Joe Biden Won’t Speak at Notre Dame’s Commencement After 4,300 Students Sign Petition Rejecting Him

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 24, 2021   |   9:53AM   |   Washington, DC

Joe Biden will not speak at the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony this spring after thousands of students and alumni signed a petition protesting his radical pro-abortion views.

The Blaze reports more than 4,500 people signed the petition urging university president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, not to invite Biden or give him an honorary degree, as is university tradition.

“[Biden] rejects Church teachings on abortion, marriage, sex and gender and is hostile to religious liberty,” the petition states. “He embraces the most pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty public policy program in history.”

A White House spokesperson recently confirmed that the university did invite Biden, but he cannot attend because of a scheduling conflict, The Daily Mail reports.

The Catholic university traditionally invites sitting presidents to speak at commencement, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama spoke as did Vice President Mike Pence. Biden’s decision not to attend breaks a 20-year tradition, according to the report.

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Though Biden claims to be a devout Catholic, his policies on life, family and religious freedom openly defy the Catholic Church and the views of most Americans. They have drawn repeated criticism from pro-life leaders, Catholic bishops and other Christian leaders.

In their petition, the Notre Dame alumni and students said the university should not have invited Biden because “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

The invitation sends a message that the university is “little troubled by Biden’s actions,” the petition states. “Catholics – including especially Catholic politicians — and others who share Biden’s views would be confirmed in their ruinous error while others would be newly led astray.”

The petition signers said Biden’s actions “threaten grievous harm” to unborn babies and people of faith.

“We suggest that [the university’s] responsibility … is to guard Church teachings that are crucially important in today’s society by conferring its honors upon those who support them rather than upon those who oppose them, especially the one person above all who has the will and the power to undermine them,” the petition states.

Students and alumni also protested when the University of Notre Dame invited pro-abortion President Barack Obama to speak in 2009.

Biden professes to be a devout Catholic and frequently attends Mass. However, he openly defies church teachings about the sanctity of human life and family. After just 100 days in office, he surpassed Obama as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history. His administration recently stopped enforcing safety regulations that protect mothers and unborn babies from dangerous abortion drugs. He also is forcing taxpayers to fund the billion-dollar abortion industry.