ND Prez Jenkins Has "No Interest" in Asking for Leniency for ND Protesters Despite Calls for “Dialogue”

By Kathleen Gilbert
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the University of Notre Dame has "no interest" in interfering with the fates of over 80 peaceful pro-life protesters arrested on campus while protesting President Obama's May 17 commencement speech, says the pro-lifers' attorney. One of the arrestees, Lambs of Christ founder Fr. Norman Weslin, issued a statement Monday calling on University president Fr. John Jenkins to heed the arrested group's requests to meet, which Weslin says Fr. Jenkins has ignored.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061007.html

What "Church" Does Notre Dame belong to?

By George Weigel

Of all the commentary I’ve read on Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to receive an honorary doctorate of laws as the university’s 2009 commencement speaker, the most disturbing came from Father Kenneth Himes of the Boston College theology department. In a Boston Globe story about Professor Mary Ann Glendon’s courageous (and correct) decision to decline Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal because the university had defied the U.S. bishops’s policy barring honors for pro-abortion politicians at Catholic events, Father Himes said this:

"There are some well-meaning people who think Notre Dame has given away its Catholic identity, because they have been caught up in the gamesmanship of American higher education, bringing in a star commencement speaker even if that means sacrificing their values, and that accounts for some of this...But one also has to say that there is a political game going on here, and part of that is that you demonize the people who disagree with you, you question their integrity, you challenge their character, and you brand these people as moral poison. Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue, and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation."

http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3836/pub_detail.asp

Pro-lifer senses growing opposition to Obama's agenda

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

The president of Operation Rescue is comparing Barack Obama to the "emperor with no clothes."

During President Obama's controversial commencement speech at Notre Dame on Sunday, he called for "fair-minded words" to be used in the abortion debate and urged both sides to find common ground. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue adds that Obama stated science and medicine should also be allowed to speak into the issue. "I completely agree -- Operation Rescue completely agrees with this statement," says Newman, "because in the last 36 years, every single piece of scientific and medical [evidence] and technology advance has proven the fact that human life begins at the moment the seed and egg unite and ought to continue all the way through natural birth."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=535192

The class got calculus

Sheila Liaugminas

Notre Dame’s 2009 class of graduates heard some moral calculus in President Obama’s address at their commencement. His words were, indeed, eloquent and often sounded so ‘fair-minded’, which he made his theme as he hit his stride. Like when he said… So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions…

Nobody could argue that we need to do that, and many fervently work to reduce it to zero. If something is a good, why try to reduce it? If it’s an evil, why not try to eliminate it, the reasoning goes. Some commentators pointed out that since abortion is the taking of human life, talk like this blurs the line between what’s right and wrong to do.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_class_got_calculus/

Obama and the ‘Real’ Catholics

The president inserts himself into a religious debate.

By George Weigel
Passionate debates over doctrine, identity, and the boundaries of “communion” have been a staple of the American religious landscape for centuries: Trinitarians vs. Unitarians in 19th-century New England; Modernists vs. Fundamentalists in early-20th-century Presbyterianism; Missouri Synod Lutherans vs. Wisconsin Synod Lutherans vs. Other Sorts of Lutherans down to today. Yet never in our history has a president of the United States, in the exercise of his public office, intervened in such disputes in order to secure a political advantage.

Until yesterday, at the University of Notre Dame.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzNhZDI1MDAyMjcwNTFhMDM3NDZkOGQ5ZWZhOGUzNWI=&w=MA==

ND Response - Official Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUBdrrbF6o

Moral relativism and Obama at Notre Dame

Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist -

In a letter to the 2009 graduating class of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins, the university's president, explains why he is "proud" to have had President Barack Obama speak and be honored at his university. Let's put aside momentarily the appropriateness of a Catholic university honoring a man who aggressively supports legal abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and has supported a procedure that permits the destruction of a living child after birth. Someone who says that the question regarding the rights of the unborn is "above my pay grade."

And consider that Father Jenkins says that, aside from honoring the nation's president, the university must be "a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures." In other words, it must entertain diversity of opinion. I maintain an active speaking tour at universities across this country.

Over the years, I have spoken at over 180 universities of all kinds. And one thing I can report is that American universities are uniformly liberal.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=533404

Obama, Notre Dame, and the character thing

Dr. Paul Kengor - Guest Columnist -

In May 1995, his first year as Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge was invited by Gannon University, a Catholic college in Erie, Pa., to give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. But the distinguished Republican and native son had a problem: he was a pro-choice Catholic. Erie Bishop Donald Trautman expressed his "concerns." Governor Ridge declined the degree.

"The last thing I would want is for those differences to distract in any way from this wonderful day of recognition for Gannon's class of 1995," said Ridge. His spokesman explained that the decision "came from the governor." Ridge did the right thing. He did the character thing.

That wasn't the only case. As far back as June 1974, shortly after Roe v. Wade became law, the famous Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty refused an invitation and honorary degree from the University of Santa Clara because of an abortion controversy involving the university. Mindszenty did the character thing.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=530882

Fr. Corapi on Notre Dame Scandal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fc_c=1416004x3044189x153050158&v=X89_XLYbpxU

Harpooning the whale

Omar O'Shaughnessey

Notre Dame’s obsessive pursuit of prestige could send it down to Davey Jones. The University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities in the US. Even non-Americans have heard of the Fighting Irish, its legendary football team which inspired a famous film featuring a young Ronald Reagan. The team’s dismal record in 2007 -- the most losses in a single year – sparked anger and anguish amongst the university’s 120,000 alumni. It was arguably the biggest controversy of the university’s existence.

Until now.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/harpooning_the_whale/

Pro-life Group Blasts Notre Dame on Billboard

The Pro-Life Action League has put up two large billboards near the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. See LifeSite News. The billboards are scheduled to go up today on the Indiana Toll Road, Interstate 80/90, and will read:

NOTRE DAME: Obama is pro abortion choice. How dare you honor him," along with a picture of a baby in utero sucking its thumb. They also will list a Web address, NotreDameProtest.com, where visitors can get information on the protests planned during the graduation weekend at Notre Dame.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=515710

It’s one thing to defend Notre Dame’s decision

Sheila Liaugminas

It’s another to do so with sophomoric arguments.
Like this, from someone who ought to know better.

Former President’s Council on Bioethics member and Harvard Law Professor, Mary Ann Glendon, has told the University of Notre Dame to take the honor it wished to bestow upon her and kindly have it back. Why? Evidently, she doesn’t think that President Obama shares the same notions of social justice as the she and the Roman Catholic Church…http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/its_one_thing_to_defend_notre_dames/

Glendon for ambassador

Sheila Liaugminas

With the Obama administration having trouble finding an appropriate ambassador to the Vatican, I’ve been saying for the past few weeks he should return Mary Ann Glendon to that post. Looks like that suggestion is more apt….and more unlikely….than ever.
Here’s the White House response to Glendon’s decision to decline the Laetare Medal and the ND commencement ceremony:

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/glendon_for_ambassador/

It’s one thing to defend Notre Dame’s decision

Sheila Liaugminas

It’s another to do so with sophomoric arguments.

Like this, from someone who ought to know better.
Former President’s Council on Bioethics member and Harvard Law Professor, Mary Ann Glendon, has told the University of Notre Dame to take the honor it wished to bestow upon her and kindly have it back. Why? Evidently, she doesn’t think that President Obama shares the same notions of social justice as the she and the Roman Catholic Church…

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/its_one_thing_to_defend_notre_dames/

Notre Dame Loses $8.2 Million in Withheld Donations over Obama Scandal

DEARBORN, MI, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the same day that former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon announced that she has decided to refuse Notre Dame's Laetare Medal due to the university's invitation of Obama to receive an honorary degree at this year's commencement ceremony, a group protesting the decision has announced that the university has also lost millions in donations because of the scandal. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042702.html)

Organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, an online effort urging alumni and donors to the University of Notre Dame to withhold donations, announced Monday that they have personally confirmed over $8.2 million in withheld donations. The URL of the website - ReplaceJenkins.com - is a reference to the main demand of the group - that Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins, who has firmly stood by the university's decision to honor Obama, be replaced with someone who will uphold the Catholic identity of the university.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042704

Glendon Declines ND Honor

Mary Ann Glendon has declined Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal over the plans to honor pro-abortion president Barack Obama.

by Father Raymond J. de SouzaFather John Jenkins likely thought himself very clever. Professor Mary Ann Glendon just took him to school.

In declining to receive the Laetare Medal alongside President Barack Obama’s honorary doctorate of laws at next month’s commencement, Glendon has refused to participate in the shabby manipulation Father Jenkins attempted to engineer. It is a rare personage who could ennoble an award by refusing to receive it, but Glendon has done just that. The Laetare Medal will now be known best for the year in which it was declined. Glendon chose, to use the apt words of Bishop John D’Arcy in this regard, truth over prestige.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/glendon_declines_nd_honor

Notre Dame Announces Homosexual-Themed Events for Easter Week

This is why students need to come to the Ruth Institute Summer Conference!

Cardinal Newman Society (www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/)
The announced agenda for the week indicates no effort to teach students about Catholic teaching on homosexual activity as gravely sinful.

StaND Against Hate Week to occur April 14 through 17 is co-sponsored by Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center, student government and University Counseling Center.

MANASSAS, VA (Cardinal Newman Society) - “Christianity is under attack from within our own Catholic universities,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The bad news continues, perhaps appropriately on the day when we recall Christ’s terrible agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We need Catholics worldwide to draw the line, here and now, by joining more than 255,000 witnesses for the Faith at NotreDameScandal.com.”

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33147

ND Students ask us to join them

Pro-life students at Notre Dame have met to determine a plan of action. They are choosing peaceful activities that will not jeopardize the status of their pro-life groups on campus. One of their activities is to pray the rosary together for 40 days prior to graduation. They are trying to get a million rosaries for the conversion of President Obama with a secondary intention for the University of ND and all Catholic colleges. They ask us to join them in this effort. http://ndresponse.com/million-rosaries.html

Notre Dame, Obama and the Catholic Brand

By Helen M. Alvaré

How Honoring the President Could Weaken the Catholic Voice

Supporters of Notre Dame University's decision to honor Barack Obama at its commencement employ elevated and even aspirational language in their attempt to characterize the meaning of the event. They invoke the language of "engagement" and "common ground" and "dialogue." But no matter their intentions or even their hopes, the very contents and structures of their argumentation ultimately denigrate the Catholic "brand" of speaking in the public square.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25616?l=english

Notre Dame students stick up for pro-life principles

Watch the video here: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=12842828&ch=4226716&src=news

Notre Dame Students Organize Prayer Rally Protest

Holy Cross Superior Makes Pro-Life Appeal to Obama

By Genevieve Pollock

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, APRIL 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).-
A coalition of student groups at the University of Notre Dame will hold a prayer rally to protest the school's choice to honor President Barack Obama at this year's commencement. The rally, to take place on Palm Sunday, is sponsored by Notre Dame Response, a coalition that formed to speak out against the Catholic university's decision to invite the U.S. president to give its commencement speech, and to receive an honorary law degree.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25542?l=english

The incoherence of ND’s position

Sheila Liaugminas

Actually, you can’t refer to Notre Dame as one entity with one position, even with regards to the controversial commencement invitation to President Obama and the plan to confer on him the honorary doctorate of laws. Because plenty of people somehow affiliated with the university strongly disagree with it.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_incoherence_of_nds_position/

Notre Dame controversy is still growing

And more bishops are speaking out.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/notre_dame_controversy_is_still_growing/

Pro-lifers plan protest for Obama's visit to Notre Dame

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The outrage over Notre Dame inviting President Obama as commencement speaker has not abated. Last week, pro-lifers strongly voiced their anger about a pro-abortion president being invited to speak at a prominent Catholic university, which supposedly upholds church doctrines such as the sanctity of life. But they also are objecting to the school's plan to give Obama an honorary Doctor of Law degree. Notre Dame has been flooded with complaints, but university President John Jenkins will not be deterred.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=468006