More on the Notre Dame Scandal...

Though I try not to get caught up in scandals, the issue with Notre Dame is close to my heart. As a graduate, I know the prevailing atmosphere there, and it has deteriorated since my time. When we talk about sending our children there, I cringe. I don't want them in the same environment that helped convince me to leave the church. For this reason, I feel it necessary to speak out on this issue, as it is for me a microcosm of what has been happening at Notre Dame for the past generation or two.

Today, Notre Dame forwarded to me a letter that was sent to all the Notre Dame graduates. Here is an excerpt:

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.

My response to this is predictable, as you know how I love to pick apart poor logic. I wrote the office of the president at Notre Dame the following:


Dear Father Jenkins,


I received a copy of the letter you have sent to the graduating class regarding the controversy surrounding President Obama's speech. I think that your comments would make sense if you were merely inviting him to speak--but that is not the most serious issue here. An argument based solely on the long-standing custom of conferring honorary degrees on presidents holds little water. Such an excuse could have easily been used by a German Catholic university to confer such an honor on Chancellor Hitler in 1938, and would have been a grave error then, just as it is now. To confer an honorary degree is not merely an honor; it is in essence an act of wrapping its recipient in Our Lady's blue mantle, with all that may entail. No one would suggest, in hindsight, that it would have been wise to confer an honor of this sort on a man such as Hitler became.

Nor did he ever make a secret of his aims. Our current President has likewise made his aims clear, and to embrace him in this way shows more than just poor judgment; despite all protestation to the contrary, it does indeed serve as a tacit approval of this man's policies, both current and future. The day may come, as it did for those who trusted Hitler, that we will rue such a decision for many years to come.

Please understand that I am not inferring that Obama is another Hitler; only that the policies of Hitler were quite obviously incompatible with Church teaching, yet the leadership of the Church took the same stance you are taking, and did not rebuff him. We still bear the brunt of this neglect, as evidenced by reaction to the Pope's current trip to Jerusalem. To engage leaders that hold views such as Mr. Obama's requires not honorary degrees but a willingness to stand our ground as people of exceptional and unbending moral character. Any less is just appeasement.






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