Xavier University Hires Former Surgeon General, Opponent of Catholic Teaching

Xavier University in Louisiana has announced that the former Surgeon General of the United States in the Obama administration will become the University’s first NOLA.com/TimesPicayune Endowed Chair in Public Health Sciences, according to NOLA.com.

Unfortunately, Dr. Regina Benjamin is, according to The White House, in line with the Obama administration’s views on what they call “reproductive health issues.”

Following her initial nomination in 2009, many pro-abortion rights advocates were concerned about Dr. Benjamin’s Catholicism and the implications of her faith when it came to abortion, especially when it was learned that she was active in her parish and was the recipient of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross in 2006 from Pope Benedict XVI. But White House spokesman Reid Cherlin allayed those fears by confirming that Benjamin “supports the president’s position on reproductive health issues,” according to LifeNews.com.

Planned Parenthood also listed Benjamin as a “Champion of Reproductive Rights” on its website.

Benjamin reportedly served on the board of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization which not only called on President Bush not to expand the Mexico City Policy, which prevents taxpayer money from going to groups that promote and perform abortions around the world, but lauded President Obama’s overturning of the policy.

Dr. Benjamin also reportedly served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, which endorsed the HHS contraceptive and sterilization mandate in Obamacare.

Dr. Benjamin is an alumnus of the historically black Catholic college.

The relationship between the Obama administration and the Catholic college extends beyond this one appointment. In 2006, the University bestowed an Honorary Degree on then-Senator Obama. In 2010, President Obama delivered a speech from the campus.

And a recent press release on the university’s website states that two members of Xavier University of Louisiana’s Board of Trustees – Dwight Bush, Sr., and Carla Harris – have been nominated by Obama for positions in his administration.

Bush has been nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, and Harris has been appointed chairperson of the National Women’s Business Council.

Originally published by The Cardinal Newman Society's Catholic Education Daily on 16 September 2013.