Whatever else is clear, Notre Dame’s undertanding…

of what it means to be a Catholic institution isn’t.

President of the USCCB, Cardinal Francis George, issued a statement today on the University of Notre Dame’s invitation to President Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address this year and receive the honorary degree of doctorate of laws.

The Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, has said that the University of Notre Dame’s decision to host and honor President Obama at their commencement ceremony this year was an “extreme embarrassment” to Catholics.

“Whatever else is clear, it is clear that Notre Dame didn’t understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued this invitation,” George told the crowd at a conference Saturday on the Vatican document Dignitatis Personae… 

In a video obtained by LifeSiteNews.com today, Cardinal George prefaced his remarks by noting that as USCCB president he does not have jurisdiction or authority over other bishops, but nonetheless has “some moral authority, without any kind of jurisdiction or any sort of real authority.”

“So whatever else is clear, it is clear that Notre Dame didn’t understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued this invitation, and didn’t anticipate the kind of uproar that would be consequent to the decision, at least not to the extent that it has happened,” said George.

The Cardinal urged concerned Catholics “to do what you are supposed to be doing: to call, to email, to write letters, to express what’s in your heart about this: the embarrassment, the difficulties.”

But this is also important to Cardinal George’s teaching.

However, Cardinal George emphasized that the U.S. presidency “is an office that deserves some respect, no matter who is holding it,” and said that Notre Dame would not disinvite the president, since “you just don’t do that (disinvite the president of the United States).” According to the cardinal requests to revoke the invitation would fall on deaf ears, but he also observed that there is legitimate potential to organize some form of protest at the ceremony.

“You have to sit back and get past the immediate moral outrage and say, ‘Now what’s the best thing to do in these circumstances?'” said the Cardinal. 

“I can assure you the bishops are doing that.”