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The diocese says it received messages from Catholics across Rhode Island expressing disapproval about the event.
A Catholic university in Rhode Island is facing scrutiny from the Diocese of Providence for hosting vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s fundraiser last week.
Walz spoke for 17 minutes to 300 people at Ochre Court at Salve Regina University on Thursday and raised over $600,000 at the event, according to The Boston Globe. The Newport event followed Walz’s Boston fundraiser on Wednesday in Back Bay’s Newbury Boston hotel.
But the Diocese of Providence took issue with the fundraiser’s venue, saying the diocese “does not permit Catholic institutions in Rhode Island to endorse candidates for office nor even give the appearance of such endorsements.”
“We were surprised and disappointed by the decision of Salve Regina University to rent space to a partisan political event and fundraiser and we’ve received a number of messages from Catholics across Rhode Island expressing the same surprise and disappointment,” Michael Kieloch, spokesperson for the Diocese of Providence, said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Bishop Richard Henning of the Providence Diocese was announced to replace Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley as the archbishop of Boston.
“I will admit I don’t know that I’ve ever been an activist,” Henning said in a press event earlier this month. “I’m not that exciting. And my stance in Providence has been that I’m a pastor and not a politician.”
A Salve Regina University spokesperson said the venue was chosen by the Rhode Island Democratic Party Committee “based on availability for their selected date, time and anticipated capacity.”
“As an academic institution, the University fully supports freedom of speech as a cornerstone of democracy,” the spokesperson said. “As our mission calls us to do, we support productive and meaningful dialogue across our differences as we work toward a world that is more harmonious, just and merciful.”
A spokesperson for Providence College, another Catholic school in the state, told Boston.com that the school is unlikely to host such an event and is “very restrictive in terms of outside use of spaces on campus for those purposes.”
“We do not anticipate Providence College would permit a political fundraiser on campus,” the spokesperson said. “Generally, we require some connection to the college in furtherance of our mission, and political fundraisers do not meet those criteria.”
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