Notre Dame disgraces itself

In my last blog I spoke about pro-abortion U.S. President Barak Obama being invited to the Notre Dame commencement and being presented with an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree. The Catholic Church has objected vehemently to the invitation issued by Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins. Some have argued that the Church has no business objecting to what the university does. However, I believe I correctly demonstrated in my last blog that the actions of Notre Dame are most certainly the business of the Catholic Church.

The president did speak on Sunday and I will be examining his speech in my next blog. Today I wanted to discuss the actions of the university both prior to the commencement and on the day of the commencement.

The most common argument I heard in support of the president speaking at Notre Dame was that the Church should consider the prestige and importance President Obama shows to the university in accepting an invitation to its commencement. The problem with this perspective is that it shows the WRONG type of prestige and importance. It says that we are willing to overlook the fact that this person's deep beliefs are completely in opposition to the teaching of the Church and the foundational tenet of respect for all life. A friend made the following comparison that I found bold and yet very applicable. He said, "Everyone would be absolutely outraged if a predominantly black college, such as Florida A&M or Alabama State University, were to invite the Grand Knight of the KKK as its commencement speaker." Some may see this as an extreme example but I think it is quite comparable. The KKK is foundationally opposed to the life and rights of African Americans. Likewise, the president is foundationally opposed to the life and rights of unborn children.

The blame, while primarily directed at Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins, also falls upon the average Catholic who sees no conflict of interest in this situation. While there were many who protested, others had no problem with the president giving the commencement address including the majority of the graduates. I also had numerous people from the parish come up to me with a wide range of responses to this situation. I will address these comments in a future blog. In my next blog, however, I want to examine the comments of his speech. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:40 | link | comments |
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