Nicholas P. Cafardi, Obama Supporter, Resigns from Franciscan University

The departure of Nicholas Cafardi removes the immediacy of dealing with the inherent contradiction of having on the Institutional Board of Franciscan University a man who has taken such a controversial position.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Dr. Deal Hudson of "Inside Catholic" reports that Dr. Nicholas P. Cafardi, noted legal scholar, former Dean of Duquesne University Law School and now prominent Catholic supporter of the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama has just resigned from his position as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Deal reports that the President of the University, Fr. Terrence Henry, TOR, received a letter of resignation from the former Dean on Monday, October 6, 2008. Cafardi was once hailed, along with fellow legal scholar Doug Kmiec, as a leading Pro-Life voice among Catholic academics.

Cafardi literally shocked the Pro-Life community when he, like Kmiec, endorsed Barrack Obama. The candidate's record on the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the right to life for every human person from conception to natural death, is completely antithetical to the teaching of the Catholic Church as well as to the Natural law which both Cafardi and Kmiec purported to champion.

The endorsement had also fueled the fierce debate among Catholics as to whether or not a faithful Catholic can legitiamtely exercise his or her prudential judgement in a manner which results in the election to office of a candidate who promises as his first act to sign the "Freedom of Choice Act".This debate is still raging with Bishops, clergy and lay leaders weighing in regularly. It may very well decide the current election.

I have been one of those engaged in this vital debate. As an alumnus of Franciscan University (1977) and a former Dean in the 1980's, I was profoundly disturbed at Cafardi's endorsement in much the same way I was at the similar endorsement and faulty "moral" analysis offered by Doug Kmiec.

This resignation came on the heels of a lecture Dean Cafardi was scheduled to deliver at Carlow College. He did not appear at the event but had his lecture, essentially stating his reasons for supporting Obama, read by a religious sister on Carlow's faculty. At that event, Franciscan University students courageously spoke out against the endorsement and exposed the strained reasoning of Cafardi.

Franciscan University rose to prominence after an amazing turn-around led by its former President and now Chancellor, Fr. Michael Scanlan, whose passionate committment to fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and to the pro-life cause has encouraged thousands, this writer among them, to make the issue a foundation stone of their life's work.

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The departure of Nicholas Cafardi removes the immediacy of dealing with the inherent contradiction of having on the Institutional Board of Franciscan University a man who has taken such a controversial position.Fr. Henry told "Inside Catholic" that Dean Cafardi's resignation from the board of Franciscan University had not been requested by the University.

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