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Posted on 04/08/2009 6:56:09 AM PDT by presidio9
As Easter approaches, in addition to looking upward, Catholics would be wise to look inward this year, and ask themselves one very important question: Who are we?
Many Catholics are angry that the University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic institution with a 90% Christian enrollment and a crucifix in every classroom, has asked President Obama to speak at its coming commencement.
Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, called the invitation an "extreme embarrassment" to Catholics, who consider right-to-life issues among the most fundamental to their faith. Archbishops in Milwaukee and Newark made similar statements. And pro-life students at Notre Dame have formed an opposition group called ND Response, which is leading the charge against Obama's arrival and promises action when and if Obama cometh.
Their collective outrage is understandable. Obama is one of the most liberal pro-choice Democrats on record, and someone whose abortion position is, even by some liberal accounts, extreme. From supporting partial-birth abortion, to opposing born-alive protection for infants, to his suggestion that doctors could be forced to perform abortions even if it is against their religious convictions, the President's views have left many - including non-Catholics - uncomfortable and wary that he will actively attack the pro-life cause.
But the university, an influential Catholic mouthpiece here in the United States, is standing behind its invitation, and its president, the Rev. John Jenkins, has said he cannot foresee any reason to rescind it. Furthermore, it seems as though Notre Dame students, not including those who have joined up with ND Response, are overwhelmingly in favor of Obama's participation in their graduation. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, student letters to the school's newspaper are 70 to 30 in favor of the President's visit.
If it looks like there's an identity crisis within the Catholic contingent, there is - but the divisive episode at Notre Dame was hardly the catalyst. This is a continuation of problems Catholics faced during this presidential campaign and campaigns past, and it's hurting their message and their influence.
Before Obama was elected, the Rev. Jay Scott Newman, a pastor in South Carolina, warned his congregation not to vote "for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists." Newman was immediately rebuked by his own diocese for "politicizing abortion," hardly an apolitical issue and one that Catholics have in fact rightly politicized for years.
While the Catholic leadership around the world condemned candidate Obama for his abortion views, Catholic individuals proudly proclaimed they were backing Barack, either choosing to overlook his views on abortion, or believing his so-called progressive vision of hope was indeed a more convincingly Christian outlook than John McCain's.
Either way, Catholics can now consider themselves wholly responsible for helping to put Barack Obama in office. He captured 53% of the Catholic vote, and the largest advantage among Catholics for a Democrat since Bill Clinton. So the outrage now over a Catholic embrace of the President by a Catholic university, while understandable, seems a bit delayed. If right-to-life issues are truly the backbone of modern Catholic liturgy, and Catholics are in agreement that abortion is a deal-breaker, the election should have been a no-brainer for McCain.
But there is a disconnect among Catholic leaders. While much of the clergy opposes Obama - Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore just days after he was elected to implore the new President to fight for the unborn child - institutional leaders like Notre Dame's president seem more open to his role as influencer.
Even more alarming for Catholics, though, should be the gap between leadership and laity. A number of lay professors at Notre Dame, which is 80% Catholic, have spoken up in support of the President's arrival. Alumni support of his visit is said to be more mixed than student support, but hardly hostile.
John Daly, the media coordinator for ND Response, explained the divide. "Notre Dame's campus is more conservative than most colleges," Daly said, "but students here were definitely impressed by Obama last November. He was a rock star. Even if they didn't agree with his principles they were more than willing to overlook them because of his charisma." If that's true, Catholics voters of any age who turned a blind eye to Obama's abortion positions got the President they deserve - big on style, questionable on substance.
Catholics have always played an uneasy role in presidential politics. Candidate John F. Kennedy was questioned for being too Catholic and had to publicly back away from any perceived allegiance to the Pope. More than 40 years later, John Kerry wasn't Catholic enough, and so we watched him awkwardly cozy up to Catholic voters by publicly attending Mass. And last year, 53% of them seemingly put one of the most important tenets of their belief system on hold and anointed a pro-choice President. If Notre Dame is having a hard time explaining its invitation to Obama, Catholics will have an even harder time explaining their vote in 2008.
That’s in the theology, I understand, though they don’t make a big deal of it in their effort to look more like main line Christians. Many Mormons may not even know about that part of the theology.
ND certainly is (to their shame), I'd like to know how the Church is doing so as well. Can you explain?
I believe she is NOT.
(Roll eyes)
It certainly looks to the Average Joe like this honor is coming from the Roman Catholic church, through the university. Average Joe doesn’t know the fine points of Roman Catholic theology. All he sees is a dumbing down of what Jesus Christ supposedly stands for.
What I get back is usually "Catholic Basher", or a whole list of a few bishops that have written an op ed piece in the local paper condemning the said baby killers. The church doesn't have to endorse a political party to take action against open sin in their own midst. These "people" are doing open harm to the church and it's OK as long as they tithe and pose for pictures with the "right" people.
The "schism" is right here, and everywhere else, on what to do about open rebellion in the church. Now someone will admonish me and say they aren't "really" Catholics. The "real" Catholics vote pro life, blah blah blah. Well they sit right next to you in a pew and take the same rites and call themselves Catholic, and for the time being, they seem to be "moderate" and you are labeled a fanatic fundamentalist.
If the church doesn't start to draw a BRIGHT, CLEAR, line, and back it up with open discipline, there will be NO change. Catholics could stop abortion, stop gay marriage, and basically save America's culture, if they would just stand up and defend the faith. But if the church's GOVERNMENT won't stand up to open rebellion in it's ranks, we stay on the road to hell, and the church will suffer the same fate as the other churches with women pastors, gay pastors, abortion acceptance, etc.
Bostonians brag about their Irish Catholic heritage and then vote for heretics and baby killers and homosexual congressmen. How can that be? There is NO price to pay. In the south, we have "blue dog" Dems that have to bend to the locals to stay elected. No such "bending" up north.
Just try to imagine the bruhaha if Kennedy was required to repent by the church for his votes with him so close to death. When he finally dies, the priests, Bishops, and even Cardinals will all fawn over his putrid life as if he was some sort of heroic Catholic when in fact, he has millions of dead baby's blood on his hand, not to mention Mary Jo Kopechne. How has he voted on gay marriage? Has he divorced? How is he Catholic other than giving millions to the church? When he dies, I won't be able to watch the church fawn over him. I will vomit.
As is Biden!
The Catholic University today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.They kept the veneer of Catholicism to keep the kids coming but spit in the face of those who sacrificed to create and grow these institutions.
“I believe she is NOT.”
####
Excellent news.
I will assume the Holy Father’s private admonition is responsible.
You may disagree, but I feel this should be public news. Very public.
Lord knows, the Church receives enough bad publicity. It is essential in these times, that a living example of the Church successfully enforcing Her doctrine he heard by all Catholics.
I don’t know why this is “news”.
Of course - being from the Rochester, NY diocese I’ve been watching this liberal catholic vs. orthodox catholic tension going on for some time now.
You’ve got the catholics who actually believe church teaching and consider abortiont to be the primary social issue.
You’ve got your “social justice” catholics who focus on the poor, the death penalty, and seem strangley unconcerned with abortion. They will get upset about Walmart coming to town. These are Barak voters.
And then there are CINO’s, the Christmas/Easter crowd, and the non-practicing group who call themselves catholic, but don’t care too much about the teaching....
It’s really not that hard to understand.
Excellent post and spot on.
I’m sorry to hear about the “Catholic Basher” part. It sounds to me that you are actually a staunch defender of the Faith.
I got slammed here for critiqueing the Holy Father’s handling of Pelosi. I felt it was much too subtle to send the essential message that needs to be heard by all Catholics, not just the devout here who know what is going on.
Your characterization is correct. To blow through the inaccurate, passing LeftMedia coverage of this event (including out of date video of a smiling Holy Father greeting Pelosi), the Holy Father’s action should have been “very public and very harsh”.
Easy to explain.
Lots of jack-Catholic laypeople led by too many jack-Catholic priests and bishops.
No surprise here.
No identity crisis here. No child of mine will ever attend Notre Dame. I value their souls too much.
By her local parish, do you mean in the archdiocese of Washington, or San Francisco? I hear that she has ceased receiving communion, but I can’t be more specific.
Good question.
Maybe Ann Archy who responded to my original query knows the answer.
I believe it’;s San francisco.
You answered your own question to me in an earlier post.
Someone, if not the Vatican, needs to come out in a very public way and declare that ND University is no longer "Catholic" or the well planned political illusion will continue to deceive. This event will be perceived as validation by the Church for all that Obama and the far left stand for. Consequently, it will be used as a tool for the breakdown of faith for generations.
Do not confuse ND with the Church. The Church does nto control Notre Dame and has tried to flex what little influence it has over it to no avail.
Too many Catholics have had bad catechisis to understand what is going on in the voting booth and that is the problem.
Great list! But let's not forget the radical feminist Catholics who want women to be priests and want homosexual behavior to be accepted and gay marriage to be performed....
The best compromise. Georgetown University needs to be on that formerly-Catholic list, too.
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