Nun Calls for Universities to Influence Public Opinion for Gun Control

The President of a private Catholic university was interviewed by The Catholic News Service, which is *not* a part of the Catholic Church.  It was published in  The Pilot, a paper that claims the title of "America's Oldest Catholic Newspaper".   The paper is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston.   On June 1, it published an interview with Sister Carney, who has been the President of Bonaventure University, a private school in Allegany, New York, for the last ten years.

Here she speaks of the emotional plea for more government restrictions on the private ownership of firearms after the killing of six people in Santa Barbara, California, three with a knife, three shot to death:

Sister Carney said if she had heard this heartfelt plea three years ago, she would have been convinced something would change.

But that was before the school shooting two years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a 20-year-old gunman killed 20 students and six educators before killing himself.

"If Sandy Hook wasn't enough for people to march to their senators and say, 'We need a new (gun control) law tomorrow,'" she said she doesn't know what will make the difference.

It does not appear the Sister Carney is completely uninformed about the Second Amendment and the public debate about the efficacy of more gun control.  She says:

"Of course college presidents are against gun violence; no one is in favor of that. But where do you stand on Second Amendment rights? That's where conversation starts to fall apart," she said.

She also noted that college presidents all have boards of trustees that are as "divided as the nation on the best approach" to gun control, which is why she thinks the best way forward is to commit to changing attitudes through education.

It becomes clear what she thinks the answer is: More propaganda aimed at changing public views, because, obviously, she believes the public views are wrong:

She also knows such a process will take years to make an impact, so it needs to be something college leaders are committed to for the long haul. But she believes it can happen, just as public views on cigarette smoking have changed over time.

As she put it: "Legal action will fail" without public support.

The interviewer assumes that more government restrictions are what Sister Carney is talking about;  they make the following statement:

 Currently, public support of gun restrictions is not strong. According to Pew Research Center studies, Americans briefly showed support for gun restrictions after the Sandy Hook shooting but then soon returned to stronger support for gun rights, particularly after a background check gun bill failed in the Senate.

Government restrictions of guns has not worked to prevent mass murders and is unlikely to work.  Every restriction pushed after Sandy Hook was already in place in California when the knife, gun, and car attack occurred in Santa Barbara,  so pushing propaganda to change public opinion about more government restrictions of guns is not the answer.  This appears to be a standard, run of the mill secular "progressive" answer: the solution is always more government restrictions.

What shocked me is that there is not one word in the article calling for a resurgence of faith.   Not one word talking about the power of redemption and Christian morality.   Not one word considering the power of prayer.    This is a Catholic nun in charge of a Catholic university, speaking in what purports to be the Catholic News Service, published in a Catholic paper, but the interview is completely secular, political, partisan, and cynical.

There is no consideration that "gun control" might be a failed idea, or that the more that people learn about "gun control", the more that people oppose it.  There is no call for the civilizing influence of Christian belief.   To my knowledge, none of the recent mass shooters have been Christians, which says something in a predominantly Christian nation.

Sister Carney could have been interchanged with any other "Progressive" operative.   Other than the word "Sister" in front of her name, there is no indication that the Christian faith has anything to do with her opinions, actions, or prescriptions.

I have to wonder if she considers murder to be a moral choice, or simply a result of bad circumstances?

Digging a little deeper into the Catholic News Service, I find that it is owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.   It appears to be the equivalent of the AP: a reliably progressive news organ.   On another forum, many informed me that it is *not* a reliable source for Catholic Church doctrine.

  ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.  Link to Gun Watch