Notre Dame Loses $8.2 Million in Withheld Donations over Obama Scandal

LifeSiteNews.com -- Your Life, Family, and Culture Outpost ^ | April 27, 2009

[topher]

Monday April 27, 2009

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Notre Dame Loses $8.2 Million in Withheld Donations over Obama Scandal

DEARBORN, MI, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the same day that former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon announced that she has decided to refuse Notre Dame's Laetare Medal due to the university's invitation of Obama to receive an honorary degree at this year's commencement ceremony, a group protesting the decision has announced that the university has also lost millions in donations because of the scandal. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042702.html)

Organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, an online effort urging alumni and donors to the University of Notre Dame to withhold donations, announced Monday that they have personally confirmed over $8.2 million in withheld donations. The URL of the website - ReplaceJenkins.com - is a reference to the main demand of the group - that Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins, who has firmly stood by the university's decision to honor Obama, be replaced with someone who will uphold the Catholic identity of the university.

The website has received over 900 pledges from alumni and donors promising to withhold future donations.  Several of the largest gifts include estate bequests to the University that have been removed from donors' wills. 

ReplaceJenkins.com organizers say they have personally confirmed a majority of the largest donations, and are continuing to verify the validity of millions of additional gifts.

ReplaceJenkins.com spokesperson David DiFranco (Class of '95) said: "We knew many donors and alums were unhappy with the decision to honor a pro-abortion president, but we never expected this large of a response.  We can hardly keep up, and this is only the beginning.  We can only imagine what fundraisers at the University are experiencing, but understandably not reporting."

DiFranco said that ReplaceJenkins.com has dismissed a number of submissions of withheld donations that were obviously false. He also said that the current figure of $8.2 million does not include a number of other large pledges that they are in the process of confirming.

"We are speaking directly with donors, and in several cases we have spoken with estate attorneys to confirm that Notre Dame has been stripped from a donor's will," he said. "We are going about this process with a critical eye in order that that the numbers we report are accurate.  For that reason, the $8.2 million we are reporting today is actually very conservative."

Alumni and financial supporters of the University of Notre Dame launched the online effort just over one week ago in an effort to withhold donations from Notre Dame, until Rev. John Jenkins, CSC is replaced.

"As momentum continues to build, we are now certain that the financial penalty resulting from the decision to honor the most pro-abortion president in our nation's history, will be enormous," said DiFranco. 

"The fact that this effort is necessary is unfortunate. However, alumni and supporters of Notre Dame have little other recourse than to protest with their pocketbooks.  We will continue our efforts as long as it is necessary to bring about positive change at Notre Dame that will honor 'Our Lady's' University."

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042704.html

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[April Lexington]

Gandhi would be proud!

[April Lexington]

Maybe the pope should send an exorcist in to chat with Fr. Jenkins?

[traderrob6]

I know I am.

[traderrob6]

Also this...

http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/04/take-this-medal-and-shove-it.html

[ignorancerunsrampant]

Those football players do not deserve to be paid. They have cost the school 10.2 million in dinations.

[hinckley buzzard]

Unfortunately, that will probably mean that a lot of students who would have attended ND will go elsewhere

I don't know why you say "unfortunately." They don't know anything at Notre Dame that you can't learn somewhere else, and by choosing intelligently you can at least stand a chance of getting a Christian or christian-compatible education.

[DoughtyOne]

I guess some folks don’t want to support lapsed institutions.

[Osage Orange]

The Golden Dome...ceased being a Christian entity...many, many years ago.......

Which I'm sure you know.......

[numberonepal]

Exactly as I predicted. Yes it was easy, but I was still right.

[Aria]

I sent the President of ND a really negative letter telling him that Obama has just proven how cheap his values are. I told him that instead of feeling honored by BO choosing to speak there he should be ashamed that he accepted since Obama is thumbing his nose at the institution he (the ND President) had devoted his life’s work to.

Miss California has more courage than the ND President.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Ooh. That’s gonna’ leave a mark.

[SamuraiScot]

Fr. Jenkins has announced that the Laetare medal will be given to someone else "as soon as possible."

I am looking forward to seeing the list of those who are offered this year's second-hand award and refuse it. If anyone accepts it, he will be looked upon by serious Catholics as an apprentice of Judas Iscariot, and by careerists as a grasping second-rater. ND will be seen as a jilted lady whose desperate pride spurs her to rush into the arms of the next suitor.

As president, Fr. Jenkins is the college's salesman-in-chief. In this economy, the problem it poses for him to come up $8 million or more short because of this lapse of judgment and leadership cannot be overestimated. It's going to be a long Board meeting. For appearances' sake, they may not can him at this meeting, but can him they will.

My guess is that the search for a new Pres. will officially (quietly) get underway after graduation, and that Fr. Jenkins will resign "to pursue other opportunities" within 18 months.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Miss California has more courage than the ND President.

That would work for a tagline.

[mc5cents]

Thank you for that link. Mary Ann Glendon gave a wonderful response to the President of Norte Dame. Well reasoned and intelligent. That should really give pause to Fr. Jenkins, but I doubt it well.

[Bernard Marx]

For a university with a $9 billion endowment, $8.2 million is almost unnoticeable. Try harder, Alums!

[topher]

Part of this is stupidity on the part of Father Jenkins...

One of the justifications for inviting Obama was because was the first African American president...

Prejudice based on the color of a person's skin...

Now if Adolf Hitler had been black, then we could honor him -- by the same logic...

[topher]

From the RejectJenkins.com press release:

“The process of verifying the largest donors has been carefully conducted,” DiFranco explained. “We dismissed the obvious bogus submissions, and are not counting a huge number of larger donations that we are still in the process of verifying. We are speaking directly with donors, and in several cases we have spoken with estate attorneys to confirm that Notre Dame has been stripped from a donor’s will. We are going about this process with a critical eye in order that that the numbers we report are accurate. For that reason, the $8.2 million we are reporting today is actually very conservative.”

[SeaDragon]

Yeah, I saw that.

Idiots.

[diamond6]

Money ALWAYS talks.

[diamond6]

Outright blasphemy and disgusting.