Dear President Snyder,
We alumni, donors, parents, faculty, students, and concerned friends object to your decision to honor President Bill Clinton as LMU’s 2016 commencement speaker on May 7th. If you as President of LMU treated a 21 year old intern in your office as he did, you would be fired as president and never honored in any way at LMU. Why should the standards be lower for a President of the United States? If LMU cares about sexual harassment, it should not honor someone repeatedly and credibly accused of such activity. Moreover, it is inappropriate in an election year to honor the spouse of a leading candidate thereby politicizing an event that should be unifying. Finally, President Clinton’s steadfast support of abortion on demand, including even partial birth abortion, is incompatible with LMU’s Jesuit emphasis on social justice for all human beings.
We protest your decision to give an honorary doctorate to President Clinton.
RenewLMU
To support this effort please sign below and circulate this petition. We also welcome you to include your own comment.
LMU Jesuit Rector Defends Giving an Honorary Doctorate to President Bill Clinton
In the Loyolan, Jesuit Father Allan Figueroa Deck, the rector of the Jesuit Community at LMU and a trustee, defends giving President Clinton an honorary doctorate. “In conferring this honor LMU does not endorse all of Mr. Clinton’s past or current policies nor condone all his actions,” Fr. Deck told the Loyolan, “Rather, the University recognizes the extraordinary service he has given to civil society and his lifetime connection to Catholic and Jesuit higher education as a Georgetown University alumnus.”
By contrast, the U.S. Catholic Bishops teach, “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” A politician’s extraordinary service does not constitute an exception to this principle, since any politician who is being considered for an honor presumably has exemplary service in at least some respects.
Fr. Deck’s response to RenewLMU’s criticism attacks a straw man. No one thinks that to grant an honorary doctorate is to endorse all of a politician’s policies or to condone all the politician’s actions. Nor is the question whether the politician provided extraordinary service or attended a Jesuit university. The question is whether President Clinton’s policies and actions violate fundamental Catholic moral principles about partial birth abortion, perjury, obstruction of justice, and sexual harassment in the workplace. The answer is obvious.
RenewLMU 
If a Catholic University loses it’s Christian identity why should a parent sacrifice to send family there? If salt should lose it’s savor…. Are you, the people of this university the salt of the earth anymore? I think maybe you should consider the, “content of their character”,
before you invite anyone to speak or as a commencement speaker. You could say, “what difference does it make”, but I will not be sending family or funds to those who do not remember the foundation upon which they were built!
The decision of a University, a Catholic institute of higher learning to bestow such an honor on a man who may be most known as a person who supports murdering babies in the womb is not Catholic. This decision is an affront to people who strive and suffer daily to share and defend the truth of Christ. I respectfully request that you reconsider this invitation given to Mr. Clinton to speak to the future leaders of our world. Perhaps such an honor could be bestowed upon a leader whose personal core values reflect the value of life rather than the support of death. Thank you
This display illustrates a direct attack on our Catholic beliefs. LMU is
not a Catholic University or a true Jesuit University. Bill Clinton is a
disgrace to the office of Presidency of the U.S. This action is a disgrace
to the university, its students and any individual concerned with
moral Catholic teachings.
Despite visiting LMU and considering it as a prospective school for my daughter, it is decisions such as this that call to question the true Catholic/Christian identity of LMU. There are far more admirable folks to hold up as commencement speakers for our future leaders and parents. I am saddened that institutions that can truly uplift civilization, choose to chip away at the strong core they once had.
Prestige over Truth.
Bill Clinton disgraced himself and the office of the Presidency and was impeached and disbarred for his conduct. His disgraceful and immoral conduct debased our culture and negatively influenced the next generation, which consequences we are currently seeing play out each and every day in the “popular culture.” He should not be held in high regard and by inviting him to speak at your commencement you are essentially doing that. You are elevating him as someone the graduates should look up to for advice and wisdom as they graduate and make their way in the world. This is totally unacceptable for a Catholic institution to hold up a symbol of sexual deviancy and immoral and illegal conduct. I urge you to withdraw your invitation.
In addition to the sexual harassment situation mentioned by RenewLMU, at this time, this endorsement of the Clintons is nearly an endorsement of Hillary as a presidential contender. I do not believe this is appropriate for a graduation which should be a non-political event. (As an aside, I was at the Awards Presentation this week. After hearing the invocation, I had to ask my kid whether this Father who spoke was actually Catholic. It sure didn’t sound like it. Inviting Bill Clinton only shows how far away LMU has gone from the Catholic tradition of this once fine institution. Dr. Snyder, I hope one of your goals at LMU is to bring this school back to its roots as a Catholic university.)
In LMU’s thrust to fight for social justice issues and possibly to have a “celebrity” commencement speaker, an OBJECTONABLE speaker has been invited. LMU seems to be compromising or diminishing its moral and Catholic standards and principals. It also seems extremely inappropriate at this election time. Intended or not, this selection is providing a political soapbox. What can Clinton provide in advice to the graduates (and others in attendance) on the value of developing sound moral and ethical principles as they go forth into the world?
You cannot be considered a “Catholic” university, and have not for a long time. This is going too far…you must know you are responsible for the souls you mislead with your choices as an administrator. Following in the footsteps of Notre Dame won’t get you a pass when it comes to judgment day.
President Clinton is a vocal supporter of abortion. LMU is a pro-life institution. I will
Not support LMU financially if Clinton speaks.
What are you thinking!! It is a long road back as you know from the struggles of your liberal policies of the past. Why exacerbate them? Please withdraw this invitation so we can hold our heads up with pride once again.
This is a complete and utter disgrace for a university that claims to be Catholic, in allowing this former president and reprobate man who twice vetoed partial birth bans and is a total abortionist with their blood on his hands and is a known adulterer. A fine example for the graduating youth of a “Catholic University” ? President Snyder should resign or be removed.
I continue to be shocked by the anti-Catholic speakers that LMU chooses to inform the student body, graduates and their family and friends.
Why can’t the Archbishop simply tell the University that they must choose someone with good Catholic credentials. Does the bishop have no authority over this matter?
LMU Catholic identity is much more important and leading by example is best.
Inviting Former President Clinton in an election year where his wife is running for a bid for the presidency is a strong statement by LMU that is contrary to Catholic values.
Shame on LMU for failing to be a standard bearer.
Very disappointing. We should uphold our Catholic values and teachings with confidence.
I know you may sneer at this, but your soul is in jeopardy for honoring a man such as Bill Clinton by asking him to speak at LMU. Before Barak Obama, Bill Clinton was the most pro abortion president our country and preborn babies have had to suffer (and die) through. This fact alone disqualifies him from addressing students, parents, faculty, the gardener, plant manager, or anyone else on your Catholic campus. Our Lord said, “to whom much is given much is required”. Mr. Snyder, you have been given much responsibility over whom you choose to address your outgoing students. Pray much and choose wisely or be prepared to confront the One who has given you much.
I sent the following letter to the Board of Trustees today. I urge everyone to contact the Board directly and let them know how strongly you feel about this. You can e-mail your letters to the Board Chair, Kathleen Aikenhead (kathleen.aikenhead@lmu.edu) and to President Timothy Law Snyder (president@lmu.edu).
Dear Chairperson Aikenhead, President Snyder and Fellow Members of the Board of Trustees,
As an LMU alumnus, I am writing to convey my profound disappointment regarding the decision to honor former president Bill Clinton as the university’s 2016 commencement speaker. I was going to begin by making the observation that LMU is at a crossroads, but I don’t think that is an accurate description of the current situation; rather, we should candidly admit that the university has already crossed the road which separates it from its foundational Catholic mission. It is an open question as to whether it will – or even wants to – find its way back.
While there are many reasons why the invitation to President Clinton is wrong, perhaps the most important and obvious one is that it is a scandal in the formal sense of the word – it leads others to do evil. Under the current version of the university’s core curriculum, there are hardly any common courses, lectures, or readings (and perhaps none at all) which students must take in order to graduate. Commencement is one of the few opportunities that LMU has to speak to the university community as a whole, and to the broader community beyond her boundaries. Therefore, the choice of a commencement speaker is consequential, and necessarily conveys a message about the moral qualities which LMU values – and those which it does not.
I won’t bother to revisit the problematic legacy of President Clinton in detail, but I would remind you that he was impeached; that he was barred from the practice of law; that he dishonored the office of the presidency by lying under oath and repeatedly and publicly to the American people; that he has credibly been accused of serial incidents of sexual assault; that he has vigorously promoted and defended the unrestricted right to abortion, even to the extent of vetoing a ban on partial-birth abortions; that his private foundation funds organizations which provide abortion services throughout the world; that he has amassed a personal fortune of more than $80 million entirely by leveraging his political influence; and that his name has literally become synonymous with deliberately misleading speech.
Of course, as is the case with virtually all persons who have wielded great power, we can credit President Clinton with a number of significant, positive accomplishments as well. Even so, they cannot erase or even mitigate the fact that President Clinton has unrepentantly violated normative standards of decency and the sacred human dignity of the unborn. Therefore, it is truly a scandal for a Catholic university to bestow its highest honor on such a man, for by doing so you excuse and implicitly endorse his sinful conduct – and send more than a thousand graduates into the world with the lasting impression that the Catholic Church doesn’t really care about honesty, integrity, and the inherent dignity of all human life, and that they need not concern themselves with such things either.
It is notable that LMU will be the first Jesuit university to honor President Clinton as its commencement speaker. Not even Georgetown University, President Clinton’s own alma mater, nor any other Catholic or Christian college or university has ever done so. In fact, with the possible exception of President Obama’s 2009 commencement speech at Notre Dame – which provoked widespread controversy and formal protests by dozens of bishops – it is impossible to recall an instance of a commencement speaker at any Catholic institution who has been more offensive to the values that LMU professes to uphold.
I must also point out the glaring hypocrisy of this invitation. Even the most casual follower of events on the LMU campus over the past year must know of the reflexively aggressive manner in which the administration has addressed perceived incidents of bias, intolerance, and insensitivity. And yet without a hint of irony, during what LMU recognizes as “Sexual Assault Awareness Month”, the university invites America’s foremost exemplar of “lying your way out of responsibility for sexual misconduct” to give the commencement address. From this point on, whenever the administration feels the need to make some solemn pronouncement about how the LMU community will not tolerate even the smallest slight against some person or group’s dignity, everyone ought to feel free to ignore it – as you will have forfeited the right to be taken seriously.
Finally, let me address what I presume to be the real motivation behind the invitation to President Clinton. Everyone understands that university admissions have become a highly competitive arena, and that like all other universities LMU finds it necessary to enhance its prestige in order to attract a sufficient pool of qualified applicants. President Clinton’s address will surely help the university in this regard – even though it is almost certainly the case that he has no real familiarity with or affinity for LMU, and has only agreed to speak because he was planning on being here anyway.
This being so, I can understand why President Snyder and the Board of Trustees would be willing, and in fact eager, to extend the invitation and the associated honors to President Clinton. But if there is one thing that is worse than having a Catholic university invite someone like President Clinton to speak at its commencement, it is to rationalize the decision as something other than a deliberate concession to sin. The choice here is so clear-cut that there can be no appeal to moral ambiguity or reckless impulse.
A couple of years ago, I did something which it had never occurred to me to do while I was a student at LMU. I completed a version of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. It changed my life, and continues to do so every day. While there are many ways that the Exercises can be understood, to me they mark the line between merely routine Catholicism – which is to say the taken-for-granted ritualistic piety that I had practiced for more than fifty years – and the mature faith of those who understand that sin and salvation are the most real and important things in the world, and that we must engage them with the utmost seriousness. Every day in every way, the people who are responsible for the governance of LMU and the moral formation of its students must make a choice: either the university will be a means of grace or a stumbling block.
I have no idea to what extent anyone on the Board cares about the Catholic mission of LMU; I am sure you all think that you care deeply in your own way, and perhaps you do. But that is not the test. LMU can and will and must be judged by objective standards of fidelity to the doctrines that it is canonically and historically bound to uphold. Like it or not, you are going to be a Christian witness to the world, whether you take the easy road and accept the invitation to President Clinton as a fait accompli, or whether you take the hard road – the one that you are called to by virtue of the office that the university and the Catholic Church have entrusted you with – and graciously and apologetically excuse President Clinton from the honors that were improvidently extended to him.
Very truly yours,
James M. Belna, BS ’79, JD ‘84
In addition to his status as a voracious opponent of unborn children destined for abortion, former President Bill Clinton is married to an active presidential candidate of the Democrat party, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and is therefore a partisan political figure, and as such, should not be invited.
Ridiculous, why would we have slick Willy at our school??????
When we abandon our core we fail.
Very disappointing….especially a few weeks before the California primary. Having an admitted liar, womanizer, etc. as commencement speaker is absurd. What is he being paid? Just imagine the reaction if someone like George W. Bush was invited. Why have this event politicized? Forget my annual donation. Bill Falkenhainer
No Catholic or Christian college or university, not even Georgetown (his own alma mater) has ever honored President Clinton as its commencement speaker. In fact, with the possible exception of President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame, it is impossible to think of a more egregious example of a Catholic institution’s disrespect for its foundational values. On May 7th, President Clinton and the university administration will be sending out the following message: that LMU values publicity and celebrity more than honesty, decency, and the sanctity of human life; and that the more than 1,000 graduates that LMU is sending out into the world may as well do the same.
Archbishop Gomez should strip the school of its Catholic status if it doesn’t get its act together. The scandals have gone on too long.
Please stop misrepresenting yourself as ‘Catholic’. We are not fooled.
What has happened to LMU? I’ll tell you.
1. Cowardice to stand for the truth.
2. Lack of conviction for the value of the Catholic faith.
3. A pandering to whatever is “acceptable” in our culture.
With such thoughtless acceptance and lack of critical examination of new cultural values, LMU is accepting the unacceptable, turning a blind eye to egregious transgressions of reality and natural law. If LMU had such a mindset during the era of slavery, then it may well have accepted slavery. If LMU had such a mindset during the novel ideas of early Naziism or the new ideas of eugenics in the early 1900’s, then Naziism and eugenics may well have been embraced by LMU.
Shame on you for not guiding your students. As Scripture says, it would be better to have a millstone put around one’s neck and thrown into the sea than to cause even one innocent soul to be led astray.
And where, in the cast of players in the Scriptural Passion story, would LMU fall? The answer in my mind is easy: the cowardice of Pilate, whose pathetic question echoes LMU’s seemingly current character: “What is Truth”?
He had sexual affairs in the White House. Not a good example for LMU students to follow.
I would be ashamed to see Bill Clinton speak at Loyola’s commencement.
As Catholics, we are all tainted when our schools represent us in a way that contradicts all that we say we believe in. Do our institutions reflect what we teach or not? My dollars will never willingly go to an institution, even one claiming to be Catholic, that strays so far from what I believe and live.
Please note that I sign this exhortation as a member of the LMU Class of 2016. It besmirches the names of my class and LMU to be associated with President Clinton in this way; honoring him in this way grossly undermines LMU’s stance on justice for all and opposition to sexual harassment.
I can’t believe how much we as a family gave up to send our children to LMU. A Catholic University! Now you slap us in the face with this invitation to Bill Clinton to be the 2016 Commencement Speaker. Shame on you.
This is a scandal.
In this political year, I find it grossly offensive to take such an obviously slanted political stance in this invitation. This kind of radical policy stance by the new LMU administration “High Command” is precisely why I no longer support my alma mater, which over many decades was a pillar of my charitable contributions. And your Dean of Liberal Arts is another issue which I will not get into at this time. Sad!
I am shocked that my alma mater LMU would invite someone like Bill Clinton to speak at graduation. He is so disrespectful to women…. Very disappointed in the direction LMU is heading. It is for this reason that my parents and I have stopped donating to LMU. It’s not the school I knew and loved. I know most of my LMU friends feel the same way. I think you are going to start losing a lot of support.
Find another speaker that is Catholic.
The Vatican should take it back from the idiots who are holding it hostage to implement their evil ways and imposing their own moral and political views all the while representing them as those of “The University’s”.
I just read an article about a woman, Her name is Monica, and she was telling how her life was defined by and destroyed by a very powerful man, Bill Clinton, when she was a young co-ed.
The pain humiliation and destruction to this young college girl caused by a man who should have known better is immeasurable.
How dare you consider having this man stand before LMU students for them to applaud him as a commencement speaker! How shameful. Every woman present at such an event would be demeaned to clap for someone who sees a young college woman as a non human piece of meat he can use, destroy, and cast away.
Monica is a real person. She has a face and lived through immeasurable destruction caused by the immoral life of the great and powerful Bill Clinton. We can not hold him up as a person of greatness in the Christian sense. For us followers of Christ, we only use our faith to define greatness and true power and it comes from God. Bill Clinton should not speak at LMU unless it is to apologize to women, the female coeds present, and a particular young woman, Monica, for failing to treat her like the child of God she is. If that is not the purpose of the speech then he should be replaced and the people in charge of LMU should all be canned.
Sincerely, Joan Vanderhorst
I thought LMU had reached a place where I could now frame my diploma and put it on display. Well Pres Snyder thank you for saving me $68.00 as I won’t be framing my diploma.
It is a disgrace to have Mr Clinton as a Commencement Speaker. It sends a message that sexual assault of women is OK.
I am sad to hear of this decision, when there have and are woman and men that have truly been women and men of great works.
I hope and pray that tihis decision might be rescinded
and that LMU might think about its values and what it teaches. It is difficult to comprehend why it made this descsion.
LMU Parents
Roy and Margarita Chavoya
I am a believer in a strong Catholic identity for institutions that purport to be Catholic.
I am a believer in a strong Catholic identity for institutions that purport to be Catholic.
My years of Jesuit undergrad exposure compel me to object strenuously to this invitation to ex-president Clinton.Your effort to present the invitation to this man as an example of ‘academic freedom’ is trumped by the fact he is not a person to be emulated by LMU students.
It is at once heartbreaking and enraging to think that an institution founded by an order that was itself instituted to combat error would honor a man who defends the taking of innocent human life in the womb, even defending the murder of those about to be born. Honoring such a person is inherently evil in the first place. It is also a vile insult to the authorities of Holy Mother Church who have expressly forbidden such outrages. It is also an insult to those who courageously struggle against the evils that Mr. Clinton supports. By honoring such a person you perpetrate a fraud against the parents who pay their children’s tuition and against those students who believed that they were entering a Catholic institution. You commit sacrilege by carrying out this outrage in such proximity to the Blessed Sacrament. Please consider the ramification of this act for your own immortal souls and inform Mr. Clinton that it is not appropriate for an advocate of evils that cry out to Heaven for revenge to be honored by any entity connected with the Bride of Christ.
This is shockingly bad judgment for all the reasons listed. I am appalled that LMU is not only holding Bill Clinton up to your students as someone to be admired, but the fact that LMU is also paying speaker’s fees to bring him to campus is a horrible misuse of funds! You should be ashamed.
Inappropriate choice if only because Clinton is husband of a presidential candidate – LMU should not so publicly tilt toward a major political candidate.
There MUST be many, many other speakers who would be more qualified to speak at this Catholic University. LMU! Please, please make the right decision for the benefit of the students and the name of the University and cancel the invitation. Please, Jesuits, you can do this!!!! I will pray for you.
This will completely ruin LMU’s credibility- in the eyes of both pious and cafeteria Catholics- and will make it a joke for everyone else.
How disappointing that LMU has chosen to honor Pres. Clinton after he so dishonored the office of the President of the United States. There are so many fine men or women you could have chosen whose lives you would hope your young impressionable students would chose to emulate. LMU will not be my choice for children or grandchildren in the future.
Your choice of commencement speakers is inappropriate for a school that professes to be Catholic.
This is disgraceful! Bill Clinton was impeached, disbarred, was an adulterer, a philanderer, lied, and a disgrace to the office of President of the United States. In no way is he a role model for the graduates of LMU and certainly does not embody the philosophy of “men and women for others”. I certainly am not teaching my children to aspire to be just like Bill Clinton. He has no morals! He is not a Catholic and does not follow catholic values. He is a proponent of abortion and partial birth abortion. Graduation should not be a political forum, and with Hillary running for president, having Bill speak has made it one. Shame on President Snyder and Loyola Marymount University. I am extremely saddened by this decision.
I highly encourage you to stand by your Catholic principles and replace President Clinton with a more appropriate commencement speaker.