Higher Education and Higher Law: Planned Parenthood Is a No-No for Pro Bono at St. Thomas

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Catholic law schools uphold two legal regimes: the laws of the U.S. legal system, and the laws from the big guy upstairs. Some students are just there for the former, and discomforted by the influence of the latter.
A tipster writes to us about a debate at Minnesota’s St. Thomas School of Law. We notice that in their motto — “Faith, Reason, Community” — faith comes first. So students probably should have expected something like this:

At Minnesota’s new law school, St. Thomas, the students have a 50-hour pro bono requirement. The school just announced that students can’t get credit if they do pro bono work for an organization that supports birth control or abortion. It seems kind of goofy.

The Minnesota Post (via Minnesota Lawyer Blog) has an article about a St. Thomas student who tried to fulfill her pro bono requirement at Planned Parenthood. Though she got approval from the student board, Dean Thomas Mengler shot it down:

Mengler announced in a campuswide letter that students would not receive credit for volunteering at Planned Parenthood or any other organization “whose mission is fundamentally in conflict with a core value of a Catholic university.”

“As a Catholic university, we have a right and a responsibility to be Catholic,” Mengler said in an interview on Tuesday. “Certainly, one of (the church’s) core values is sanctity of life.”

See also today’s Minnesota Star-Tribune (via Mirror of Justice, a leading Catholic legal theory blog).
St. Thomas isn’t the only law school struggling to balance secular influences and religious traditions. We recently received an e-mail from a Georgetown alum who tried to direct his donation to the school’s pro-choice campus group. They turned him down — see the e-mail exchange after the jump.

UST Law has unplanned controversy over volunteer credits [Minnesota Lawyer Blog]
Quote of the Year [Mirror of Justice]
Volunteer-credits decision sparks debate at St. Thomas law school [Minnesota Post]
Student’s volunteer mission is latest row at St. Thomas [Minnesota Star-Tribune]

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From Georgetown comes another controversy for students who were not attracted to the school because of its Catholic mission:

there may be another pro choice/pro life/’catholic identity’ fight brewing here at gtown… See below
—–Original Message—–
From: REDACTED
Sent: Thu 5/1/2008 11:26 AM
To: REDACTED
Subject: Re: 17 Days… and
I donated. On the form I listed the GULC pro-choice group. That same day I received an email (reproduced below) letting me know that my choice was forbidden. The donation form fails entirely to mention this so be warned.
……
On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 4:21 PM, REDACTED wrote:
Dear Mr. REDACTED,
I picked up your gift this afternoon from Courtside Café. You might not be aware that the Pro-Choice group on campus is actually about the only group you cannot officially give back to through Georgetown (it has to do with the Catholic school thing). I hope there is somewhere else on campus you would be willing to have your dollars go back to. We are trying to encourage everyone to designate toward the Opportunity Scholarship fund, but almost anything but the Pro-Choice group would be acceptable. I hope this
doesn’t lessen your enthusiasm for giving back.
Sincerely,
REDACTED
*REDACTED*
*Development Assistant- Law Annual Fund*
*Georgetown Law*

A university turning down money? The whole “Catholic school thing” must be really serious.

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