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Notre Dame Students Denounce Obama Speech
By John P. Connolly, The Bulletin
A coalition of 11 student organizations at the University of Notre Dame has publicly criticized its school for its plan to give President Barack Obama an honorary law degree at this year’s commencement.
The student response follows vocal outrage among Notre Dame alumni over the decision to honor Mr. Obama. Opponents of the university’s decision have pointed to Mr. Obama’s pro-abortion record as evidence that he should not be honored at the premier Catholic university in the country.
“Our objection is not a matter of political partisanship, but of President Obama’s hostility to the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life at its earliest stages” said the student coalition in a statement. “His recent dedication of federal funds to overseas abortions and to embryonic stem cell research will directly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent human beings. We cannot sit by idly while the university honors someone who believes that an entire class of human beings is undeserving of the most basic of all legal rights, the right to live.”
The university’s decision to honor Mr. Obama runs counter to instruction from the U.S. Catholic bishops, who said in 2004 politicians who oppose Catholic moral teaching should not be honored by Catholic institutions.
“It is a great irony that the university has chosen to award President Obama an honorary law degree,” said the student coalition. “As the oldest Catholic law school in the country, the Notre Dame Law School states that its mission is “to facilitate greater understanding of and commitment to the relationship between law and social justice.
“The social justice issue of our day is the deliberate, legal attack on the most vulnerable members of society, the unborn. To award a Notre Dame law degree to a lawyer and politician who has used the law to deny equality to the unborn diminishes the value of the degree itself.”
The coalition also said many seniors are considering not attending their graduation because of the honors being given to Mr. Obama.
The students have begun a campaign of protest against Fr. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame. Their participation in a national campaign that will mail red envelopes to the White House has been changed to send the letters to Fr. Jenkins.
“This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion,” read the envelopes. “It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world. This envelope was going to be sent to President Obama on March 31. However, as he is scheduled to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Notre Dame on May 17, we ask that you deliver it to him on our behalf at that time.”
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 166,000 petitioners had sent letters of protest to Fr. Jenkins via a Web site hosted by the Cardinal Newman Society.
The coalition is composed of Notre Dame Right to Life, The Irish Rover student newspaper, Notre Dame College Republicans, The University of Notre Dame Anscombe Society, Notre Dame Identity Project, Militia of the Immaculata, Children of Mary, Orestes Brownson Council, and the Right to Life, Thomas More Society and Federalist Society of the Notre Dame Law School.
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
The student response follows vocal outrage among Notre Dame alumni over the decision to honor Mr. Obama. Opponents of the university’s decision have pointed to Mr. Obama’s pro-abortion record as evidence that he should not be honored at the premier Catholic university in the country.
“Our objection is not a matter of political partisanship, but of President Obama’s hostility to the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life at its earliest stages” said the student coalition in a statement. “His recent dedication of federal funds to overseas abortions and to embryonic stem cell research will directly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent human beings. We cannot sit by idly while the university honors someone who believes that an entire class of human beings is undeserving of the most basic of all legal rights, the right to live.”
The university’s decision to honor Mr. Obama runs counter to instruction from the U.S. Catholic bishops, who said in 2004 politicians who oppose Catholic moral teaching should not be honored by Catholic institutions.
“It is a great irony that the university has chosen to award President Obama an honorary law degree,” said the student coalition. “As the oldest Catholic law school in the country, the Notre Dame Law School states that its mission is “to facilitate greater understanding of and commitment to the relationship between law and social justice.
“The social justice issue of our day is the deliberate, legal attack on the most vulnerable members of society, the unborn. To award a Notre Dame law degree to a lawyer and politician who has used the law to deny equality to the unborn diminishes the value of the degree itself.”
The coalition also said many seniors are considering not attending their graduation because of the honors being given to Mr. Obama.
The students have begun a campaign of protest against Fr. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame. Their participation in a national campaign that will mail red envelopes to the White House has been changed to send the letters to Fr. Jenkins.
“This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion,” read the envelopes. “It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world. This envelope was going to be sent to President Obama on March 31. However, as he is scheduled to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Notre Dame on May 17, we ask that you deliver it to him on our behalf at that time.”
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 166,000 petitioners had sent letters of protest to Fr. Jenkins via a Web site hosted by the Cardinal Newman Society.
The coalition is composed of Notre Dame Right to Life, The Irish Rover student newspaper, Notre Dame College Republicans, The University of Notre Dame Anscombe Society, Notre Dame Identity Project, Militia of the Immaculata, Children of Mary, Orestes Brownson Council, and the Right to Life, Thomas More Society and Federalist Society of the Notre Dame Law School.
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
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