Notre Dame insults Catholic Pro-life Community
The decision by the University of Notre Dame to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement exercises on May 17, 2009 is an insult to the pro-life Catholic community and signals a further attempt by this administration to fracture the Catholic church and the authority of the nation's bishops. The White House made the announcement on Friday evening stating that the president will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree and give the commencement address.As reported in LifeSite News, in 2004, the United States of Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a policy statement called "Catholics in Political Life," which says, with reference to pro-abortion politicians, "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." This action by the university is a direct affront to such policy.
As word of the announcement swept through the blogosphere, anger from alumni was met with the frustration of those who have long given up on the nation's premier "Catholic" universities. Parents who were considering Notre Dame for their children have now crossed it off their list.
Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com reported that many Alumni were done financially supporting the school. Regrettably there are some who do not see this as a slap in the face of the Church because of the "office of the presidency." But the interesting thing will be to see how the school and the bishops react on Monday. I suspect that there will be an outcry by the Alumni. I predict that some prominent donor will rescind his planned contribution to the school. I can see organized protests by both student groups and outside organizations. and there will be pressure on the USCCB to respond to this latest slap in the face. I can also see the school hunkering down and trying to ride it out. After all for the school administration, it is access to power not the truth that they seek. Richard Rich sold out the truth to be attorney general of Wales. Notre Dame sold out for even less.
In times past when someone wanted to engage an opponent, one threw down the gauntlet or issued and insult by slapping the adversary across the face. The respondent was then obliged to do one of two things. He could accept the challenge as a man or he could walk away and in most cases be thought the coward. The Catholic Church over the last 40 years has been insulted, attacked, slapped in the face and otherwise humiliated by the prevailing leftist ideology in the press, media, entertainment industry, and academia. Many have called us to "turn the other cheek" and accept this as our lot for living the gospel message. Btu here comes a time when one must stand up and defend not just oneself but the truth. The truth is that abortion kills babies, exploits women and destroys families. If we do not think that is important enough to defend then there is not hope for this country or this world. There are bad people out there who want tot destroy our way of life. There are even worse people out there who want to destroy our souls in the process.
The USCCB must condemn this outrage and act appropriately. The local bishop must exercise his authority over the university and its administration. The people must rise up in one voice and rebuke the university for its callused behavior an its insult to the memory of all who have dies because of the American abortion holocaust.
Do not be silent. Let your voices ring out: We should not honor anyone who supports the killing of children.
May God have mercy on this nation.
posted by Jakubczyk on Life @ 10:49 PM
3 Comments:
This invitation to an insatiable proponent of the culture of death makes mockery of our bishops, of faithful Catholics and others who seek to promote the culture of life and, above all, to almighty God. If Notre Dame will not accept its responsibilities then the bishops have a duty to disown it. It cannot claim to be a Catholic institution and solicit the support of Catholics while promoting what is diametrically opposed to our faith. We have to let the faculty know they cannot have it both ways. Patrick Lee.
I found your blog while inquiring about Notre Dame inviting a pro abortion President to be their commencement speaker in 2009. I have already signed a letter of protest to the President of ND. My husband (1956) and his father (1920) are both Notre Dame grads. This is completely devastating to my husband. NO-we will NOT be silent in this. He stopped donating to the ND Fund many years ago when evidence tht ND was no longer a real "Catholic University". What a shame. My hope and prayer is that enough alumni will withold their donations in protest of this decision for an anti-life politician to give the Commencement Address. Praying always for Notre Dame to once again become a true Catholic University. Pat Peurrung
Considering Notre Dame's, at best, checkered history regarding tolerance of legal abortion, this should come as no surprise, nor, frankly, should anyone expect an about-face, even if a lot of alumni protest, either vocally or financially (which itself is also very unlikely).
Of course, most notorious in this respect was the flagship US Catholic university's sponsorship of Mario Cuomo's speech in 1984 (during one of the many periods in which the press was pushing him as a possible presidential candidate) that crystallized the ludicrously contradictory "personally opposed to abortion but politically 'pro-choice'" stance that all of the pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians you cite (and many, many others) have successfully used since then to defend the indefensible, with both political and ecumenical (thanks to the cowardly US Bishops) impunity.
About ten years ago, when Fr. Hesburgh, ND's president for 35 years, released his autobiography he (correctly) declared that academic freedom required that all political viewpoints be allowed expression on a college campus, even for positions directly opposed to those of the university's religious affiliation. (Of course, this standard has never have been perfectly honored anyway.) And in the case of Cuomo's hypocritical "reasoning" (which he directly contradicted on the capital punishment issue), this would have been fine if the university or the Order of the Holy Cross that runs it had then publicly provided the ample evidence of the Governor's absurdity. But instead, they did nothing (probably because most of them agreed with him), and hundreds of pro-abortion
"Catholic" politicians have exploited this indifference since then.
(BTW, regarding the debasement of the great St. Patrick you mentioned, decades into his Massachusetts political career, it was revealed that John Kerry actually has no Irish ancestry at all, a fact he admitted but had conveniently failed to ever mention to voters there.)
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