Notre Dame and President Obama- A match made in heaven

Father Jenkins, president of Notre Dame University, recently issued his response to the U.S. Bishops regarding Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama to be its 2009 Commencement Speaker and to receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree. Father Jenkins’ position is that because President Obama is a protestant, the Bishops’ admonition about honoring anti-life dignitaries does not apply. In Fr. Jenkins’ view this admonition only applies to honoring pro abortion/anti-life Catholics. Such sophistry! If we take that position to the extreme, then Notre Dame could, if it chose to, honor Hitler as long as he was a non-Catholic at the time.
Of course, in the pro-life context, Notre Dame seems to be an avenue for sophistry. In 1984, (then) Governor Cuomo gave a speech at Notre Dame that became the foundation for politicians (both Catholic and non-Catholic alike) to sidestep the abortion issue by stating “I am personally opposed to abortion but I must follow the law of the land when it comes to abortion.” Of course, Notre Dame never rebutted this argument, which it could have, by simply saying, “If you are so opposed to abortion, what are you doing to change the law of the land in that regard?” There is nothing wrong for someone in this country to seek to change the law of the land or even to seek to amend the constitution. In Cuomo’s view only pro-life politicians are required to check their private convictions at the door of Congress or the statehouse.
Of course, through the years, the Notre Dame administration has not been a friend to the pro-life movement. For several years in the early 1970’s Notre Dame served, each summer, as the site for a regional Planned Parenthood convention. It did not cease doing so until the local pro-life organization came out and picketed.

At an abortion conference held at Notre Dame in 1980, Father Theodore Hesburgh, then president of Notre Dame, made his infamous reference to pro life activists as “Mindless Zealots” and to pro-life politicians as those who “agreed with the Catholic Church on abortion but were opposed to Catholic values on every other important moral issue.” Of course when confronted to name said politicians, Father Hesburgh could not. This is the same Father Hesburgh who sat on the stage next to Father McBrien of the Notre Dame theology department while Governor Cuomo gave his 1984 speech at Notre Dame. Father Hesburgh said nothing then nor anything since to counter Governor Cuomo’s position.
Thus it is with no small amount of irony that the Notre Dame student newspaper The Observer in its March 27, 2009 Staff Editorial quoted a statement by Father Hesburgh regarding Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama as follows: “No speaker who has ever come to Notre Dame has changed the University. We are who we are. But, quite often, the very fact of being here has changed the speaker.”
Now it is perhaps understandable that 90+% of the 2009 graduating class is in favor of President Obama speaking at their commencement. They are young and perhaps not as yet deeply committed to Catholic principles and values. But one wonders whether they would be so enthusiastic if their commencement speaker were anti-homosexual or even anti-Muslim. One further wonders exactly what values were emphasized and taught during their matriculation at Notre Dame.
It is clear that on the issue of abortion, Notre Dame’s administration has a problem with the Catholic viewpoint. Whether it stems from their seemingly innate feeling of inferiority that Notre Dame cannot be Catholic and a University at the same time or from some other source is not quite evident. However, the administration’s failure to take a stand in this instance regarding a staunchly pro abortion, anti life politician is more than an embarrassment especially in view of the fact that Arizona State University, which is also having President Obama as its commencement speaker, refused, for secular reasons, to grant him an honorary degree.