Notre Dame Will Become Symbol of Pro-Life Catholic Dissent After Obama Scandal
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 18, 2009
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) — Now that the University of Notre Dame has chosen to honor pro-abortion President Barack Obama, the fallout appears likely to begin. One key Catholic writer says Notre Dame will become the symbol of pro-life Catholic dissent following the Obama scandal.
Notre Dame was deluged with opposition as soon as the announcement reached the public that it would not only invite Obama to give its commencement speech but bestow upon him an honorary degree.
Its president, Father John Jenkins, as Deal Hudson notes in a new editorial, "defended the choice with arguments that should make a freshman blush."
He and the mainstream media glossed over the way in which Notre Dame violated the directions of the nations Catholic bishops to not give a platform to abortion advocates.
And, on that platform, President Obama used his graduation speech to give his disingenuous call for "middle ground" on abortion and to promote embryonic stem cell research that violates the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church.
"But at the end the day, the party’s over and Notre Dame will pay for the piper for many years to come," Hudson says. "What is the price? Notre Dame has become the symbol of dissent in the Catholic Church (a designation actually deserved by Boston College)."
Hudson adds, "Many bishops will no longer support the institution and many prospective students and their parents will look elsewhere. Without those students, and the goodwill of the bishops, Notre Dame will become even more secular than it already is."
"Until Father Jenkins leaves, and the board membership is overhauled, Notre Dame has destroyed its relationship with thousands of alums and hundreds of significant donors. Millions will be lost by the university over the next decade," Hudson continues.
"The saddest thing of all, and the most tragic, Notre Dame has committed a scandal that, for the time being, has seriously divided and weakened the evangel of the Catholic Church," Hudson writes.
He concludes, "The commencement itself, if you watched it, was a spectacle of non-stop self-congratulation, supercilious flattery, and scripted self-justification. Eloquence was not to be found, though every inane claim to the moral high ground received thunderous applause, until even the robed dignitaries placed carefully behind Obama began to look bewildered."
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