Posted on 05/11/2009 1:23:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
By Hilary White
ROME, May 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Notre Dame University, with its invitation to President Barack Obama to give the commencement address on May 17, has hurt its reputation and Catholic identity, perhaps irrevocably, a prominent US Catholic scholar and author told LifeSiteNews.com in Rome on Friday. Robert Royal, a professor of history and president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., told LSN, "I don't think this is going to end well for anyone."
The university, that he described as having lived under a "sacred canopy" of its religious and academic identity, has made a critical error with the invitation. "I think that, in spite of the fact that the they'll manage the public relations of this deftly, it's going to hurt Notre Dame, and not just financially."
"This sort of thing doesn't do well," he said. "It doesn't contribute to the distinct identity that even Catholic universities now recognise they need to have."
Royal, an author, lecturer and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing online magazine, was in Rome last week as one side of a debate organized by the Italian publishers of his book, The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West. Arguing against a leading Italian secularist, Luciano Pellicani, Royal said that western history has shown that the so-called "triumph of reason" over religion has led to some of the bloodiest episodes of the last two centuries, from the Terror of the French Revolution, the Soviet Gulags, the Nazi Holocaust and, he said, "the slaughter of the innocents via abortion."
Royal described the invitation, and Notre Dame's persistent refusal to admit any mistake in the face of opposition from over 70 bishops, as a "watershed moment."
"It's a watershed for Catholicism in the US, if what is clearly the most visible Catholic university in the country can openly, openly, ignore the wishes of our bishops expressed as a body.
"As a body, the USCCB has asked Catholic universities not to honour people who represent values directly in contradiction to our own, primarily anti-life and family issues. I think this is going to speak ill of Notre Dame for a long time."
He told LSN that since 1968, there has been a "deliberate effort" among some Catholic universities to try to recover their unique Catholic religious identity. "But you can't recover it," he said, "by means that are as weak as the surrounding culture. You have to have something that's stronger than the surrounding culture."
Royal responded to the assertion by Fr. Hugh Cleary, the head of the Holy Cross fathers, the religious order to which the Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins belongs, that it is unthinkable to dis-invite the president of the United States. "Of course you can disinvite the president," he said. "It's an extreme measure. But this [invitation] was not a tactful move."
"It's historic [to have the president give the commencement,] but it is also historic that the past 100 days have been the most radical anti-life presidency ever. And it's imprudent for a place like Notre Dame to have discounted that."
"For those of us who believe in the 'Catholic thing' - which is to say a communion of persons united with Christ - it sins against 'communio' to do this. If it's not a sin, it's at least an offense against communio."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Exclusive Interview: Head of Holy Cross Order on Sanctions against Notre Dame Pres., "That's Rather Extreme"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040206.html
"As a body, the USCCB has asked Catholic universities not to honour people who represent values directly in contradiction to our own, primarily anti-life and family issues. I think this is going to speak ill of Notre Dame for a long time."
It certainly is.
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True. As an ex-Catholic, still respected ND.
No longer. They’ve sunk to Georgetown levels. (And that’s waaaaay down there....)
Dang Pro-Lifers, they’re all bigots. I mean really, they want to save the life of an innocent child. Let me guess, they probably care for the poor as well. The government will care for people with our money!! How dare we Christians take the credit for that! The nerve....
The government is our god.... SARC/
"It's a watershed for Catholicism in the US, if what is clearly the most visible Catholic university in the country can openly, openly, ignore the wishes of our bishops expressed as a body."
Or take down the cross and name of Jesus to make way for the One, as they did at Georgetown, bending over for secularism.
I suppose the next liberal president will be the most radical anti-life president just as Clinton was before Obama.
“As a body, the USCCB has asked Catholic universities not to honour people who represent values directly in contradiction to our own...”
I don’t know that they are honoring O by having him speak there. They are recognizing that he is the elected president of our country, perhaps the most important public figure in the world. It is part of the educational experience to become acquainted with the thinking of anyone in such a position, even though his philosophy is, in some areas at least, diametrically opposite of their own. These students and faculty live in a world full of people who embrace abortion. These are not children, and they have nothing to fear from listening to a speech.
I myself enjoyed listening to Marxists, SDS members, and assorted other loonies when I was attending college. I think it is all part of the educational experience.
They are giving him an honorary degree.
Moreover, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops policy is that Catholic institutions are to give "no platform or honors" to those who defy fundamental norms of morality. The President of the USCCB, the bishop of Ft. Wayne-South Bend (the diocese in which Notre Dame is the 500 lb. gorilla) and some 70 other bishops have made it very clear that they consider this an act of direct disobedience and defiance.
This leaves "Is Notre Dame a Catholic institution?" as the only remaining question.
Just wrote an opinion on ND’s site for the ND Magazine.
Extremely disappointed. What does it benefit a university to gain the world, and lose it’s soul?
Praying that the students go with Father Pavone’s alternate graduation, thus leacing Obortion Obama with an empty room and the telepromter. LOL at that picture, but the prayer is real.
Who could pass up an opportunity to see Fr. Pavone speak?
I agree that just because somebody speaks on campus doesn’t mean that you agree with them. I also learned a lot from the “loonies” in grad school. There weren’t any loonies at my undergrad institution, University of San Diego, which, oddly enough, had a situation similar to Notre Dame’s. USD was pretty small then. It is Catholic, chartered by its local diocese. In the early 80’s its ambition was to become the Notre Dame of the West.
The year before I graduated, Reagan’s Secretary of Education, Terrell Bell, spoke at graduation. He gave the ultimate graduation speech— short, well-organized, entertaining, and all about congratulating and inspiring the graduates. I wanted my graduation to go that well, so I got on the organizing committee the following year. Then, in my naivete, I messed it up. When we needed a speaker, I suggested our newly elected Senator, Pete Wilson. I just figured he would be likely to accept since he was local, unlike some very pie-in-the-sky name suggestions that were floating around. He came, opened with an old tacky sex joke, right in front of the bishop, and went on to give a speech about weapons systems. He couldn’t have cared less about the graduates in front of him.
Nobody at that time gave any thought as to whether Sen. Wilson was pro-life, or whether his views on anything were against church teaching. Where was the Church then?
It amazes me that now, decades later, people are actually giving some thought as to what the speaker will say, and how it reflects back on the character of the institution that invited him. I think, given past nonchalance in this regard, Notre Dame is probably shocked that such a fuss is occurring.
While I think certainly Presidents should be able to speak on Catholic campuses, I would be really happy if graduation ceremonies were not political venues, but were simply one last chance to congratulate the graduates, remember the good times, and instill a sense of purpose and meaning in life as the graduates go forward. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a religious school to provide that. Cal State Bakersfield’s fall commencemnt ceremony a couple of years ago had a really good speaker from their own faculty a couple of years ago, who spoke on gratitude toward parents, and a guest speaker who spoke on continuing to learn throughout life in the workplace. I think my nephew was perhaps lucky to have gone to a school like CSB that was humble enough not to lose sight of its educational purpose.
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