Notre Dame president catches heat for Obama invite

[Mari333]

Source: google news

By TOM COYNE – 1 hour ago

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The Rev. John Jenkins got some simple advice before taking over as president of the University of Notre Dame: "Don't listen to the criticism, don't listen to the praise, just make the best decision you can."

Four years later, Jenkins is getting plenty of criticism from Catholic leaders, students and alumni because of the university's decision to invite President Barack Obama to deliver its commencement address and receive an honorary degree Sunday.

Opponents of the invitation, including at least 70 bishops, say Obama's support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research contradicts church teachings and that Jenkins has created a breach with the church.

A leading Catholic scholar also declined the school's most prestigious award, making this year's commencement the first time that the Laetare Medal hasn't been awarded since 1883.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6Yrs9MYliOAhf5vv1pShKraTJSQD986OVL81

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oy. I am driving down to Indiana on 31 that day. I pray I dont get stuck in traffic around South Bend. Hopefully the expressway will bypass it.

[mod mom]

1. Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., sent the following letter regarding Commencement to the Class of 2009:

Earlier this week, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., sent the following letter regarding Commencement to the Class of 2009.

Visit the ND website to view the Commencement ceremonies that will be broadcast live via streaming video. For the University Commencement Ceremony, the live video will be available starting at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 17. The academic procession begins at 1:15 p.m. ET and the ceremony starts at 2:00 p.m. ET.

May 11, 2009

Dear Members of the Notre Dame Graduating Class of 2009:

This Sunday, as you receive your degrees at Commencement, your joy – and that of your families – will be shared by the faculty, staff, and administration of the University. We have had the privilege of laboring with each of you to inquire and discover, to teach and to learn, and we will send you off with affectionate and fond hopes for the future.

For those of you who are undergraduates, I feel a special kinship. You arrived in your dorm rooms as I arrived in the President’s Office. You have learned much; I may have learned more. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to learn with you, come to know you, and to serve you during our time together at Notre Dame.

During your years here we have endeavored to train you in the various disciplines and urged you to ask the larger questions – discussing not only the technical and practical but also the ethical and spiritual dimensions of pressing issues. I have been proud of you as you’ve grappled with intellectual, political, and spiritual questions. But I have never been more proud than I have been watching the way you’ve conducted yourselves over the past several weeks.

The decision to invite President Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary degree and deliver the Commencement address has triggered debate. In many cases, the debate has grown heated, even between people who agree completely on Church teaching regarding the sanctity of human life, who agree completely that we should work for change – and differ only on how we should work for change.

Yet, there has been an extra dimension to your debate. You have discussed this issue with each other while being observed, interviewed, and evaluated by people who are interested in this story. You engaged each other with passion, intelligence and respect. And I saw no sign that your differences led to division. You inspire me. We need the wider society to be more like you; it is good that we are sending you into that world on Sunday.

I am saddened that many friends of Notre Dame have suggested that our invitation to President Obama indicates ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching. The University and I are unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.

Notre Dame has a long custom of conferring honorary degrees on the President of the United States. It has never been a political statement or an endorsement of policy. It is the University’s expression of respect for the leader of the nation and the Office of the President. In the Catholic tradition, our first allegiance is to God in Christ, yet we are called to respect, participate in, and contribute to the wider society. As St. Peter wrote (I Pt. 2:17), we should honor the leader who upholds the secular order.

At the same time, and born of the same duty, a Catholic university has a special obligation not just to honor the leader but to engage the culture. Carrying out this role of the Catholic university has never been easy or without controversy. When I was an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Fr. Hesburgh spoke of the Catholic university as being both a lighthouse and a crossroads. As a lighthouse, we strive to stand apart and be different, illuminating issues with the moral and spiritual wisdom of the Catholic tradition. Yet, we must also be a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures. At this crossroads, we must be a place where people of good will are received with charity, are able to speak, be heard, and engage in responsible and reasoned dialogue.

The President’s visit to Notre Dame can help lead to broader engagement on issues of importance to the country and of deep significance to Catholics. Ultimately, I hope that the conversations and the good will that come from this day will contribute to closer relations between Catholics and public officials who make decisions on matters of human life and human dignity.

There is much to admire and celebrate in the life and work of President Obama. His views and policies on immigration, expanding health care, alleviating poverty, and building peace through diplomacy have a deep resonance with Catholic social teaching. As the first African-American holder of this office, he has accelerated our country’s progress in overcoming the painful legacy of slavery and segregation. He is a remarkable figure in American history, and I look forward to welcoming him to Notre Dame.

As President Obama is our principal speaker, there will no doubt be much attention on your Commencement. Remember, though, that this day is your day. My fervent prayer is that May 17 will be a joyous day for you and your family. You are the ones we celebrate and applaud. Congratulations, and may God bless you.

In Notre Dame,

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President

[Mari333]

3. good letter

wonder how many protesters will be there..my mom, who is an Opus Dei catholic, says quite a few. I hope I dont meet them in traffic.

[Beavker]

5. ND's values are right in line with the recent success of their Football Program

There isn't any. If YOU don't want an abortion, don't have one. I'm pro choice as my wife (the Catholic of the family) is, but we didn't even have our baby tested for the known defects and illnesses that you can. It wouldn't have mattered. We were keeping the little guy regardless. But I doubt I'd be able to tell someone else to keep or abort their own child. They'd tell me to piss of. It's your decision.

I wish Obama wouldn't go there. He should go speak at USC instead...

[goclark]

9. USC, that was my school, we'll take him as a speaker!

The one and only time I had the joy of seeing him speak was at USC.

It was several years ago and the students and others in the crowd were thrilled the moment that he walked on stage.

He was fabuous and the students and others in the massive crowd were screaming his name and just so happy.

I knew then that he was headed for great things.

As an African American lady, I must confess, I had no idea, on that day, that he would ever be able to be President!
:bounce:

[bitchkitty]

10. Hmmm. I guess you could call him brave? n/t

[superconnected]

2. Anti womens rights. ewww.

I consider the right over her body - to choose or not to choose to go forward with a pregnancy - one of the most important rights women have.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. This has been going on for weeks

and I am totally sick of it. It all started with a faux outrage by the Cardinal Newman Society, a group of self appointed laypeople to police orthodox on Catholic campuses. :puke: They freak out over every and any little thing that is not 100% from Rome. :crazy: Since then, the 20%ers Republican "Pro-Life" base is using this to try to be relevant again after last fall's election. They have managed to alienate people rather than attract them to their cause over this.

[Iowa]

6. Did anyone else noticed this in the article?

"...contradicts church teachings..."

"Teachings". As an ex-Catholic, I always found the term "teachings" to be arrogant, condescending, and insulting. They are "opinions" or "positions", but they call them "teachings"... as in "we teach and you learn".

A bunch of weird, old, celibate men who think have all the answers. It's almost comical. I shudder to think I used to buy into that nonsense.

[MBS]

7. see this oped response from Catholic Democrats

posted at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8409720&mesg_id=8409720

original url for oped http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0515promay15,0,6794007.story

[MetaTrope]

8. These protestors are getting wall-to-wall media coverage in Chicago right now

Including a full-page photo on the front of the Sun-Times.

Does anyone remember the wall-to-wall media coverage when hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest the unprovoked invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation? Because I don't.

[Maccagirl]

12. The only coverage those protesters got was dismissive and

demonizing. Yes, I remember.

[undeterred]

11. Fuck these anti women faux Christians

They make Notre Dame look shabby.