Posted on 05/21/2009 12:06:38 PM PDT by wagglebee
KANSAS CITY, Missouri, May 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although the University of Notre Dame has defended its invitation of President Obama for the sake of dialogue on abortion, Obama's own remark Sunday that the opposing views were "irreconcilable" brought dialogue to a "screeching halt," said Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO.
"I think the message of the day was this - that the President of Notre Dame said that they had invited the President of the United States and decided to honor him for the sake of dialogue," said Bishop Finn in an interview with the diocesan newspaper the Catholic Key earlier this week.
"The President got up and said that the differences that we have on abortion - namely the Catholic Church's staunch opposition to abortion and his staunch support of abortion were 'irreconcilable,'" he continued. "And at that moment, it would seem to me that the dialogue came to a screeching halt.
"Father Jenkins' expressed desire for dialogue, whether it was well-founded or justified, at that point got thrown back in his face. The President shut the door on dialogue by saying that there was not going to be any change in his position on abortion and he understood that there was not going to be any change in the Church's position on abortion.
"I am glad that Mr. Obama was so clear."
Asked whether the Church could join with the Obama administration "in common effort," Finn replied that while the two share many goals, "We're fighting for our lives - literally. We are attempting to protect real unborn children by the thousands. We're fighting for the right to exercise a rightly-formed conscientious difference with public policy."
Bishop Finn warned against "taking a 'wait and see' approach" to advancing the pro-life and pro-family cause. "I think the rug is already being pulled out from under us," he said. "If we sit back and allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of peace and cooperation in regards to these things, then we will lose these battles and, later, wonder why."
The bishop also defended the outcry of over 80 fellow U.S. bishops who have condemned the invitation of Obama to speak and receive an honorary law degree at Notre Dame. University president Fr. John Jenkins condemned "demonizing" the opposition, while President Obama counseled Notre Dame graduates not to reduce opposing views on the life issues to "caricature."
"Is that what these bishops have done with regard to the President's actions on life?" said Finn.
"The bishops realize the very destructive decisions that President Obama promised to make concerning the life issues, and now has been making in connection with abortion and human embryonic stem cell research. This is serious business; it is about life and death.
"If in speaking out on these things, we are characterized as being angry or condemnatory - then so be it. Such actions are worthy of condemnation."
Finn also said he feared the President's advocacy of "reducing unintended pregnancies" would mean doing so "through the promotion of Planned Parenthood and contraceptive services.
"The President has supported the Prevention First Act bill that's going forward," said Finn. "This is not about abstinence education. This is about promoting contraception and giving Planned Parenthood a huge blank check. If Catholics don't see a problem with this then I don't think they understand the threat it represents to the meaning of marriage, to fidelity, to chastity, to the very sanctity of human life and intimate love."
(To see Bishop Finn's full interview: http://catholickey.blogspot.com/2009/05/bishop-finn-interviewed-on-notre-dame.ht...)
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Bishops Chaput, Finn Slam Fr. Jenkins Speech at ND Commencement: "Intellectual Vanity"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09051905.html
Bishop Finn is EXACTLY RIGHT!
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Glad to see that more and more folks are eschewing the idea that there can be a neutral position in the cosmic battle.
You’re fighting for God, or against Him.
This is your bishop right?
“If in speaking out on these things, we are characterized as being angry or condemnatory - then so be it. Such actions are worthy of condemnation.”
THAT IS WHAT I WANT TO HEAR MORE OF!
SO BE IT!
Amen would be redundant, right?
You can no more compromise with abortionists than you can with any other mass murderer. Abortion is the American Holocaust. Our national shame.
But, as it stands now the GOP is slam full of Neville Chamerlains who are all to happy to help Zero take us straight into the gates of hell.
Obama: Hey you’re pro-life, I’m pro infanticide— let’s find common ground.
You can no more compromise with abortionists than you can with any other mass murderer. Abortion is the American Holocaust. Our national shame.
—
The Left’s Badge of Honor...and a cottage industry for the ‘Planned Parenthood’ crew.
Nigh 50 million souls cry out for justice and life while the complicit media and lawmakers&legislators stick their fingers so far in their ears, the tips touch.
God Bless Bishop Finn!
Actually, from the enthusiasm and near hysteria of Jenkins' praises of Obama, it sounded like he invited him because he is an ardent and hysterical Obama supporter and Obamamaniac.
ABSOLUTLY. I mentioned in another thread that I thought Jenkins broke his vow of celibacy right there on stage.
It also sounded like he invited Obama because he is an ardent and hysterical supporter of Abortion. But that's just me.
Should be: Absolutely! (spell check doesn't work when shouting)
Revelation of the week, right here. This observation applies to all issues with these people, all the time. Obama is an inexperienced and naive figurehead, so it isn't difficult to determine this administration's intentions when he and the doofus Biden so readily spill their guts, so confident that they are saying exactly the right thing.
It's another ironic proof that Notre Dame assisted President Obama in a strategy of skilled equivocation: saying one thing and doing another.
In his Notre Dame speech, Obama endorsed "sensible conscience clauses"--- yet his HHS has abandoned their enforcement of the conscience clauses already passed by Congress (the Church Amendments, Coats Amendment, and the Hyde/Weldon Amendment). Isn't it "sensible" to enforce the conscience measures our elected representatives have approved over the past 35 years? What's wrong here?
In his Notre Dame speech, Obama said we must respect others' convictions, whether they are for or against abortion: yet he will compel pro-life citizens to become accomplices to abortion, by requiring us to finance, through our tax dollars, the very thing we find morally intolerable.
We respect Obama, and he expands programs to do deliberate harm to our youngest family members. He respects us, and he makes us pay for it. What's wrong here?
Again in his Notre Dame speech, Obama said opponents of embryonic stem cell research may be upholding the sacredness of life, "but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships can be relieved."
He didn't mention that is is adult stem cells which, in laboratory trials involving animals, have shown repeated success at reversing diabetes, and have even produced functioning, insulin-producing islet cells in humans, while embryonic stem cells have shown no such success.
Odd omission, that.
At Notre Dame, Obama used one of the world's most prestigious Catholic podiums to beam and nod and broadcast his factually deficient arguments, and nobody had an equivalent opportunity to supply the missing information. This is "dialog"? This is "engagement with challenging ideas"?
What's wrong here? What's wrong is the deft deflection of criticism without the honest back-and-forth of dialog, robust rebuttal, or exposure to countervailing facts.
Obama succeeded in presenting an amiable visual image, quite empty of argument. And that's just the way he wants it.
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