Bishop John D'Arcy
Posted on 03/24/2009 11:28:08 AM PDT by NYer
.- Bishop John M. D'Arcy has issued a statement saying that he won't be attending Notre Dame's commencement exercises, which will feature President Obama as the keynote speaker and honor him with a doctor of laws degree.
The full statement of Bishop D'Arcy follows.
Concerning President Barack Obama speaking at Notre Dame
graduation, receiving honorary law degree
March 24, 2009 On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.
President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.
This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith “in season and out of season,” and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions.
My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.
I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.
I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.
Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.
Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.
The bishop has a couple or so additional powers by which he can put pressure on the university.
First, the president of the university is a priest. He has faculties only with the permission of the ordinary of the local diocese. As do all the other priests at Notre Dame. Without faculties, they cannot licitly offer Mass, nor VALIDLY hear confessions and give absolution, nor VALIDLY marry persons.
As well, Mass cannot be offered publicly at Notre Dame without permission of the local ordinary.
Then there is the capacity to put part or all of the university community under interdict, including part or all of any boards of trustees, faculty senates, etc.
I suspect that this bishop doesn't have the guts to use any of these tools that are at his disposal, but the fact is, the bishop has more of them than just declaring the university to be no longer Catholic.
sitetest
Gawd, I would have slapped his smarmy face today on FOX,if I were Martha McCallum.
Father Jonathan gave some good tough rebuttal, though.
Did you see that?
I almost threw up a little in my mouth.
Why does FOX even give him the time of day?
Sounds fine with me.
Much food for thought there, AND food for action.
Personally I wish the BVM would use her own considerable powers and send a natural disaster that would level the University!
(With no loss of life.)
How beautiful he closes with a reminder of The Annunciation.
"Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth. "
There a couple possibilities on ND's president inviting Obama. Assuming a head injury or stroke has not caused brain damage. Either he is a closet case or President Jenkins is so caught up in Obamamania, so mesmerized by the fake messiah, that it has clouded his judgment and impaired his reason and moral faculties.
Obamma lamma ding dong is a taxer to the max.
If the Catholic Church denies the chosen magic negro he may turn around and decide the Church needs to be taxed to death also like he’s trying to do the every other aspect of life in America.
“Does ND come under any Diocese?” you asked.
The university as a whole does not, as I explained in several comments.
The religious services on campus do come under the bishop more directly, but even there, the chain of command begins with the Holy Cross priests who are in charge of campus liturgy. If they are doing things that are wrong sacramentally or liturgically, the bishop can tell them to stop and mean it.
Catechesis and preaching and that sort of religious teaching on campus ultimately does come under the purview of the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. If in their RCIA program (catechesis for new Catholics) they are teaching falsely, he can directly discipline them. But if the theology department faculty are teaching unCatholicly, he cannot fire them—the university would have to (if it actually such a provision in its due process rules, which it probably does not). Those who have a mandate from him could be called in for a tete-a-tete but jawboning is his major weapon for faculty. If they are teaching theological error, he can point that out, publicly denounce them (as the American bishops did collectively with McBrien a few years back), but he can’t fire the heretic. And even the public pointing out of theological error by the bishop has to take place in a complex due process spelled out in a document the American bishops promulgated decades ago. Firing a professor belongs solely to the university departments, adminstrators, board.
Some Catholic universities are diocesan universities (U. of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., for instance.) Those universities are more directly under a bishop’s control, but even there, due process rules and by-laws apply. Even a diocesan university has its own president, board etc. who are delegated the authority to run the university on a day-to-day basis. But yes, in a diocesan university, the bishop has ultimate authority.
Seminaries come directly under a bishop’s authority (if diocesan) or indirectly (if run by religious orders).
But very few Catholic universities are diocesan and very few, today, are even under the authority of religious orders. (Bishops have indirect control over religious orders in their dioceses.)
So, the short answer is NO, Notre Dame does not come under the authority of a diocese, not even indirectly. The bishop has moral suasion to use on Catholics who run it—he can jawbone them. And his last weapon, his nuclear option, is that he has the direct authority to forbid them to call themselves a Catholic university.
But as I wrote elsewhere, if he did that to Notre Dame, Notre Dame would portray themselves as the Great Defenders of Academic Freedom against the Sadly Misguided but Well-Meaning Old Fuddy Duddy Bishop and go on calling themselves “historically Catholic.”
And there’s the key. For MOST people today, a “historically Catholic” university is just fine and dandy, thank you. To me it says “once was but no longer is” Catholic. But to most people it says, “isn’t that sweet, this is a charming historically Catholic school with lovely neo-Gothic buildings and that’s about as much Catholic crap as I really care to have on my college education sandwich anyway, so, I’ll just cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame, with emphasis on the Old”
and life is just peaches and cream.
Father Jonathan gave some good tough rebuttal, though.
They were all arguing in the flesh against the Evil One in Phil. They should have rebuked the Evil One with the Holy Word of G-d. They all missed the opportunity.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
NAU Exodus 20:13 "You shall not murder.
You can not rebuke the Evil One in your own flesh;
NAU Deuteronomy 5:17 'You shall not murder.
NAU Matthew 5:21 "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER ' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'
NAU Matthew 19:18 Then he said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS;
NAU Mark 10:19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"
NAU Luke 18:20 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"
NAU Romans 13:9 For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
NAU James 2:11 For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
You can only rebuke the Evil One with the Word of G-d
I love you Xenia, and the way you tell it!
Yes, he has these powers. But given that Ex corde ecclesia EXPLICITLY grants autonomy to Catholic universities as far as the management of their “university-ness” is concerned, for the bishop to revoke the priestly faculties of Holy Cross priests as a penalty for the university’s decision about an honorary doctorate would, in canon law, I think, be rather dubious. I’m no canon lawyer, but it strikes me as dubious.
In the old days (Middle Ages), where the entire population were baptized Catholics, the interdict could be used this way. But universities sought and achieved autonomy,a certain kind of arms-length relationship with the local bishop already in the 1200s, almost as soon as they were founded.
Indeed, technically speaking, what created the universities in the first place was the masters guild (or student guild, at Bologna) claiming a degree of autonomy from the bishop’s chancellor. Prior to that, as cathedral schools, they were directly under the bishop’s chancellor’s authority. But the masters (professors) organized precisely put an arms-length between them and the chancellor and that’s what birthed the university. So when Ex corde ecclesiae says “autonomy,” it’s not making it up out of whole cloth. It’s an ancient prerogative of the universities, back when the culture was still wholly Catholic.
Thanks for your reply. I read your other comments but could not discern the answer to my question.
Not in this world ;-)
“I suspect that this bishop doesn’t have the guts to use any of these tools that are at his disposal, but the fact is, the bishop has more of them than just declaring the university to be no longer Catholic.”
Have you been following Bishop D’Arcy for the past five years? He’s been far more outspoken against Notre Dame than most bishops are. If you made this assumption without checking out his history, then you are in the wrong—we are not supposed to engage in rash judgment.
Bishop D’Arcy read the riot act to Jenkins over the Vagina Monologues. Now this statement. Like Martino in Scranton, he’s PUBLICLY admonishing the school. (That’s a clear step beyond private jawboning, which is what Cardinal George has so far done in Chicago. He has his reasons for that and I will not second-guess him. It has already had some effect on DePaul.)
But sooner or later, after a bishop (or a parent) draws a line in the sand, he has to be willing to lower the boom when the recalcitrant crosses the line. It’s not for you or me to decide when that line has been crossed or to prejudge the bishop’s guts.
But instead of dumping on the bishop because he hasn’t called down fire from heavn on Notre Dame, we should thank him for publicly chastising the school, pray our hearts out for him, and then let time tell as to how well he deals with the university’s response. As I pointed out in other comments, he only has one real weapon in his arsenal—the nuclear option. Before he uses it, it, simply tactically, has to prepare the battlefield by public readings of the riot act. Since he will bear the brunt of the firestorm that follows the nuclear option, let him be the one to decide when to give the order to fire. We ought not be REMF’s undermining him from safety.
Instead, aim your ire at the board of trustees, the donors etc. Find out who they are and let them have both barrels.
The bloom is off the rose for this Notre Dame senior.
In my four years here, I have been less than thrilled by certain events on campus -Â the football team going 0-5 in 2007, the seemingly endless need to water the sidewalks or the lack of $5 footlongs at Subway - but I have never been moved enough to write a Viewpoint Letter to the Editor. However, the announcement of President Barack Obama as the Commencement speaker and recipient of an honorary degree shocked me.
When I first heard that President Obama was to speak, I double-checked the online news source I was reading to make sure that I was not accidentally reading "The Onion." While I would support President Obama if he were to speak at Notre Dame under the practice of academic freedom, I find that he is deserving of neither the honor of speaking at Notre Dame's Commencement nor does he deserve to receive an honorary degree from the University. To bestow these honors on a man who is consistently against the beliefs of the Catholic Church and the University is an utter disgrace to Notre Dame. In my four years here, the real disappointment is not that we went 0-4 against USC, marked two decades since our last National Championship or never got a snow day. Rather, it is that Notre Dame and the administration succumbed to the celebrification of a man who consistently supports many of the beliefs that the Church vehemently opposes and is actually honoring him at this year's Commencement.
Not only has Notre Dame lost my respect, but they have also lost my intent to contribute to the University anytime in the near future. I have worked in the Notre Dame Phone Center for nearly eight semesters. In that time, I have spoken with hundreds of alumni and have solicited nearly $90,000 in alumni contributions because I believed in the value of a Notre Dame education. Many of you may have seen the green Hollaback T-shirts promoting the recent Thanksgiving in February hosted by the Annual Fund. This was held to thank alumni for their financial support of Notre Dame as well as to raise awareness among students that tuition only covers the cost of an education at Notre Dame through February, with the remaining months funded by contributions, in hopes that students would keep Notre Dame in mind when considering charitable donations after graduation. Until now, I have had every intent to contribute to Notre Dame after I graduate in whatever capacity I could afford because every dollar does make a difference. However, unless the administration acts to prove otherwise, I now believe that my contributions will be better spent at other charitable institutions.
Seniors, in a few weeks, you will start receiving phone calls from the Phone Center asking you to contribute to the Annual Fund or to the Senior Class Gift. I strongly encourage you to consider how the dollars you pledge will be spent. If you do decide to donate money to Notre Dame, be aware that you can restrict your contribution to a group, residence hall or activity that you feel will make the best use of your dollars. After all, each dollar you donate could have been spent on four quarter dogs.
Kelly Kapshandy
senior
Howard
March 23
Martino is my Bishop.
He is a real man; and a model for all the other Bishops to emulate.
Excellent! Very well-stated.
Here's a question: How does a Catholic priest say Mass at the altar in Sacred Heart Chapel, in the very presence of Christ, receiving the Blessed Sacrament, one minute and then walk back to his office and sign a piece of paper approving the award of an honorary Doctorate of Laws and providing a forum at Notre Dame's commencement for the most pro-abortion president in American history, a pro-abortion maniac who signed an executive order to fund abortions worldwide? How is that possible? How could that person possibly be a Catholic priest or any kind of Catholic and do that? How could this be explained apart from diabolical disorientation?
diabolical disorientation
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