Philadelphia, Pa., Apr 12, 2006 / 22:00 pm
A plan for a memorial on the Villanova University campus to the victims of abortion is currently in limbo, reported the Philadelphia Daily News.
The Catholic university's board of trustees passed on approving the memorial during its regular April meeting Tuesday.
The bronze statue would aim to "memorialize those who have died as a result of legalized abortion and all those who suffer physically, emotionally and/or spiritually."
“No decisions were made about any specific memorial or the broader issue of university memorials on campus,” read a university statement. “Villanova as a Catholic university remains strongly supportive of the dignity of human life.”
Joe McCullen Jr., a venture capitalist and Villanova alumnus, and his wife, Eleanor, donated the $20,000 for the statue.
"I'm disappointed [about the indecision] and I'm curious to find out what the reason is," said McCullen, head of McCullen Capital LLC in Boston. He donated $1 million to the university's endowment fund this year.
Eleanor, a St. Joseph's University graduate and a secular Franciscan, told the Daily News she thought perhaps the board’s indecision meant they are “afraid to come forward and to take a stand.”
McCullen’s donation for the statue had been acknowledged in a letter by Villanova's president, Fr. Edmund Dobbin, a board trustee. McCullen hopes the board will approve the statue at their next meeting in June.