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Bishops Opposed To Notre Dame Invite Now Totals 68
By JOHN P. CONNOLLY, The Bulletin
The number of bishops publicly opposed to President Barack Obama’s speaking invitation at the University of Notre Dame has reached 68.
Mr. Obama was invited to speak at the university’s commencement May 17, and will be given an honorary doctorate in law at the ceremony. The invitation has created a controversy on the grounds that it disobeys a 2004 order from the U.S. bishops’ conference that politicians opposed to Catholic teaching not be given honors by Catholic institutions.
“Although the university claims to be opposed to abortion, this issue is apparently not deemed important enough to preclude Mr. Obama’s receiving honors at the Notre Dame commencement,” said Bishop Lawrence Brandt of Greensburg. “There is a serious dichotomy between what the university says it believes and what it does.”
Bishop Brandt praised Bishop John D’Arcy, who leads the Fort Wayne diocese, which includes Notre Dame. Bishop D’Arcy, who was not informed of the invitation to Mr. Obama until after it had been accepted, said he would boycott the commencement.
“The toxic residue from this scandal will be the perception that Notre Dame has made dissent in the Catholic Church respectable,” said Bishop Brandt. “This cannot be looked upon as a paradigm to be followed by others.”
Bishops and the laity alike have sent letters of protest to Fr. John Jenkins, the president of the university. More than 353,000 people have signed petitions against the invitation, and Bishop George Thomas of Helena, Mont. joined that number by sending a letter to Fr. Jenkins this week.
“The honorary doctorate should be reserved for persons whose lives and accomplishments reflect those exemplary qualities and values we wish to cultivate in the lives of our students,” wrote Bishop Thomas. “Sadly, President Barack Obama’s consistent assault upon the civil rights of the unborn reflects the very antithesis of our Catholic social and moral teaching on the sacredness of life from conception until natural death.”
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
Mr. Obama was invited to speak at the university’s commencement May 17, and will be given an honorary doctorate in law at the ceremony. The invitation has created a controversy on the grounds that it disobeys a 2004 order from the U.S. bishops’ conference that politicians opposed to Catholic teaching not be given honors by Catholic institutions.
“Although the university claims to be opposed to abortion, this issue is apparently not deemed important enough to preclude Mr. Obama’s receiving honors at the Notre Dame commencement,” said Bishop Lawrence Brandt of Greensburg. “There is a serious dichotomy between what the university says it believes and what it does.”
Bishop Brandt praised Bishop John D’Arcy, who leads the Fort Wayne diocese, which includes Notre Dame. Bishop D’Arcy, who was not informed of the invitation to Mr. Obama until after it had been accepted, said he would boycott the commencement.
“The toxic residue from this scandal will be the perception that Notre Dame has made dissent in the Catholic Church respectable,” said Bishop Brandt. “This cannot be looked upon as a paradigm to be followed by others.”
Bishops and the laity alike have sent letters of protest to Fr. John Jenkins, the president of the university. More than 353,000 people have signed petitions against the invitation, and Bishop George Thomas of Helena, Mont. joined that number by sending a letter to Fr. Jenkins this week.
“The honorary doctorate should be reserved for persons whose lives and accomplishments reflect those exemplary qualities and values we wish to cultivate in the lives of our students,” wrote Bishop Thomas. “Sadly, President Barack Obama’s consistent assault upon the civil rights of the unborn reflects the very antithesis of our Catholic social and moral teaching on the sacredness of life from conception until natural death.”
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
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