The Edge

Notre Dame: The First Battle in a New War

May 21st, 2009 by Jason T. Adams Print This Article Print This Article ·

Last weekend my family and I stood with a couple thousand Catholics on Notre Dame’s south quad protesting the university’s decision to invite Barak Obama as commencement speaker and award to him an honorary degree. At the same time, most of the 12,000 predominantly Catholic commencement attendees cheered on the most pro-abortion official our nation has ever known. In the lead up to commencement it was broadly assumed that the President would rise above the fray and offer an eloquent but conventional commencement speech. Indeed, many who supported the invitation early in the controversy argued that Obama was not coming to give an abortion speech, concluding that the abortion issue was moot. But speak about abortion he did, and why wouldn’t he? This was a golden opportunity to have a packed arena of Catholics enthusiastically applaud his pro-abortion agenda. What a public relations coup for the President!

Notre Dame’s commencement witnessed not Obama the head of state, but Obama the moral teacher. Consider the standards he advanced:

  • While pro-life and pro-choice supporters have irreconcilable differences, the decision whether or not to abort a child is a personal moral decision a woman must be free to make.
  • Abortion rights can exist alongside efforts to reduce the number of abortions. These efforts include helping single mothers, promoting adoption, and funding sex education programs that promote contraception.
  • The ends justify the means in the issue of embryonic stem cell research. The lives of innocent unborn children can and should be sacrificed if embryonic stem cell research shows any promise of curing things like juvenile diabetes.
  • The problems the world faces are too big for one religion to solve, so we must not see the faith and moral teachings of one particular religion as superior to any other.

Let me ask you, which one of these teachings does the Catholic Church accept? None! Every one of these dictates is irreconcilable with the most fundamental teachings of Catholicism. The real commencement message was never heard because it was couched in such lofty and eloquent platitudes. I can translate:

Let me begin by establishing my moral authority among Catholics. I carried the Catholic vote in November and I have plainly won the support of America’s preeminent Catholic college. By virtue of your having invited me to this commencement and awarding me this honorary law degree, you have shown that you are fair-minded, unlike the lunatic fringe that opposed my visit. You are the new mainstream Catholics, choosing to follow the dictates of pragmatism rather than those of a washed up hierarchy whose teachings are no longer relevant. It is time to abandon the pro-life dogmatism of yesterday for the greater cause of peace and progress. I outlined the solution to this worn out abortion debate during my campaign and I am reiterating that solution today. Keep abortion legal so women can exercise their right to privacy unhindered by meddlesome religious fanatics. Expand embryonic stem cell research so we can cure disease. Today, I would ask of you one more thing that will require of you a long overdue open-mindedness. Leave behind the antiquated sectarianism that has historically characterized the Catholic Church, and begin thinking in terms of one composite religion in which all doctrine is submitted to the larger goal of cooperation and tolerance. We need stand for nothing but unity. Will you follow me?

From the crowd there arose a resounding “yes!” -– loyal submission of intellect and will. Notre Dame has denied its rightful teachers, the bishops, for decades.

Notre Dame was wrong for inviting President Obama and awarding him an honorary law degree for two reasons. Never in our nation’s history has there been a President so hostile to the dignity of unborn children. He has promised to work vigorously to oppose everything the Catholic Church teaches on the most fundamental of human rights — the right to life. That ought to be enough to rule him out as a commencement speaker in what is arguably the nation’s most notable Catholic college. There is another reason Notre Dame is in the wrong. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided in no uncertain terms that Catholic institutions are not to issue speaking invitations and awards to figures who oppose the moral law: “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” (Catholics in Political Life , 2004).

By these two counts, Notre Dame has besmirched the Church’s solemn teaching on abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and has made a scandalous show of its animosity toward Church authority. At last count, over 80 bishops have publicly condemned Notre Dame’s actions, including the bishop of South Bend. When a major Catholic institution so publicly and egregiously betrays its commission, the Catholic faithful are obligated to oppose it. There was a time when the fight for the soul of Catholicism was something like an insurgency: a dissident professor here, a wayward bishop there, an occasional heretical book. We have, to an extent, been lulled to sleep while these small scale and episodic threats blend into the backdrop of Catholic life. While we were sleeping, a full frontal siege has been waged. The question is, will we ever wake up?

Jason holds a Master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (2000) and teaches Theology at St. Theodore Guerin High School in Noblesville, Indiana. He is the author of Called to Give Life: The Blessings of Children and the Harms of Contraception, published by One More Soul. You can read Jason's blog at www.amusingcatholic.blogspot.com.



  • jiminycricket

    Did any of the 80 bishops who publicly condemned the actions of ND show up at the protest? Did any of them happen to get themselves arrested and thrown into jail for the unborn? Is there more of a witness that can happen rather than writing an article in a diocesan newspaper?

  • fatherjo

    “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but, following their own desires, will surround themselves with teachers who tickle their ears. They will stop listening to the truth and will wander off to fables. As for you, be steady and self-possessed; put up with hardship, perform your work as an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:3-5

  • http://catholichawk.com PrairieHawk

    What I want to know is will there be any consequences to Notre Dame and its president and board of trustees for what has happened, especially now that it is clear that this event has been such a P.R. coup for Obama. Is there anything that Canon Law allows the bishops to do? Can N.D.’s charter be revoked? I hesitate to bring up this possibility–but there is the ancient remedy of the Interdict. It seems to me that the damage done has been grave enough to warrant the gravest of censures.

  • tntmnm

    The question is, will the Church use the authority it has in this matter? Or will there only be rhetoric?

  • Mary S.

    Thank you for a very excellent article. I wish everyone would read it because there is so much confusion about this event. It’s good to see the truth articulated. I fear that there will continue to be only rhetoric as there as been for the past 40 years. I’m grateful for the bishops who made public statements, but they are not even a majority of the bishops. May the Lord have mercy on us all!

  • Jean

    I couldn’t help but wonder about what else would be happening in the nicey nicey world the honored speaker painted of both sides of the abortion issue respectfully dialoguing. All the moneyed, privileged and “educated” in that huge crowed cheered and cheered what he painted for them (master “painter” that he is). They ate it all up and loved him for his reasonable, democratic, all-embracing tact. My mind’s eye, however, saw a quite different picture: I saw all those he does not embrace, all those he refuses to see. While all that civil, touchy-feely, coming-together he talks about is going on, each day of it 400 babies would be torn limb from limb (literally) or burned to death in a saline solution, all within their very own mothers’ wombs.

    How very civilized the picture the honoree painted; how very gruesome is the actual beyond that picture. Shame on all those Notre Dame leaders and students and parents who REFUSE to acknowledge the truth of what goes on in this country every single day. CHILDREN ARE KILLED, AND IT IS LEGAL!!!! The ghouls and their cheer squads even look and speak like human beings, even though the spirits within them are anything but human and good looking and well spoken. Those spirits drip blood, snarl, and growl.

    I guess bestowing the honorary law degree was okay, because the law of this land which that man protects and defends and cheers and funds is what that degree bespeaks. I just never knew that such a degree could possibly come from a Catholic university. Silly me.

    Kudos to those who were on that podium under duress, it would appear…. the ones who did not applaud, did not even smile at any point, did not rise in ovation (my goodness, ovations all over the place). They were few, very few those unhappy academics, but one’s heart reached out to them. They would have been more at home, for sure, if they had opted for the Grotto with Father Pavone and those other ignorant Catholics who just won’t play ball with the big boys. But courage in today’s world is something for which we all must pray. Martyrdom seems of another age, long past, but there’s all kinds of martyrdom, and we all should pray to be ready for our own.

    I sent a letter to the US bishops asking that they show some courage and march out there and remove the Catholic label from all the Notre Dames out there in the Catholic world. That is the honest, respectful thing for those men to do, but it takes courage. The fallout from this major catastrophe we witnessed on Sunday, the in-your-face lack of Catholic life wrapped in a Catholic mantle calls for a big answer by the bishops. Here’s hoping they are…. finally!… up to it.

    +JMJ

  • ourladyofguadalupe

    I am in agreement with frjo’s comment. The prophesy in 2 Tim 4:3-5 has been fulfilled. Sound Church doctrines and canon law(especially canon 915) have been and are being ignored or twisted by many priests and religious. These are the “wolves” in sheep’s clothing which Christ spoke about and they have been present from the beginning of the Church and have exploded in numbers in modern times. Many of the laity gladly follow them along the wide road to perdition. I have personally spoken with priests and other religious who expressed heretical views which are clearly gravely contrary to the moral law. When i mentioned to one priest that pro-abortion politicians like Nancy Pelosi should not receive Holy Communion, he responded by saying that she is a “good catholic”. He also told me not to point fingers at others. A nun who was director of a homeless ministry told me in the course of a conversation about abortion that she hated us pro-lifers and believed that a woman should have the “right to choose”. We really need to pray for them and i always include in my petitions at a rosary group that ALL religious and laity would be in communion with Pope Benedict and the authentic teachings of the magisterium of the church. I am deeply hurt and saddened that Barak Obama was allowed to speak at ND and even more so that he was awarded an honory law degree. Fr. Jenkins obstinately persisted in his invitation of president Obama to ND ingnoring the usccb’s prohibition against giving platforms to and honoring those who support what is gravely contrary to catholic moral teachings. He ingnored all the pleas by courageous bishops not to go through with the invitation. “… By their fruits you will know them..” My prayer is that the vatican will censure Fr. Jenkins and remove ND’s designation as a catholic institution along with georgetown, fordham, and other so called “catholic institutions.

  • LarryW2LJ

    Jason and Jean (and the rest of you) have hit the nail on the head. For all the make nice and for all the flowery pie-in-the-sky talk, there is a gruesomeness behind this that cannot be ignored. Father Jenkins, depsite all his conscience wrangling platitudes, has placed Notre Dame on the brink of schism. It may well be that Notre Dame has become the first university of the new “American Catholic” Church.

    It definitely doesn’t belong to the Roman Catholic Church anymore!

  • goral

    There were bishops who condemned this invitation and there were those who agreed with it. At the end of the day, they are one and the same.

    Sunday at church I sat by the first Station of the Cross, the inscription was – Jesus Condemned. What follows is the implementation of that Condemnation. We know that it’s not the Condemnation which gave us Salvation.

    This is not the generation of bishops who will lead the Church along the straight path. We have to wait for another.
    There will yet be a bishop in a Cathedral who understands that – condemnation without consequence is cowardice.

  • jmtfh

    There was one bishop who attended the protest to lead his flock!

    BISHOP D’ARCY, THE BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE WHERE NOTRE DAME RESIDES, did in fact take part in the protest! Do not lump the good with the bad; Christ himself separates out the wheat from the chaff, the weeds from the grain…D’Arcy set himself apart by protesting at the Marian grotto with the faithful in his flock!

  • gerimom

    Bishops these days are so busy. It is possible they were too busy taking care of their own flocks to attend the Notre Dame protest.

  • goral

    I read your capitalized font loud and clear jmtfh, I’m aware of that “courageous” action.
    Isn’t that wonderful? A father who’s ranch was just used for a teenage drunken party went out to protest against teenage drinking.
    Like I said, at the end of the day, protest or no protest, the result is the same.

    CONDEMNATION WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE IS COWARDICE.

  • christymomof3

    Please pray for our bishops and don’t be quick to condemn. The local bishop did participate in the protest. Can you imagine the uproar and accusations of grandstanding if bishops from around the country had spent the time and money to travel up there to participate? We in North Texas are so grateful for the pro-life leadership of our (relatively) new bishops, Farrell and Vann, and I was so happy to see that 80 bishops were bold enough to speak up on the ND scandal. Think how different the response would have been just a few years ago! You would have been able to hear the crickets chirping nationwide.

  • JimAroo

    80 Bishops condemned

    320 Bishops said nothing

    Bishop D’Arcy, who seems to be an excellent bishop and a good man, had cards he could have played but chose not to.

    He could do any or all of the following things unilaterally without a hearing or appeal.
    1) He could remove Notre dame from the list of Catholic colleges.
    2) He could remove the ability of any priest at Notre Dame to hear confessions or preach (these faculties are the prerogative of the local ordinary).
    3) He could remove his approval of any church or chapel on the campus, thereby suspending permission to celebrate Mass there.
    4) He could prohibit any Blessed Sacrament chapel on campus

    I am sure there are other things he could do….
    he had a lot of cards but didn’t play them.

    More’s the pity.