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Should Obama Speak at Notre Dame Despite Anti-Catholic Views?

By Donna Gundle-Krieg March 27, 2009 Note: to comment on this and other stories regarding education, please go to Examiner.com

Angry Catholics from across the country are protesting the University of Notre Dame’s selection of President Barack Obama as this year’s graduation speaker, according to the Associated Press.

Many are angry at the Catholic university’s decision to invite Obama because of some of his "anti-Catholic policies." 
 
"He goes against our core beliefs by funding embryonic stem cell research and funding abortion groups,” said Joan O’Reilly, an alumnus of Notre Dame.
 
“For years, I have donated significant money to my alma mater, and will not continue to do so if they keep Obama as the speaker.”
 
The student newspaper has received hundreds of letters about Obama's appearance. The letters were evenly divided between alumni and current students.
 
Seventy percent of the alumni letters opposed having Obama give the speech.
 
On the other hand, 73% of student letters supported his appearance, including 97% of the seniors who wrote to the newspaper. Many of the seniors are concerned that their graduation ceremony will "turn into a circus.”
 
Two prominent bishops have written letters to the university.
 
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Phoenix Diocese on Wednesday called the Catholic University’s selection of Obama as "a public act of disobedience" and "a grave mistake."
 
In addition, Bishop John D'Arcy has said that he would not attend the ceremony because of Obama's policies. D’Arcy is in charge of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, which is where Notre Dame is located.
 
President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred,” according to D’Arcy.
 
“This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation," he stated in a letter on his website.
 
"I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well…..My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.”
 
D’Arcy referred to the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004, which says that “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.”
 
Officials at Notre Dame are standing firmly behind their decision, and have said that they will not rescind the invitation. 
 
“The university does not condone all of Obama's policies, but it's important to engage in conversation,” stated Notre Dame President, the Reverend John Jenkins.
 
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama “looks forward to continuing that dialogue in the leadup to the commencement, and looks forward to delivering the address in May.”

Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue held a press conference this week to announce that group’s plans to keep Obama from speaking. 
 
For more information, see:
 
 
Pro-Lifers Plans at Notre Dame: Keep Obama from Speaking
 
Notre Dame Not Budging on Obama Invite

Bishop D’Arcy’s Statement Concerning President Barack Obama Speaking at Notre Dame Graduation 

March 24, 2009

On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.

President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he 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.

This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith “in season and out of season,” and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions.

My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.

I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “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.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.

I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.

Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.

Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.

 

Bishop Olmsted’s Letter to Father Jenkins

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 vulnderable 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."

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

 

 

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