After his father died in 2001, Terry McAuliffe endowed a scholarship in Jack McAuliffe’s name at Bishop Ludden, the Catholic high school that Terry attended in Syracuse, New York.
But the endowed fund was not enough to buy the 1975 graduate a welcome mat.
Discovering this winter that the former Democratic Party chair supported abortion rights, the Syracuse diocese barred McAuliffe from returning to his high school to discuss his new memoir.
The cancellation came soon after McAuliffe, the longtime Clinton friend who’s now chairing Hillary’s presidential campaign, made plain his views in an interview.
“I am pro-choice, no question about it,” McAuliffe told conservative talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt. Asked how he could reconcile such a position with his faith, he said, “I can, as can many Catholics.”
McAuliffe says his views have been “public and consistent” for many years and have not prevented him from speaking to Catholic organizations in the past.
Still, he has no plans to reconsider his generosity to his alma mater. But McAuliffe’s camp couldn’t help noticing the timing of the diocese’s decision, delivered February 21 at the start of Lent. “Happy Ash Wednesday,” a McAuliffe associate said sarcastically.
Susan Baer is a former Washingtonian editor and Baltimore Sun correspondent who has also written for CNN and the Washington Post. She can be reached at [email protected].
