They're hoping to entice new donors to make up the loss...
Posted on 05/13/2009 1:09:29 PM PDT by wagglebee
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- Notre Dame alumni who are upset with the university's decision to allow pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give this coming weekend's commencement speech and to give him an honorary degree continue to withhold their donations to the Catholic college.
In total, pro-life alumni and donors who feel disenfranchised by Notre Dame's decision have decided to withhold nearly $14 million in gifts they normally would have given.
David DiFranco, a Michigan businessman and 1995 Notre Dame graduate, told LifeNews.com on Wednesday that the ReplaceJenkins.com web site for disgruntled alumni has received over 1,400 pledges to withhold donations within a month since its launch.
“Most of the donors were at least loosely aware of the University’s trend away from its Catholic identity," DiFranco explained.
"But the invitation of President Obama to speak and to receive an honorary degree, combined with the weak responses presented by Father Jenkins as a defense to those who have criticized the decision, is what drives most alumni to our site," DiFranco added.
“Unwittingly, Father Jenkins has brought national attention to a problem that is decades in the making,” DiFranco told LifeNews.com.
“A shrinking percentage of Catholic faculty and the efforts of secular-minded board members has long been eroding the Catholic heritage and foundation that makes Notre Dame great. President Obama’s invitation represents the culminating scandal in this trend," he said.
News of the donation withholdings comes after the announcement that some pro-life Notre Dame students will be boycotting the graduation ceremony.
Instead, they will attend an alternate rally featuring Father Frank Pavone.
Alumni and financial supporters of the University of Notre Dame launched the online effort in an effort to withhold donations from Notre Dame, until its president, Rev. John Jenkins, is replaced.
The coalition web site urges supporters to withhold all contributions to the Notre Dame General Fund until President Jenkins is replaced with someone who is committed to the authentic identity of Notre Dame, grounded in the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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Good on the ND Alumn’s. I wish other alumni organizations would take note and try to deal with the PC cancer in academia.
10/24/09 Fr. Jenkins.
They're hoping to entice new donors to make up the loss...
I applaud them for taking a stand.
That’s okay, 0 can slip a few mil under the table.
Wow, it’s almost doubled since I heard of this.
What’s a shame is that it has to come down to money to force them to do the right thing.
A few years ago money would never have been an issue, so sad that it has to boil down to darn near blackmail for the administrators to do what was entrusted of them.
It depends how much of the total this will amount to, if it will be a sustained effort or just a one time event and if any pro-infanticide lefties step in and make up any shortfall in funding. Also, the trustees are probably counting on the fact that most people have short attention spans.
is now up in two locations on Interstate 80/90 at the exits leading into South Bend, and will remain up for a month! To give the organizers some attaboys, off them your prayers and your support, and to get the latest protest information of May 16-17 At Notre Dame, visit NotreDameProtest.com .
This was my response in the East Tennessee Catholic:
Dear Editor,
Joe Corso’s comment on the Obama/Notre Dame situation oddly misstated the controversy.
The problem wasn’t about students being exposed to diverse points of view. If a Catholic university encourages robust discussion in a debate, a symposium, or even a presentation followed by an open mike for questions and answers, I can guarantee that a rousing good intellectual challenge would be appreciated by all.
But the problem centered, ironically, in Notre Dame’s decision to award its highest accolade, an Honorary Doctorate in Law, without intellectual challenge, without debate, to a man who is an effective promoter of what the Second Vatican Council called “unspeakable crimes.”
Imagine that Notre Dame had chosen to roll out the red carpet for a politician who secured public funding for the beheading and dismemberment of a very moderate number of Political Science professors ~ on an annual basis. And imagine, if you can, that some people objected. Would Corso discredit the objectors by saying they were merely taking refuge behind “unexamined dogmas and absolute orthodoxies”?
I doubt it.
Hey, I doubt that Notre Dame would have considered giving a platform to a powerful public figure who effectively undercut the sanctity of college football.
Finally, cheers to the students who "thought critically" and "questioned authority" by opposing the Obama Honorary Doctorate. They learned at least one value in their university education: the value of speaking truth to power.
[signed]
Money is a reason why they haven’t join a football conference yet.
They seem to be transitioning from Notre Dame to Notre Damned.
14 million is no drop in the bucket. These idiots are so inclined to be politically correct that they will take this huge hit, just to have Bambi speak. Dispicable.
Good. I hope a good portion of the graduates stay away from the event too.
They are:
Any guesses on how many will actually take the alternative.
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