The College of St. Mary, a 1,000-student Roman Catholic institution in Nebraska, canceled the commencement speech scheduled for Sunday after outside protests threatened to interrupt graduation ceremonies, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The invited speaker was Roberta Wilhelm, a top official at Girls Inc., a national advocacy group that, among other things, supports abortion rights. That position makes it anathema to many Catholics, and a local pastor joined a national group in urging the invitation to be withdrawn. The college’s president told the newspaper that it had then received a barrage of e-mail, telephone calls, and faxes threatening to disrupt the commencement. The national group, the Cardinal Newman Society, has denounced a number of Catholic colleges for not being “Catholic enough.” —Andrew Mytelka