San Francisco, Calif., May 21, 2007 / 08:23 am
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, delivered the commencement address at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco on Saturday. The pro-abortion supporter spoke during the ceremony at the university’s McLaren College of Business.
At the same ceremony, the college honored former California lieutenant governor Leo T. McCarthy, also a pro-abortion supporter, posthumously.
In a May 17 letter faxed to the university’s president, Fr. Stephen Privett, Patrick Reilly, president of the Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society, urged him to withdraw the Pelosi invitation and the McCarthy honor.
Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco also received an honorary degree during the commencement ceremony for his demonstration of “an extraordinary sense of social justice, a passionate concern for peace, and a commitment to nonviolence to achieve ethical goals.”
The Cardinal Newman Society has asked Archbishop Niederauer to boycott the ceremony if the university did not change its plans.