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 
This is shameful.
Only evil can come from good men standing aside and saying nothing. As Catholics, we must support our faith by our actions. We urge you to withdraw your invitation to former President Clinton.
Please, renew Loyola-Marymount to fully reflect our Catholic Faith. Pres. Clinton is not a fit speaker for an authentically Catholic institution. He represents the triumph of worldly thinking over Godly thinking. And, as Jesuit St. Ignatius liked to remind his friend St. Francis Xavier, it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world at the expense of his soul.
I am disgusted to hear that Loyola Marymount University invited Bill Clinton to speak at the commencement ceremony. He is a perfect example of what Loyola Marymount University does NOT stand for. He is a vulgar criminal who did not suffer the consequences of his inappropriate and disgusting actions while he was President of the United States.
I totally support this effort to disinvite Bill Clinton from speaking. He has a different agenda than most Catholics. He no longer should be acknowledged or admired. Why would we want to influence our students with his ideas? Catholics needs to stand up for what they believe. We can no longer see wrong and turn the other way. I firmly hope this will make a difference. Thank you for writing it.
Please recind this invitation!
I serve on the Sycamore Trust Board, Notre Dame’s alumni group working to protect and preserve ND’s Catholic identity. My heart goes out to you and to all Catholics who love and know their faith. It’s bad enough that we have to fight the secular world, but to have to defend our Faith to our own “family” members is a tragedy. My prayers are with you. May God bless you in your efforts.
Very poor choice, no morals.
RenewLMU perhaps should also include some viable suggestions as an alternative choice for the Commencement 2016 speaker- e.g. pro-life &/or Catholic celebrity?
Thanks for standing up for the Truth! Keep up the good work!
As a Catholic institution, LMU should not be supporting a person who is an admitted adulterer and supports abortion rights. The school is sending a message that this actions are fine as long as you have money and influence.
As an ND alumna I am sad to say ND paved the way for this hypocrisy and public scandal. I pray for the day when the institutions of our Church act on the faith the way the rank and file struggle to do.
Bill Clinton is not a positive example of the teachings of the Catholic faith and should not be a speaker at LMU.
It is outrageous for an ostensibly Roman Catholic university, LMU, to invite as its commencement speaker former President Bill Clinton. He has an abysmal reputation as an impeached philanderer and, to borrow Obama’s phrase, has conducted his own “war on women” both inside and outside the White House.
I understand Jesuits “like” social justice activists, but even on this score, both Clintons have shown themselves to be cynical, wealthy hypocrites making ridiculous sums of money for speaking engagements (that smell like bribes) to powerful fat cat groups who perpetuate social injustice.
The Jesuit order better clean house before it loses all credibility by remaining silent on the evils of abortion and physician assisted suicide. LMU, Georgetown, Notre Dame, etc., the list goes on and on of once reputable Roman Catholic universities.
Please do not add to the confusion of this country. If a former President can get away with sexual indiscretions and still be honored as an example of leadership; or maybe…. the “elites” can go through life unscathed regardless of their immoral actions. It is shameful and disheartening.
In the meantime Monica Lewinski can’t get a job because she has been branded for the rest of her life.
Really, you are inviting a man to speak on campus who is conflicted about the word “IS”. Really?
This is a betrayal of the Catholics who donated money to the university. Also I assume a great waste of money that should be spent for other purposes.
There are so many wonderful leaders in our country that would make an excellent choice as the commencement speaker for 2016 AND be an example of someone who upholds the very values that LMU extols. I have always believed in LMU as a Catholic institution of higher learning that has as its basis the goal of upholding the dignity of each person. Bill Clinton was not thinking of that when he misused the power of the office of presidency with his relationship with his intern or with his pro-abortion stance and funding millions of dollars to abortions in third world countries. It would be a travesty for someone like this to be speaking at an LMU commencement!!
I cannot understand what is happening to our Catholic higher education. I am including University of Notre Dame. I am so sorry that this poor past president is going to be honored at LMU after all of his disgraceful actions while in the White House. Dear Lord, please help us.
How low can you go?
President Synder, what is to be gained from this invitation to former President Clinton? Prestige in the eyes of some? And at what cost? Dividing the LMU community and disregarding the bishops’ manifest will regarding honoring those who dishonor Catholic principles? Please reconsider.
As a graduate of LMU and a golden year graduate in 2016,
I am appalled and greatly distressed that you would
honor such a pro-abortion person and an immoral leader
as ex-president Clinton. Please undo the invitation that you gave him.
Also as a devote and true Catholic, I ask you to stop all LGBT events
and programs at your university. They are immoral and undermine
Catholic teaching and beliefs. Until you once again make LMU a true
Catholic university, I will not support you in any way.
If you no longer identity as a Catholic university, you’re false in taking in students looking for a good Catholic education. Stop identifying as Catholic. It’s a scandal.
This is more than an embarrassment, it is also offensive to me to have a very public figure whose anctions and core beliefs in direct opposition to core teachings of our Faith serve as commencement speaker. It is also highly inappropriate to invite the spouse of a candidate for office right in the middle of the election cycle. We are compelled to consider whether favoritism towards Mrs Clinton’s candidacy is a factor in your invitation. Please cancel the invitation and invite a speaker true to Catholic teachings.
I graduated from Loyola just a year before the official merger with Marymount. I was very active on campus in a variety of activities and for many years after graduation donated in support of the University. My financial support stopped when the University “went off the reservation” and substituted political correctness for adherence to Catholic teachings and principles.
The invitation to William Jefferson Clinton, a disgraced former President, is beyond belief. How can any educational institution which purports to be based upon the teachings of the Church invite someone with Clinton’s proven moral failings to serve as commencement speaker. Doing so simply glorifies and condones evil.
The invitation needs to be withdrawn immediately.
I told my children several years ago to please not send my grandchildren to any Jesuit college/university nor to Notre Dame nor to College of St. Rose in Albany, NY. I encouraged them to look at colleges approved by The Cardinal Newman Society as truly Roman Catholic in sync with the Teachings of the Catholic Church.
I am a graduate of a Jesuit college in the ’60’s; my wife is a graduate of St. Rose.
Not a Catholic college.
His nomination is antithetical to our Roman Catholic moral stance.
I object to your invitation to honor Bill Clinton. It would be much better if you honored a Catholic person or at least someone who is more in line with Catholic values. After all, you are a Catholic university!
May Our Merciful Heavenly Father forgive you and lead you to His path of righteousness. Better that a millstone be placed around your neck than for you to lead one of these little ones astray. Scary stuff! Again, let us together beg Mercy for your Soul!
As an alum and donor, I was also shocked. Have submitted my own letter of protest
Surely you could select an outstanding Catholic! Bill Clinton does not represent any of our Catholic values! What are you thinking?
May I suggest William Bennett, former cabinet member, Jesuit educated and distinguished American of outstanding character. He has catholic values that should inspire your young graduates. You are a Catholic University; please act like one!!!
It is sad but not surprising to see that the University is becoming Catholic in name only. … LMU has slowing been sliding away from being a Jesuit University to becoming a secular institution with a Catholic name. I would never send my children to LMU and I’m ashamed of their actions.
Please reconsider your decision in inviting a speaker who opposes the very basic of our catholic faith regarding life and family moral. LMU is a Catholic University and should be supporting and promoting the Catholic belief in faith and morals. Mr Clinton supports abortion and same sex marriage which is contrary to our Judeo-Christian belief. This could influence the young minds of your student. We Catholics should stand firm and united on our spiritual and moral values otherwise future generation will loose the very essence of our faith.
Disgusted.
I hope someday my sons will go to LMU, but not if you don’t begin to abide by the Catholic Church’s teachings.
We’d love to send donations to our alma mater, LMU, but only when you teach and exhibit Catholic values.
I second that, and am sure countless alumni feel the same way. Perhaps this would spark interest in the overtly-liberal and anti-Catholic curriculum changes that have taken place these past five years.
At this critical juncture of not only our culture but the entire world to raise up and recognize men & women of high integrity, morals & virtues as models for our young and impressionable students. Former President Clinton has fallen far short in each of these categories and has not earned the privilege of giving the commencement talk at LMU. In addition the governing body at LMU has a greater responsibility to insure that this does not occur.
I am appalled and greatly saddened by this consideration. As a leader of this Great Catholic Institution did THAT committee, President or anyone even enter into a spirit of prayer and seek Divine guidance? Shameful. Please withdraw this invitation. Graduates should boycott the graduation and receive their diplomas via mail.
I cannot believe a Catholic university would consider asking Bill Clinton to be part of the commencement. What will he discuss — his morals, ethics or his affiliations with those countries which have no regard for religious freedom, to say nothing of human trafficking and our own country’s Planned Parenthood! The university president should be fired!
I completely agree. What was the school’s administration thinking? This man should be shunned by anyone with a conscience who believes in the protection of women and human decency.
It is time to call out the phony Catholic administrators and remove them as traitors of the faith that they are.
We have a feeling that the Catholic Church is in a critical period of its history. There is a need for anyone associated with the Roman Catholic Church to bone up on catechetical teachings of the traditional Church, and to reinforce all Roman Catholic principles in thought and deed. The glorification of a blatantly anti-Christian such as Bill Clinton flies in the faces of all thinking Catholics; indeed in the faces of all who call themselves “Christian.”
Enough of diluted Catholic faith. Bring back Catholic identity — faithfulness & fidelity to sacred traditions, magisterium and sacred scriptures. Enough of protestantism, relativism, modernism, and secularism,
LMU has chosen to honor someone whose actions leave much to be desired, both in terms of his public policies (pro-abortion, death penalty), and his personal behavior. Do you really want the graduates to emulate Bill Clinton? There are many people who have led exemplary lives that you could invite instead. You are teaching the students and their guests that what really matters is worldly success, however it is achieved.
I don’t know why a Catholic University is so tolerant of all these denominational/state-civic-theologies and persons who promote and consent to values clearly against true Catholicism.
Until LMU students & families are happy receiving a Bishop as a speaker, or better yet, local clergy, you are searching for the wrong titular folk.
To give this sexual predator a platform in the political season is a serious misstep.
LMU long ago lost its Catholic values. My husband and I used to support our beloved university with a yearly donation which we stopped a number of years ago. When we realized the damage that LMU’s liberal agenda and policies truly inflicts on young people, we could no longer send our money in support. Our faith has been renewed and strengthened since leaving LMU. We now have four children who would love to attend LMU, but we have told them they can not unless they truly become Catholic again. It is disheartening that they would honor a man who not only manipulated a young woman the age of many LMU students for his sexual desires, but who also condones the brutal murder of unborn children. Shame on you LMU.
Not some place I would ever send my kid or donate to. What are they thinking!
This is a travesty for a Catholic University.
I would advise anyone not to send their children to this university as it is causing scandal within the church. I would recommend no one donate to this university.
The University is giving up its Catholic identity in homage to secular demands and idols. This is a disgrace.
Do not dare call yourself a Catholic institution.
There is almost zero possibility that the president of LMU will withdraw Bill Clinton as commencement speaker due to the overriding attitude of academia’s liberal elite whose desire to shine with the stars blinds them from seeing their dance with the culture of death.
But it is good that we are making our voice known, even though LMU’s president will simply file this petition in his “malcontent file”.