Outrage that the oldest Catholic University in the United States should overlook the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding abortion has ignited in Catholic communities. Faithful Catholics protest President Barack Obama’s participation in Notre Dame’s commencement as a bold affront to Catholic values.
Catholics Nationwide Debate Notre Dame's Invitation to President Obama
The protest of Catholic priests, over sixty American bishops and hundreds of thousands of lay (non-clergy) Catholics regarding President Obama have appeared widely in print and electronic media. The Cardinal Newman Society, a national Catholic student organization, has gathered approximately 360,000 signatures petitioning the university with the request that President Obama neither speak nor be awarded an honorary Notre Dame law degree, said Catholic News Service.
After Vatican official Archbishop Raymond Burke declared at last Friday's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast “Notre Dame’s intention of granting an honorary doctorate to ‘anti-life and anti-family’ President Barack Obama is a source of the gravest scandal,” he was was given a 34-second standing ovation. Burke explained, "Catholic institutions cannot offer any platform to…those who teach and act publicly against the moral law. In a culture which embraces an agenda of death, Catholics and Catholic institutions are necessarily counter-cultural. If we…are not willing to accept the burdens and the suffering necessarily involved in calling our culture to reform, then we are not worthy of the name ‘Catholic.’”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is an evil violating human rights of the unborn and considered “pre-natal infanticide,” or “the killing of an infant.” The Catholic Church strongly objects the detruction of unborn lives considered by science to be viable, or, capable of living outside of the uterus, by means of the so-called “partial-birth abortion” method, among others.
Human Life International’s president, Father Thomas Eueteneuer, himself a Notre Dame graduate, describes himself to CNS “ticked.”
“This is the most recent in a long line of egregious violations of the spirit and teachings of the church...a flagrant rejection of the bishops’ authority and directives.”
South Bend Braced for Impact of Anti-abortion Activists
Obama’s visit places focus on abortion, said The South Bend Tribune, Monday, after interviewing the county Democratic Party Chairman, Buck Morgan. “As abortion protesters stream into South Bend ahead of President Obama’s commencement address…one thing is clear; an issue that didn't get much play in the last election is back in a big way.” Morgan, a pro-life Democrat, said that Obama’s visit gives people a political opportunity which may renew the long-debated issue of abortion, although he felt sorry for Notre Dame’s graduates.
Also reported by the Tribune was that most recent data for Indiana is from 2005 which showed 10,686 abortions performed in the state. Some 920,151 were performed nationwide that year, and Indiana's prevalence was below the national average.
President Obama’s second full day in office saw him remove the Mexico City Policy supporting foreign abortions, an executive order made by President George W. Bush in 2001. Obama also removed limitations on human fetal stem cell research in March.
Morgan’s counterpart, Republican Party Chairman Chris Riley of St. Joseph County, Indiana, said that these actions show Obama to be much further left on abortion than originally thought, and that President Obama had “procured the university’s confidence under totally false pretenses,” campaigning as an abortion moderate while governing “in a completely different manner.” Riley also referred to the report issued by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying that American citizens “dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion and immigration” may be examples of right-wing extremist hate organizations.”
Notre Dame University President Rev. John I. Jenkins has called Obama an "inspiring leader" who follows in a long tradition of presidential guest speakers. He says that the invitation does not mean universal support for Obama administration policies, according to FOX News, which, also published comments on the controversy by recent Catholic convert Newt Gingrich.
Founded in 1842 by French priest Father Edward Sorin, Notre Dame has not withdrawn its invitation. The White House has said that President Obama is looking forward to giving the speech.
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