Catholic School Censors Pro-life Speaker

The truth about Planned Parenthood & its founder, Margaret Sanger is out there. Unfortunately, the administrators of Mercy High School, a Catholic High School in Farmington Hills, Michigan wants it to stay there. The school's Pro-Life Club was working with Young America's Foundation (YAF) to bring in Dan Flynn to speak 12 February after school on the topic “Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood”. According to a YAF news release, the talk "exposes the real foundations of the abortion-rights movement—the historical fact that Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, was an anti-Catholic bigot who advocated concentration camps and forced sterilization." Attendance at the meeting was voluntary.

According to the release: "Carolyn Witte, the school’s principal, said the lecture was unsuitable for high school students. The “content could be misunderstood,” Witte told Young America’s Foundation. Carolyn Witte, the school’s principal, said the lecture was unsuitable for high school students. The “content could be misunderstood,” Witte told Young America’s Foundation."

"Witte continued by saying her students—whose ages range from 14 to 18—were too “sensitive” to hear a topic about Planned Parenthood’s roots."

The release raises an excellent question, why was this so?: "The principal didn’t mention how information exposing Sanger’s nefarious programs to sterilize large segments of the blacks, Italians, and Jews—whom Sanger referred to as “human weeds”— could be “misunderstood,” particularly by a pro-life club sanctioned by a Catholic school."

The speech was based on information found in Mr. Flynn's book Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall For Stupid Ideas. It is backed up by 985 footnotes.

Kathryn Stickley17, a senior & a member of the school's Pro-Life Club had this to say about the cancelation: “So Principal Witte admits to never hearing Mr. Flynn talk, then cancels his appearance because of his message? What sense does that make? We’re high school students, not first graders. I think we can handle a controversial topic. History is replete with unpleasant facts, including slavery, racism, and Native American genocide, but that doesn’t mean we should be sheltered from learning the past.”

Jason Mattera, spokesman for Young America’s Foundation, had this to say: “Just because Witte doesn’t like Mr. Flynn’s pro-life message is by no means a justification for censorship. In fact, Witte has a whole staff and administration to address any statement they find problematic. Witte’s obviously taken the cue from other leftist administrators that school officials should shun, not foster, debate and discussion.”

He went on to say the following in an article written for Townhall: "Taken from its mission statement, Mercy High School “nurtures compassionate leaders committed to addressing human needs, working for justice and serving the poor”—the same justice of which Sanger fought to deprive others, and the same poor Sanger wanted segregated from the master race.

Witte also added that her students were too “sensitive” to hear a topic about Planned Parenthood. Are Witte’s students, whose ages range from 14 to 18, also too sensitive to read about slavery, racism, and Native American genocide—topics which surely aren’t pretty? Probably not, since that “history” focuses on the Left’s holy trinity—race, gender, and class. It’s only when the “history” shifts to abortion that Witte pulls “sensitivity” out of her lexicon.

“I’m not suggesting that I or the school is anti-Mr. Flynn,” she added. “I just have not heard him speak.”

So, Principal Witte, you admit to never having heard Mr. Flynn talk before, then to canceling his appearance because of his message? Ah, a good lesson for all high school students to absorb: Judge first, listen second.

Even if a lecture on abortion may cause uneasiness among some students, isn’t school the place to challenge assumptions and to hear different, and perhaps, discomforting points of view? Apparently, Mercy High School’s principal is completely fine with producing graduates who are unprepared to think for themselves.

Witte sees no problem with a Catholic school rejecting basic Catholic doctrine. Not only is the Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly hostile toward abortion—calling the procedure a “moral evil” and excommunicating any person obtaining one—but the official position desires exposure to a wide variety of ideas. For with freedom, says the Catechism, man “might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to the [Almighty].”

In essence, this principal would rather hide the grisly positions espoused by Margaret Sanger than act as a responsible educator, and as a responsible Catholic. "

On his blog, Dan Flynn said this in a post about the cancelation: "One would think that Sanger, and not someone criticizing Sanger, would be controversial at a Catholic school. Alas, the topsy-turvy world of Catholic education offers many surprises.

Carolyn Witte, the school's principal, lamely rationalizes her decision by noting that the "content" of my speech, of which she has no idea, "could be misunderstood." By such standards, every speech might be banned. Last year the school attempted to block a student-led 9/11 memorial by claiming that the flags the students intended to hang outdoors were a fire-hazard--a characterization the local fire department found laughable. In its efforts to silence speech it dislikes, the school's administration is setting a horrible example for its students.

Mercy is a private high school. It's not a college. It's not tax funded. The standards on free speech, then, differ from, say, Michigan State. Had they not wanted me to speak, they had every right to do so prior to contracting with Young America's Foundation to host me. But once an agreement is reached, disinviting a speaker becomes a breach of contract. I purchased plane tickets. I coaxed a relative to take off work and mind my son in my absence. I prepared a speech that I have never given before. My student hosts, and Young America's Foundation, also put quite a bit of work into organizing the event. But, because liberal administrators wish to shield a liberal icon, all that work and money has gone down the drain.

There is a rather inglorious side to Margaret Sanger that gets pushed into the dark. I was hoping to put some light onto it at Mercy High School. That it's not safe to offer criticism of an abortion-rights icon at a Catholic high school demonstrates why the mythology surrounding Planned Parenthood's founder has persisted for so long."

YAF is calling on people to "Email and call the principal and president of Mercy High School and tell them that censorship is unacceptable!" Here is the contact info:

Carolyn Witte, Principal

248-893-3576

crwitte@mhsmi.org

Regina Doelker, President

248-893-3537

srdoelker@mhsmi.org

Matt C. Abbott reports in his 9 February 2007 column for Renew America that Michael T. Ross, MD, president of the Family Rights Coalition of Michigan, has sent the principal an e-mail telling of his disappointment in her actions: "As a devout Roman Catholic, a father of three (including a daughter now in college), a physician and president of a family advocacy group, the Family Rights Coalition of Michigan, I am deeply disappointed by your lack of confidence in the Mercy High student body, their families and the organizations that serve your school as demonstrated in your cancellation of Mr. Dan Flynn's presentation, 'Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood.'

Every day your students endure the stark and cruel realities of a culture of death that promotes wanton sexual indulgence, disrespect for the human body and spirit, systemic abuse of children and evil idolatry. Once in college, your graduates will be besieged by the rapacious culture of darkness intent upon their moral disintegration.

As a Catholic educator, your job is to prepare the young people entrusted to your direction to face the cultural war targeting them as they transition to adulthood. As a physician who has seen the evils of Planned Parenthood and the institutional promotion of sex and abortion within my own profession, I understand the plight of today's young people who are lost without spiritual direction and at the mercy of an American culture devoted to the extirpation of God and the elevation of narcissism.

I assure you that your students are not too sensitive and are unlikely to misunderstand the message of Mr. Flynn's presentation. Have you any idea what your students are already seeing, discussing and experiencing in the secret silos of their lives? Try taking a guided tour through Facebook to see what many of our Catholic school graduates and their public school peers are doing at private, public and Catholic colleges and universities across the nation."

Apparently Ms. Witte also doesn't see anything wrong with spinning the facts to fit the audience. In an article in The Detroit News she is reported as saying that "the event was canceled because a school moderator involved with the planning failed to follow school policy."

This comment is very different from the reason she gave to the Pro-Life Club et al. & given what I know about the timelines involved in getting a speaker for a student group doesn't make sense. If there were problems with following policy they would have 1st worked to correct them rather than cancel. I have my suspicions that there is more to this story. I think Mr. Mattera hits on the fringes of it in his Townhall article. I work at a Catholic College & I can assure you that Dr. Ross is correct when he says that these students are anything but too sensitive. But I am sure there are several someones who are sensitive, sensitive to the truth because they approve of Planned Parenthood & abortion & don't want the truth out there. & they will be found in 1 or more or all of the following: faculty, staff, administration, donors, Sisters of Mercy; take your pick.