Founding
The society was founded in 1993 by Fordham University alumnus Patrick Reilly. After decisions by Fordham to recognize pro-choice and gay student clubs and create a counseling helpline which referred pregnant students to an abortion provider, Reilly used his position as editor of the school paper to express his opinions in defense of his understandings and applications of Catholic teaching on sexuality and abortion. Reilly launched the society with the help of other recent Catholic college graduates. The society's leadership included prominent conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III. It was Bozell, founder and president of the conservative media-watchdog group Media Research Center, who suggested use of direct mail marketing to invigorate the organization at a time when it existed "primarily as letterhead."
According to Reilly, “It took a while, but there was such a need, more and more, to engage students and working with alumni and working with faculty and as we went on, it became clear that they were all looking for some kind of national voice to express the concerns that very many faithful Catholics had about the state of Catholic education.”
One prominent supporter of the group is Fr. Benedict Groeschel, who wrote the forward to their "Newman Guide" and has spoken publicly in support of a stronger presence of Christians opposed to abortion rights on Catholic campuses, famously quipping that some secular colleges provide a better Catholic formation than their purported Catholic counterparts. Another supporter of the group is Fr. Joseph Koterski, a Jesuit at Fordham who is on record as having told Fordham students that he "couldn't see how could in good conscience after knowing the facts ."
Read more about this topic: Cardinal Newman Society
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