MichaelMoore.com

Condoleezza Rice Does Not Deserve a Boston College Honorary Degree

The following letter was signed by nearly 100 Boston College faculty:

We, the undersigned members of the faculty at Boston College, strongly disagree with the decision of the university's leadership to grant Condoleezza Rice an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and to invite her to address the 2006 commencement. On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university's work.

As a matter of moral principle, Rice maintains that U.S. foreign policy should be based on U.S. national interest and not on what she calls the interests of an "illusory international community." This stands in disturbing contrast with the Catholic and humanistic conviction that all people are linked together in a single human family and that all nations in our interdependent world have a duty to protect "the common good of the entire human family."

On the level of practical judgment, Rice has helped develop and implement the strategic policies that have guided the United States in the tragic war in Iraq. Pope John Paul II and the United States Catholic bishops opposed initiating this war on ethical grounds. We also believe the policies that have shaped the war's ongoing conduct cannot be justified in light of the moral values of the Catholic tradition or the norms of international law.

For these reasons, we object to Boston College honoring Condoleezza Rice at its 2006 commencement. Doing so contradicts the university's Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic identity.

References are to Condoleezza Rice, "Promoting the National Interest," Foreign Affairs 79 (Jan./Feb. 2000), and to Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth, no. 98.