The University of Notre Dame announced in a press release dated March 20, 2009:
President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. May 17 (Sunday) in the Joyce Center on campus.
Notre Dame is a Catholic institution of higher learning and as such is committed to the worldview of the Catholic Church which includes the protection of life at every stage from conception to natural death.
President Barack Obama is the most radically pro-abortion president in the history of the United States. Through legislation he has either sponsored or supported he has advanced the radical agenda of Planned Parenthood and other so-called “pro-choice” organizations to end the lives of unborn children.
A website has been set up, www.notredamescandal.com, to gather signatures on a petition to Father Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, asking him to rescind his invitation to Obama. To date more than 51,000 individuals have added their names. The website has a detailed account of Obama’s radical actions on abortion, including his decision to rescind the Mexico City Policy, working to overturn the “conscience clause” which would require medical professionals to assist in or perform abortions against their wills, and lifting the ban on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research while expanding the program to include the creation of embryos for the specific purpose of killing them for research purposes.
UPDATE: Catholic theologian George Weigel has weighed in on the Notre Dame scandal
That Chris above is not me, although I don’t disagree with what he says. But this is “the liberal Chris.”
That said, I’m surprised that Obama would be invited to speak at Norte Dame, given of course the Catholic Church’s position on abortion (nor do I understand why you would need to give the President an honorary doctorate–really, after President, there’s really not much more to accomplish). I can certainly understand why the law school would want him to speak there, as I can understand why any law school would. But given the school’s close ties to the Catholic Church, I would have to assume SOMEONE would know this would ruffle feathers. After all, I’m sure many people at Michigan Theological Seminary or Moody would love to hear Obama speak too, but you’d have to be considerate of the firestorm of controversy that would come and overshadow the whole event.
But whatever. As long as it’s not Rudy. He’s an attention-hog.
Might be interesting to have someone from the archdiocese or maybe even Teresa Tomeo from Catholic radio to get a view of this. Maybe even Bill Donahue of The Catholic League or Al Mohler??
just a thought.