Notre Dame Response
Some media want us to believe that an equal and opposite Notre Dame campus student group has launched its own counter-protest to defend the controversial commencement plans.
But it doesn’t compare with this.
Notre Dame Right to Life, Notre Dame College Republicans, and nine other student organizations have created Notre Dame Response, a student coalition that opposes the university’s decision to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree in May. “In defense of the unborn, we wish to express our deepest opposition to Reverend John I. Jenkins, CSC’s invitation of President Barack Obama to be the University of Notre Dame’s principal commencement speaker and the recipient of an honorary degree,†the coalition said in a statement. “Our objection is not a matter of political partisanship, but of President Obama’s hostility to the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life at its earliest stages. His recent dedication of federal funds to overseas abortions and to embryonic stem cell research will directly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent human beings. We cannot sit by idly while the University honors someone who believes that an entire class of human beings is undeserving of the most basic of all legal rights, the right to live.â€
They’re only getting started.
Additionally, Fr. Jenkins has put some of his students into a position of moral dilemma as to whether they can attend their own graduation. Many pro-life seniors, along with their families, now feel personally conflicted about participating in the commencement. The lack of concern for these devoted sons and daughters of Notre Dame, who love this University and the Catholic principles on which it was built, is shameful.â€
Another bishop has weighed in.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has called Notre Dame’s honoring of President Barack Obama “a public act of disobedience to the bishops of the United States.â€
He did it in a letter.
Dear Fr. Jenkins,
I am saddened and heavy of heart about your decision to invite President Obama to speak at Notre Dame University and even to receive an honorary degree.
It is a public act of disobedience to the Bishops of the United States. Our USCCB June 2004 Statement “Catholics in Political Life†states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.†No one could not know of the public stands and actions of the president on key issues opposed to the most vulnerable human beings.
John Paul II said, “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with the maximum determination.â€
I pray that you come to see the grave mistake of your decision, and the way that it undercuts the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel of Life in our day.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
Diocese of Phoenix
Will any of this make a difference to Fr. Jenkins? People in high places are saying ‘no’.
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Bishop Aymond of Austin, Texas has responded as well!
As a ND graduate, I have watched with sadness as this situation has developed over the last week. One day, I would have one opinion about the topic. The next day another as arguments for and against were advanced by different camps. But an experience I had in New York yesterday made me question whether this whole fiasco really had anything to do with the President, the students or the alumni.
I was attending a conference which was also attended by two presidents of “Catholic Universities.” I do not know who they were or which universities they represented. I was sitting a short distance in front of them during one of the breaks, when one approached the other and said to him, “Well I’m a President of a Catholic University. What do you think about Obama and Notre Dame?” The other President did not mention anything about Obama’s moral qualities or his political agenda. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, “They can’t tell us what to do!” He continued vehemently at length about how the Bishops had no right to tell him or any other Catholic university President what to do. He said he welcomed such a test and wanted one. He said his entire board would back him if it came to that. He was confident. The other had some qualms with Obama’s positions on things and said that he would not have invited him to speak on that basis, but the first always brought it back to the power struggle that seems to exist.
I know it’s not nice to eaves drop, but since everyone seems to have an opinion about my school and freely expresses it, I thought I should gather as much data as possible on the issue. After overhearing this conversation, I couldn’t help but wonder if President Obama, the poor graduates who are now caught in the middle, the alumni and everyone else who loves Notre Dame, are nothing but mere pawns in a battle that should have been resolved at a much higher level. Yes, let’s all waste our time getting petitions to support one position or the other. Let’s just be sure we understand what our petitions stand for. Does it even have anything to do with the President?
I feel like I’ve been used a bit. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the feeling I’m getting. It seems to me that we need someone who can resolve the apparent conflict between our “Catholic” universities and our church heirarchy. It also seems to me that we need a bit of true humility. I have often said that the lack of humility is the biggest obstacle to evangelization. I think that may apply here too. But for overhearing that conversation, none of this would have ever occurred to me; I’m such a pollyanna. I’m just reporting the facts- the sad facts.