Is Notre Dame Still Catholic?

Is Notre Dame Still Catholic?

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By Patrick J. Buchanan

By inviting Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins has polarized the Catholic community nationwide--and raised a question. What does it mean to be a Catholic university in post-Christian America?

Are there truths about faith and morality that are closed to debate at Notre Dame? Or is Notre Dame like London's Hyde Park, where all ideas and all advocates get a hearing?

To Catholics, abortion is the killing of an unborn child, a premeditated breach of God's Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The case is closed for all time. Any who participate in an abortion are excommunicated. Catholic politicians from Nancy Pelosi to Joe Biden who support a "woman's right to choose" have been denounced from pulpits and denied Communion.

Obama, however, is the most pro-abortion president ever. On his third day in office, by executive order, he repealed the Bush prohibition against using tax dollars to fund agencies abroad that perform abortions.

He supports partial-birth abortion, where a baby's soft skull is sliced open with scissors in the birth canal and its brains sucked out to ease its passage, a procedure Sen. Pat Moynihan said "comes as close to infanticide as anything I have seen in our judiciary."

In the Illinois legislature, Obama helped block the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, a bill to save the lives of infant survivors of abortion. He voted to allow doctors and nurses to let these tiny babies die of neglect and be tossed out with the medical waste.

Barack is committed to signing the Freedom of Choice Act, which would repeal every federal and state restriction on abortion. He has smoothed the path for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Notre Dame, a university that teaches that all innocent human life is sacred, will thus honor a leader determined to ensure that a woman's right to destroy her unborn child in the womb remains unrestricted.

There is thus a direct clash between what Notre Dame professes to stand for and what Notre Dame is doing.

Says Ralph McInerny, a philosophy professor since 1955: "By inviting Barack Obama to be the 2009 commencement speaker, Notre Dame has forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic University... (T)his is a deliberate thumbing of the collective nose at the Roman Catholic Church to which Notre Dame purports to be faithful.

"Faithful? Tell it to Julian the Apostate."

McInerny calls Father Jenkins' invitation to Obama worse than the "usual effort of the university to get into warm contact with the power figures of the day. It is an unequivocal abandonment of any pretense at being a Catholic university."

An honorary degree, writes Catholic author George Weigel, is a statement that here is a man we should admire and emulate. But how can a Catholic university say that about a man who means to appoint Supreme Court justices who will keep constitutional and legal the systematic slaughter of the unborn that has taken 50 million lives in 35 years?

Can Father Jenkins not see the contradiction here that renders Notre Dame a morally incoherent institution?

Diocesan Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend has told Father Jenkins he will not be attending commencement because of Obama's support of embryonic stem cell research.

Said the bishop, "While claiming to separate policies from science, (Obama) has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life."

Pope Benedict has yet to be heard from. But on his visit to the United States, he declared that any appeal to academic freedom "to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission."

Does not honoring the most visible pro-abortion advocate in America “betray the identity and mission” of Notre Dame?
Father Jenkins says the invitation "should not be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life."

But what Notre Dame is saying with this invitation is that Obama's 100 percent support for policies and programs that bring death to more than a million unborn children every year is no disqualification to being honored by a university dedicated to Our Lady who carried to term the Son of God.

Chris Carrington, a political science major, regards the opposition to Obama's appearance as un-Catholic: "To not allow someone here because of their beliefs would seem a little hypocritical and contradictory to what the mission of the university and church should be."

The obtuse Carrington has stumbled on the relevant question: Is Notre Dame still a repository, teacher and exemplar of eternal truths about God and Man, right and wrong, whose mission is to convey and defend those truths in a hostile world?

Or has Notre Dame joined the secularists in their endless scavenger hunt to seek and find truth in the marketplace of ideas?

Pro-Abortion, Anti-Catholic Abuses Continue at Georgetown in Wake of 'Sex Positive Week'

Note: Very simple solution. Local Bishop declares Georgetown University "Not Catholic". Why the resistance? If you want to find a tepid response to scandal, just look at how the US Bishops respond to pro abortion politicians and dissenting colleges.

Even as Catholics remain stunned by Georgetown University's "Sex Positive Week" which took place last month, the Jesuit, Catholic institution is investigating two incidents of desecration of a statue of Mary and will host two events this week promoting abortion rights.

"This new string of depraved and anti-Catholic events taking place at Georgetown are symptomatic of a much deeper contempt for the university's Catholic identity, even at the top levels of the administration" said Patrick Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. "For anyone familiar with Georgetown, scandals on campus are no longer surprising and much less shocking than they should be."

In February, The Cardinal Newman Society raised public awareness about "Sex Positive Week," which took place during the first week of Lent at Georgetown. The week-long series included talks celebrating extra-marital sex and pornography. One talk was given by a director of pornographic films.

Tonight, March 30, at 8 p.m. in Georgetown's Reiss building, the unofficial student club H*yas for Choice is sponsoring a workshop titled, Sex, Lies, and Crisis Pregnancy Centers. According to an advertisement for the event on Facebook, pro-life crisis pregnancy "centers are working hard at undoing a legacy of education and outreach to women of all ages, ethnicities, and sexualities by spreading misinformation about the ‘repercussions of abortion’ and how STI's like HIV/AIDS are transmitted. We've got to know where they come from to know how to put an end to it. This workshop reveals the players, the funding, the tactics of Crisis Pregnancy Centers and the impacts on young women."

Another event, scheduled to take place tomorrow evening on campus, is titled Being Religious AND Pro-Choice. The ad for this event, also on Facebook, invites students to "Come and hear representatives from Catholics for Choice and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom discuss how they incorporate their pro-choice beliefs with their religious beliefs. Find out how they have dealt with adversity and opposition, and about the work they currently do reaching out to young people. And most of all, come see why being religious doesn't mean you can't be pro-choice."

According to The Hoya last week, a prominent statue of Our Lady of Fatima was desecrated for a second time on campus in less than a month. The vandalism was discovered on the morning of Saturday, March 21, with the face of Mary again painted black. When the first desecration of the statue occurred, a group of concerned students organized a 24-hour prayer vigil in response, but the university's response has been tepid.

During the holy season of Lent, The Cardinal Newman Society has encouraged its more than 20,000 members to pray for the spiritual renewal of all 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States.

Touchdown Obama

Touchdown Obama

By George Neumayr
on 3.27.09 @ 6:08AM

The Catholic Church in America has bred her own destroyers, graduating from doctrinally corrupt catechetical programs, schools and colleges two generations of pro-abortion politicians. Barack Obama, in his effortless Alinskyite style, has exploited this phenomenon to the hilt, seeking out Catholics such as Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his agents of destruction.

The controversy this week at Notre Dame is one more snapshot of this self-implosion. Here we have the American bishops' most prominent university planning to confer an honorary degree upon Obama even as he accelerates the destruction of its moral teachings.

Were Saul Alinsky alive today, he would have to smile at the ease of it all. Obama can not only thwart the Church at every crucial turn and still retain the Catholic vote; he can even expect over the next few years prizes and pats on the back from Catholic colleges for doing so.

Jesuit Georgetown University is no doubt itching to honor him too; its professors ranked seventh among all university faculties in donations to Obama during the campaign, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Jesuit magazine America and Jesuit Thomas Reese rushed to Notre Dame's defense this week.

Perhaps Obama enthusiast/fellow Alinskyite Father Michael Pfleger can travel over from Chicago for ND's commencement exercises to fill in for the boycotting Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy.

To his credit, D'Arcy, a long and lonely opponent of Notre Dame's secularization, wants no part in the sham, correctly noting that the school is once again panting after "prestige" at the expense of "truth." Four decades of surrendering to secularist culture and championing progressive politics at Notre Dame have culminated in an honorary degree to the most pro-abortion president ever.

Responding to this criticism, its president, Father John Jenkins, has had to dust off the "dialogue" defense from the recent Vagina Monologues controversy on campus to justify his decision.

Out rolled from the president's office the familiar cart of clichés. "You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them…show respect for them and listen to them," Jenkins was quoted as saying.

What's the logic here? To dialogue with a public figure a school has to confer an honorary degree upon him? This makes no sense, but it is the kind of head-faking non sequitur that appeals to Jenkins.

Just as he twisted the Vagina Monologues controversy into a beside-the-point discussion about the value of free speech, so he is casting this recent one as some sort of test of Notre Dame's commitment to "positive engagement."

The White House, sensing the drift of this script, joined in the charade, saying in response to the controversy that it welcomes the "spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues."

Which makes one wonder: When exactly will the debate take place? Before, during or after the commencement exercises? Will it proceed like Jenkins' "creative contexualization" panel discussions about the Vagina Monologues? Or is Obama's interest in "healthy disagreement" about as plausible as Jenkins' notion of "positive engagement"?

Notice also that for additional PR protection Jenkins is playing the race card. "It is of special significance that we will hear from our first African-American president, a person who has spoken eloquently and movingly about race in this nation. Racial prejudice has been a deep wound in America, and Mr. Obama has been a healer," he was quoted saying this week.

Again, how is this relevant to honorary-degree-conferring from a Catholic university? Does opposing racial injustice absolve supporting other injustices?

Imagine a reverse scenario, say a politician who supported the Church's moral teachings down the line but had some racist blot in his past. Would Jenkins honor him? No, he woudn't dare. But somehow Obama's formal cooperation in the injustice of destroying innocent lives just isn't so bad.

George Neumayr is editor of Catholic World Report and press critic for California Political Review.

The Big Lie

For Thirty Pieces of Silver?

The furor about President Barack Obama's invitation and honor at Notre Dame brings this blog full circle from where it started. Our objective was to show how most of the Catholic colleges and universities were now under the control of dissenters, heretics and secularists more concerned with prestige among their peers than the truthful formation of Catholic leaders.

The basic premise is that Catholic higher education has strayed so far from Catholic faith and morals as to actuaally be a weapon of Antichrist. It actually serves to deceive the faithful, and is leading many astray. That the trappings of Church imagery and ritual are involved makes it even more diabolical.

Both Obama and Jenkins have chosen extremely deceptive terms to describe this as a "dialogue" and "engagement" as though there was going to be a debate or questions and answers. There isn't. There's going to be a commencement address (read from a TelePrompter no doubt) and an honorary degree conferred. This is in direct contradiction to the US bishops statement on pro-abortion politicians not receiving either a platform or honors from Catholic institutions. In other words, Jenkins is lying.

I read a blog by a priest who wanted to downplay the issue by claiming that Catholic colleges aren't really Catholic but just have a Catholic legacy or were historically founded by Catholics and that they no longer maintain that identity. This premise is simply dishonest on a number of levels.

First, Notre Dame like many prominent Catholic universities trades on its Catholic identity to pull in massive donations from its alumni to bolster its huge endowment. These alumni have been polled and 73% oppose the Obama invitation and honor. Were Notre Dame to be declared no longer Catholic, I wonder how many of these donors would dissociate themselves from it and put there charity elsewhere.

As an aside, I wonder how the translation "Our Lady" would fit a secular school. Perhaps they would claim a new lady and redo the mosaic of Jesus to look like some secular hero, maybe even Obama.

Second, the invitation to Obama reportedly came from the university's president, Father Jenkins, a Catholic priest. At his ordination, if he was licitly ordained, Jenkins vowed obedience to the pope and the magisterium. There is no question the invitation and honor being given to Obama is an act of disobedience. Bishops have stated as much but one need not look far to the past to read the words of the pope himself who addressed Catholic higher education during his recent visit to the US. How ironic then that the qualification for leading Notre Dame, that of being a priest, is also what puts this man in position to secularize the school.

Third, canon law is not silent on what constitutes a Catholic institution or the role of the local bishop to rule on such matters. Indeed sadly there have been a few schools formally declared "not Catholic" over the last decade or so. But this was not done to make a statement of admonishment or correction but only after the actuality of secularization had already occurred. If the Bishop in Indiana were to issue such a decree concerning Notre Dame, all hell would surely break loose.

But what if a bishop did use this tool to correct rather than separate a major Catholic institution? Would alumni pressure the school to return to its roots? Would the religious order in charge of that school remove the president and effect the proper reforms? Would the governing board act to preserve the legacy that has been its cash cow over the years? After all, isn't this really about money in the first place? Notre Dame wants to be recognized as a premier research institution in order to attract not only the top students but research dollars. Having the sitting president, fresh off his historic campaign win, attracts the attention Jenkins craves. It also positions him for some of the massive spending Obama and his administration are proposing.

Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver. Notre Dame surely wants a bit more to sell its soul.

And Obama? Surely he is aware that the majority of Catholics voted for him despite his obvious pro-abortion policies. And he is also cognizant that support among those Catholics has slipped in reaction to his change on the Mexico City policy, embryonic stem cell research, conscience protections for health care workers, as well as his appointments of radical pro abortion cabinet members like Kathleen Sebeilius.

So being not only invited to speak at Notre Dame but also receiving an honorary degree gives Obama the platform he's seeking, an approval from the university most identified with Catholicism in America. As the uproar grows I wonder if Jenkins, reveling in the controversy no doubt, just keeps raising the price to be paid for his feigned suffering.

Most disconcerting of course is that there are devout traditional Catholics who chose Notre Dame for its Catholic identity and trappings. As is usually the case in this putrid environment of dissent and apostasy, they are increasingly marginalized and looked down upon by a secular elite that includes many in collars. Who speaks for them? It's obvious that the university president, his order, and the board that appoints or approves him has no interest in addressing the legitimate grievances of practicing Catholics. Their position at Notre Dame is not materially different than at any secular or state run school. Indeed, the school will no doubt take steps to ensure they don't mess up the love fest with their protests.

Many are praising Bishop D'Arcy for deciding not to attend the ceremony. But D'Arcy is responsible for the Catholics in his diocese. How does he make the Catholics at Notre Dame whole? How does he shepherd them? Withdrawal and letter writing affect Jenkins about as much as UN resolutions affect Iran. D'Arcy does have a chance to do more. If only he and the rest of the US bishops had the courage.

-ITH

Notre Dame's Faustian Bargain

Note: A good article that sums up what's going on at Notre Dame...

Notre Dame's Faustian Bargain

By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 12:00 AM

My younger son will be graduating from the University of Notre Dame in May. Last Friday, he informed me that President Obama will be giving the commencement speech and will be awarded an honorary degree. I was, frankly, stunned. The joyful event of our son's graduation has now been overshadowed by a dark cloud. I am proud of my son and of all he achieved at Notre Dame, but I am ashamed of Notre Dame itself.

How can an institution that purports to be Catholic honor as a "doctor of law"--literally a "teacher of law"--a President who has made it very clear by word and deed that he intends to remove from the laws of this nation anything that defends unborn human life? Of course, there is more to Obama than his position on abortion and the life issues. There are things about him that anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, can respect and admire. But can they justify overlooking his appalling stance on abortion?

Abortion is a defining issue of our time, in the way that slavery was in the mid-nineteenth century and segregation and racial discrimination were in the mid-twentieth century. Overlooking the pro-abortion views of a politician now would be analogous to overlooking pro-slavery or segregationist views in those eras. Would Notre Dame have invited a champion of segregation to be a commencement speaker in the 1960s, however brilliant or talented, however well-meaning in other ways and on other issues he or she may have been?

Some will say that there is no comparison between the issues of racial discrimination and abortion. From a Christian point of view, however, they are at root the same issue: the respect due to our fellow human beings simply as human beings. The lives of fifty million innocent human beings have been snuffed out in the United States since 1973, so it would be absurd to suggest that abortion is less serious an issue than racial discrimination.

The difference between the two issues lies not in their intrinsic moral gravity, but in the way that society views them. Virtually everyone agrees that racial discrimination is morally repugnant. There is a strong social consensus on that issue, whereas on abortion at present there is not. The social elites of this country are largely pro-choice, and being pro-choice is regarded by many as a mark of enlightenment. This, I think, has everything to do with why an institution like Notre Dame would never honor a champion of segregation, but would honor a champion of so-called abortion rights. What governs the moral reflexes of institutions like Notre Dame is not how things appear in the light of the gospel, but how they appear in the eyes of the social elites--or to use more biblical language, how they appear to the world. St. Paul told us not be "conformed to this world," but to put on the "mind of Christ." It seems that the University of Notre Dame is conforming itself to the world.

While the news about President Obama's honorary degree was a nasty shock, I am not actually surprised. Nor was I surprised when Fr. Jenkins did his ignominious retreat on the Vagina Monologues a few years ago. Why was I not surprised then, and why am I not surprised now? It has to do with an experience I had three years ago, when my wife and I were attending Junior Parents' Weekend at Notre Dame for our older son. At that point Fr. Jenkins was still holding the line against showing the Monologues on campus. An article about the controversy had just appeared in the New York Times the previous day, and the tone of the article was distinctly anti-Jenkins. (It featured statements by Fr. Theodore Hesburgh critical of Jenkins’s stand--a revolting act of perfidy if ever there was one.) After the banquet for the juniors and their parents, I approached Fr. Jenkins to congratulate him and encourage him. I planned to say, "The New York Times doesn’t like you. But hang in there; you’re doing the right thing."

I got no further than the first sentence before Fr. Jenkins replied, "I didn’t think the article was that bad." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself that the article's treatment of him was not negative. I said no more to him but rejoined my wife and immediately said to her, "I think he is going to cave." There was something about what he said and the way he said it that made me realize that Fr. Jenkins craved the good opinion of the New York Times and its readers. That is natural, of course. We all like to be thought well of and to be spoken well of. But it is a weakness nonetheless, and one that we have been warned about: "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you..."

That earlier betrayal by Notre Dame was caused by fear of the world's disapproval. The present one is caused by desire for worldly status. There is a Faustian bargain being struck. President Obama has been feeling great heat on the life issues due to the courageous stands by many of the country's Catholic bishops. Speaking at and being honored by Notre Dame is a way for him to insulate himself from that heat. In return, Notre Dame gets to seem important, by basking in the glory of a presidential visit. The university is willing to sacrifice the integrity of the Church's moral witness on the central social-justice issue of our time to pursue its institutional ambitions.
Let us pray for the University of Notre Dame.

Stephen M. Barr, a member of the editorial advisory board of First Things, is professor of physics at the Bartol Research Institute.

OBAMA INVITE DRAWS NOTRE DAME ALUMNI OUTCRY

OBAMA INVITE DRAWS NOTRE DAME ALUMNI OUTCRY

Project Sycamore Launches Internet Petition

By Karna Swanson

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, MARCH 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to deliver this year's commencement address is a "telling event," says the president of a group of alumni who are protesting the move.

William Dempsey is the president of Project Sycamore, a Web site founded three years ago by alumni concerned about the state of the university's Catholic identity.

In comments to ZENIT, Dempsey affirmed that the university's "Catholic identity has been severely weakened, and this episode brings all of that to the fore."

More than 700 Notre Dame alumni have signed a petition launched today by Project Sycamore protests the university's decision to invite Obama, a known advocate for abortion rights, to speak at its commencement ceremony and give him an honorary degree.

The petition is distinct from the one launched over the weekend by the Cardinal Newman Society, which has attracted over 140,000 signatures. Project Sycamore specifically seeks to target alumni of Notre Dame, and those who have a connection to the university.

The petition of Project Sycamore notes Obama's "unwavering and notorious support of the pro-abortion agenda," and said Notre Dame has "inexplicably decided to honor him."

In a letter sent on behalf of the project to Father John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, the group expressed their "astonished dismay at, and deep disappointment."

"President Obama's statements and executive and legislative actions identify him as unremittingly hostile to the moral claims of the unborn and accordingly to a central teaching of the Catholic Church," the letter explained. "By virtue of his position, he is now the nation's leading champion of virtually unrestricted abortion rights."

"No matter any disclaimers by the University or what President Obama says," the note added, "the ineradicable facts that will stamp this occasion are the University's decision to inscribe in the University roll of honorees the name of the most pro-abortion President in the nation's history and its choice of him as the person to speak to the 2009 graduates about the values they should hold dear."

"This compromising action gravely diminishes Notre Dame," the petition concluded. "It profoundly wounds its claim to be a Catholic institution. It strikes with incalculable cost at the pride of its graduates. We protest."

In the minority

A member of the class of 1952, Dempsey told ZENIT that he hopes the petition will "draw support not only for this issue, but for our general and strong concern for the weakening of the Catholic identity of the university over recent years."

The Notre Dame alumnus cited "the precipitous drop in the Catholic representation of the faculty from about 85% in the 1970s to only 53% today. And if you discount from the 53% the dissident Catholics on the faculty, and the culture Catholics and not really serious Catholics, then you're way down below the majority that the mission statement requires."

Dempsey explained: "The mission statement of the university says that the Catholic identity of the university depends upon -- not just that it would be nice to have -- but depends upon the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals on the faculty, and that's been always interpreted to mean a solid majority of real Catholics.

"So the university has fallen below its own standard for maintaining its Catholic identity and that's the problem."

Noting that the "Vagina Monologues" have been allowed to be staged annually on campus, he said that "you just would not have that in a school in which a genuinely Catholic faculty predominated."

The president of the alumni project acknowledges that all is not lost: "There's a core of really splendid dedicated Catholic scholars on that faculty -- it's an aging group, but they're there. The order of priests is still there. They're thinning, but they're still there.

"Then there's the student body that is 85% Catholic. Now that's enormously important in retaining what is being retained of the Catholic identity."

Not easy

Dempsey underlined that Project Sycamore is supported by alumni who are loyal to Notre Dame, and that the current situation in which they have to criticize the university is painful.

"But that is our role," he said. "Our role is to speak the truth about the university, both the good points, and there are many of them, but also the weaknesses."

"Our function, our principle function by far, is to alert alumni to the fact that everything isn't they same as it was when they were there," the alumnus explained. "And that it will require their determined effort and attention to call the university back to its dedicated path."

Dempsey said his alma mater has been overly concerned with "secular ambition" and that they've "been on a quest for secular acclaim, or rising in the rankings of the U.S. News and World Report." He added that the university is also seeking admission in the American Association of Universities as a top-tiered research university.

However, he noted, Notre Dame's law school and business school, which both rank well nationally, have also done well to retain their Catholic identities.

Notre Dame's faculty of the law school is 85%-87% Catholic, and the business school, which is now ranked second in the country, is 64%-65% Catholic.

"What the law school and the business school prove, is that you can be ranked high and still be thoroughly Catholic," said Dempsey.

"If you want to be considered a Catholic university, you must be a Catholic university and have a predominantly Catholic faculty," he concluded. "Otherwise, you're misleading the public. It's false advertising."
--- --- ---
On the Net:
To sign the petition: www.ipetitions.com/petition/oppose_obama/index.html
Project Sycamore: www.sycamoretrust.org/pages/news.php

WSJ Columnist and Notre Dame Alumnus Decries ND Response to Obama Scandal as "Moral Incoherence"

Our take: Once again ,as in the case of Holy Cross, Georgetown, Marquette, Boston College and the rest of the more prominent Catholic colleges and universities, the local bishop is exposed as a weak bystander to his own impotence. When will one of these shepherds actually produce a teaching moment by declaring one of the major colleges "not Catholic"? D'Arcy takes cover by issuing his worthless decrees and protests and nothing at all changes. This Church is supposedly a hierarchical one. Power is vested in the episcopate to declare what is and is not Catholic. But rare is the actual exercise of that power. In this case, as in the case of the Planned Parenthood convention at Holy Cross, it is the faithful Catholic who is marginalized within the institution they love. Who sticks up for them? Will they actually be forced by conscience to miss their own graduation or worse, submit to evil and attend? When will the bishops act instead of cower in their chanceries? Sadly, probably never. They're as guilty as Jenkins in their cooperation with evil in these matters.

WSJ Columnist and Notre Dame Alumnus Decries ND Response to Obama Scandal as "Moral Incoherence"

By Kathleen Gilbert

NEW YORK, March 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - William McGurn, former chief editorial writer with The Wall Street Journal and now the newspaper's regular "Main Street" columnist, decried in a recent column the "moral incoherence" of the University of Notre Dame's invitation to host President Obama as commencement speaker on May 17.

"In the end, the result is moral incoherence," wrote McGurn yesterday, commenting on the invite. "It is an incoherence in which abortion-rights advocates have the most to gain, because it demoralizes those who support the cause of life while removing fears of even the slightest social sanction for those who do not. And it is an incoherence we see all across American Catholic life today."

Following a late Friday announcement of the school's plan to honor Obama, Notre Dame alumni and other Catholics unleashed a deluge of protest, calling Obama's deeply anti-life agenda incompatible with the prestigious university's Catholic identity. A fast-moving petition launched by the Cardinal Newman Society protesting the honor had been signed by over 130,000 people as of Wednesday afternoon.

Notre Dame's Bishop D'Arcy released a statement yesterday criticizing the move as contrary to U.S. bishops' policy, and confirming he would boycott the graduation. Notre Dame President Fr. Jenkins has insisted the invitation will stand despite protests.

McGurn, a prominent writer and editor who served as chief speechwriter for George W. Bush, is a University of Notre Dame alumnus.

Commenting on Jenkins' rationale that the invite would be a "catalyst for dialogue" with Obama, McGurn said: "Now, if the president were going to Notre Dame to engage in dialogue, that would be one thing. But Mr. Obama will not be going to Notre Dame to 'dialogue.' He will be going to help advance his agenda.

"At the center of that agenda is abortion," McGurn continued, who went on to list the Obama administration's many early policy changes that are hostile to legal protection for the unborn.
McGurn criticized Notre Dame, often regarded as the nation's most prestigious Catholic university, for its history of having "opted for the inner Cuomo" - referring to the school's infamous decision in 1984 to welcome pro-abortion Catholic Gov. Mario Cuomo.

McGurn said Notre Dame's plan to honor prominent pro-life leader Mary Ann Glendon with the Laetare Award at the same ceremony Obama will attend "appears less a firm stand for life than a cynical PR move aimed at blunting the criticism they no doubt expected if Mr. Obama accepted their invitation to speak."

This "moral incoherence," he said, "has brought us to a day where the most prominent Catholics in America - from Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to virtually every well-known Irish Catholic in the Senate - now defend the snuffing out of tens of millions of innocent human lives as the exercise of a fundamental right.

"And on the Midwestern campus of the Golden Dome, it allows administrators and professors to tell themselves they are in 'dialogue' with the spirit of John F. Kennedy when they are in fact surrendering to a Ted Kennedy reality they themselves have helped create," McGurn concluded.

18,000 (Now > 165,000) Join National Catholic Protest of Obama Honors at Notre Dame

As of 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 23, more than 18,000 people have joined the nationwide campaign urging the University of Notre Dame to rescind the honor of selecting President Barack Obama as its commencement speaker on May 17. The campaign was launched at 6:00 p.m. Friday, March 20 immediately after The White House and Notre Dame made the announcement that Notre Dame would honor President Obama.

The campaign is organized around The Cardinal Newman Society sponsored website, NotreDameScandal.com, which includes an online petition to Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, and contact information for the university. Catholics are urged to join the campaign, and the petition is being circulated among leaders of other Catholic organizations.

The petition has averaged more than 270 signatures per hour since its launch, and The Cardinal Newman Society is pleased to announce that CatholicVote.org has joined the campaign as a cosponsor of the petition effort.

The decision to honor President Obama has drawn quick and sharp criticism from Notre Dame alumni and Catholic leaders across the country.

Dr. Ralph McInerny, a professor at Notre Dame for more than 50 years, has written on the popular website The Catholic Thing that "By inviting Barack Obama as commencement speaker, Notre Dame is telling the nation that the teaching of the Catholic church on this fundamental matter [abortion] can be ignored."

Thomas Peters at the American Papist blog has reported that Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has encouraged Catholics to write to Notre Dame to protest the honor.

Project Sycamore, an organization dedicated to protecting Notre Dame's Catholic identity, is organizing alumni to protest the honor.

NotreDameScandal.com will provide regular updates on all of the activities.

"It is an outrage and a scandal that 'Our Lady's University,' one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage," the petition reads.

Notre Dame Invites President Obama to Speak at Commencement

According to the ND website President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame's 164th University commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. May 17 (Sunday).

Go here to sign the petititon and email the president of Notre Dame:

http://www.notredamescandal.com/

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD:We are trying to get the word out to all that oppose Obama at ND to put a red Christian Cross over all personal ND logos. I.E. Logos on car, get red tape and put a Christian Cross over it; clothing, get red embroidery thread and sew a red Christian Cross over it, or simply use ribbon, and please wear them! For ONCE we have to stand up and visually express our opposition. Please help us spread this peaceful protest. Please do the same for all Saint Mary's and Holy cross logos you own. There is a rumor that Michelle Obama may be asked to Saint Mary's or Holy Cross. Thank you.Also, here are links to petitions to sign if you wish: (unrelated to above grass roots protest info, but great sites and petitions)http://www.sycamoretrust.org/phpPetition/index.phphttp://notredamescandal.com/SignthePetitiontoFrJenkins/tabid/454/Default.aspx