year.<\/p>\n

On March 6, the all-women’s Saint Mary’s College announced<\/a> to students via email that Mary McAleese was scheduled to speak at the 2025 graduation ceremony. McAleese supported the repeal of Ireland’s pro-life amendment in 2018.<\/p>\n

In response to the invitation, Belles for Life (the college’s pro-life club) and The Loretto Trust (a non-profit dedicated to preserving Saint Mary’s Catholic identity) spoke out against McAleese and created a petition<\/a> opposing the speech. The Loretto Trust called the invitation “a grave scandal to the Catholic faith.”<\/p>\n

Belles for Life president Jocelyn Porter told<\/a> The Observer:<\/p>\n

When we first received that email announcing the speakers and the honorary degrees, I didn’t recognize many names mentioned. A friend of mine actually sent me some information after doing a quick Google search of Dr. Mary McAleese, and I was like, ‘Oh that’s a little concerning’ and again didn’t think much of it. <\/em><\/p>\n

Later I was like, let me actually look into this…<\/em><\/p>\n

Over spring break, she and Belles for Life vice president Lydia Poe did some research on McAleese’s views and realized that her commencement invitation was “deeply concerning.” They sent a two-page letter to the college’s president, Katie Conboy, calling for her to rescind McAleese’s offer to speak.<\/p>\n

READ: Actor Cillian Murphy compares a once pro-life Ireland to \u2018the Dark Ages\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The letter cites McAleese’s support of expanding access to abortion, same-sex marriage, and women’s ordination to the priesthood as reasons that she has no place speaking at the Catholic school. She is also opposed to infant baptism, stating that it disregards babies’ “personal autonomy and fundamental human rights,” which seems ironic, given her lack of concern for the fundamental human right to life for those babies prior to birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact of the matter is I think with a lot of the professors on campus and administration, they like to push an agenda, more so of inclusivity and diversity, opposed to Catholicism. And of course, Catholicism encompasses that, but we can\u2019t exchange diversity and inclusion for Catholic teaching,\u201d said Poe.<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cI think that’s fantastic to have diverse ideas out there, but our biggest problem is the college giving her an honorary degree and promoting her as an honorary role model. As Katie Conboy said in her email, we should look to her as a role model, and that’s just something I can’t get behind.”<\/p>\n

The Loretto Trust also sent a letter to Conboy, stating that the invitation to McAleese “sends a scandalous message to students that one can actively oppose Church teachings while still being celebrated by a Catholic institution.”<\/p>\n

Conboy, however, claimed that McAleese’s support for the repeal of Ireland’s pro-life law was a sign of her “unwavering commitment to the rights of the unborn.” As reported by the National Catholic Register, Conboy defended McAleese in a letter<\/a> last month to the student newspaper, saying that McAleese’s “yes” vote in the 2018 effort to repeal the pro-life law was her way of supporting the language that “provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy,” not for the expansion of abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, she voted to give Parliament the authority to consider and legislate on this issue, not on any actual proposed version of that legislation,\u201d Conboy argued.<\/p>\n

But Niamh U\u00ed Bhriain, director of Irish advocacy group the Life Institute<\/a>, said, “Saint Mary\u2019s is free to invite whomever it likes to give its commencement address, but it is absolute nonsense to pretend that Mary McAleese did not vote to remove the recognition of the right to life of the unborn child from the Irish Constitution, allowing for the introduction of one of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe.”<\/p>\n

The petition<\/a> in opposition to McAleese’s speech and honorary degree states, “[W]e are calling on all concerned members of the Saint Mary\u2019s College community to sign this petition and express your opposition to Dr. McAleese as the 2025 Commencement speaker. Together, we defend the faith.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students at a Catholic college in the U.S. have requested that the school’s leadership rescind an invitation to Ireland’s former president, who has been asked to speak at commencement and to receive an honorary degree this year. On March 6, the all-women’s Saint Mary’s College announced to students via email that Mary McAleese was scheduled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":329313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It "sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It "sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2155600543-mary-mcaleese.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland’s former president\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\"},\"wordCount\":706,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"It \\\"sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland’s former president\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\",\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Flanders\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president","description":"It \"sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president","og_description":"It \"sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2155600543-mary-mcaleese.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nancy Flanders","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Flanders","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/"},"author":{"name":"Nancy Flanders","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef"},"headline":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland’s former president","datePublished":"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/"},"wordCount":706,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Issues","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/","name":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland's former president","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-04-10T15:38:53+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-09T00:48:17+00:00","description":"It \"sends a scandalous message...that one can actively oppose Church teachings while being celebrated by a Catholic institution.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/catholic-college-graduation-ireland-former-president\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Catholic college students oppose graduation invitation to Ireland’s former president"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef","name":"Nancy Flanders","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Flanders"},"description":"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329305"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329314,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329305\/revisions\/329314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}