Order of Mercy friars
Catholic college president seems to be all wet

Sorry, Father. The ALS donations involve embryonic stem cell research, and your college is off the list.

You’ve seen them all over the internet. All kinds of folks, from celebrities to the teenager next door, are getting a big bucket of ice splashed on their head to raise money for ALS.

The intentions are good – to raise money to combat this debilitating nerve disease, also known as Lou Gehrig disease. But the ALS Association uses some of the funds raised in its work to fund embryonic stem cell research. Thus, pro life leaders advise against taking the ice bucket challenge.

That is why Vocation Promotion has removed this college from its target audience used to advertise its Come & See Quiz.

The president is shown in a video explaining the challenge and getting the water splashed over his head. The fact that this priest is wearing a t-shirt and shorts rather than his clerics doesn’t gain sympathy from us as well.

We don’t put every Catholic college on our vocations list. Our hand-picked list includes colleges, organizations, and publishing venues that reflect a commitment to remain true to Catholic teaching. We send our vocation ads to Facebook fans of these groups, and we need to keep these lists as true as possible when it comes to finding good religious candidates.

The college had been mistakenly placed on our list because we confused the college, which is in Canada, with one in Australia with the same name.

Read the article by Deacon Keith A. Fournier, “Why I Said No to the Ice Bucket Challenge.”