Posted on 05/17/2009 2:26:17 PM PDT by NYer
The complete transcript of the remarks and introduction given by Rev. John Jenkins, President of the University of Notre Dame.
"President Obama, Fr. Hesburgh, Judge Noonan, Members of the Board of Trustees, Members of the faculty, staff, alumni, friends, parents, and most of all – the Notre Dame Class of 2009:
Several autumns ago, you came to Notre Dame from home….now Notre Dame has become home. And it always will be. For home is not where you live. Home is where you belong. You will always belong – and I pray you will always feel you belong – here at Notre Dame.
You are … ND.
In my four years as President of your University – I have found that even among those who did not go to Notre Dame, even among those who do not share the Catholic faith, there is a special expectation, a special hope, for what Notre Dame can accomplish in the world. They hope that Notre Dame will be one of the great universities in the nation, but they also hope that it will send forth graduates who -- grounded in deep moral values -- can help solve the world’s toughest problems.
Their hope is in you, the graduates of 2009.
That is a good place for hope to be. I have great confidence in what your talent and energy can accomplish in the world. But I have a special optimism for what you can do inspired by faith.
It is your faith that will focus your talents and help you build the world you long to live in and leave to your children.
The world you enter today is torn by division – and is fixed on its differences.
Differences must be acknowledged, and in some cases cherished. But too often differences lead to pride in self and contempt for others, until two sides – taking opposing views of the same difference -- demonize each other. Whether the difference is political, religious, racial, or national -- trust falls, anger rises, and cooperation ends … even for the sake of causes all sides care about.
More than any problem in the arts or sciences - engineering or medicine – easing the hateful divisions between human beings is the supreme challenge of this age. If we can solve this problem, we have a chance to come together and solve all the others.
A Catholic university – and its graduates – are specially called, and I believe specially equipped, to help meet this challenge.
As a Catholic university, we are part of the Church – members of the “mystical body of Christ” animated by our faith in the Gospel. Yet we are also – most of us – citizens of the United States – this extraordinary evolving expression of human freedom. We are called to serve each community of which we’re a part, and this call is captured in the motto over the door of the east nave of the Basilica: “God, Country, Notre Dame.”
As we serve the Church, we can persuade believers by appeals to both faith and reason. As we serve our country, we will be motivated by faith, but we cannot appeal only to faith. We must also engage in a dialogue that appeals to reason that all can accept.
When we face differences with fellow citizens, we will be tested: do we keep trying, with love and a generous spirit, to appeal to ethical principles that might be persuasive to others – or do we condemn those who differ with us for not seeing the truth that we see?
The first approach can lead to healing, the second to hostility. We know which approach we are called to as disciples of Christ.
Pope Benedict said last year from the South Lawn of the White House: “I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more humane and free society.”
Genuine faith does not inhibit the use of reason; it purifies it of pride and distorting self-interest. As it does so, Pope Benedict has said, “human reason is emboldened to pursue its noble purpose of serving mankind, giving expression to our deepest common aspirations and extending … public debate.”
Tapping the full potential of human reason to seek God and serve humanity is a central mission of the Catholic Church. The natural place for the Church to pursue this mission is at a Catholic university. The University of Notre Dame belongs to an academic tradition of nearly a thousand years – born of the Church’s teaching that human reason, tempered by faith, is a gift of God, a path to religious truth, and a means for seeking the common good in secular life.
It is out of this duty to serve the common good that we seek to foster dialogue with all people of good will, regardless of faith, background or perspective. We will listen to all views, and always bear witness for what we believe. Insofar as we play this role, we can be what Pope John Paul II said a Catholic university is meant to be – "a primary and privileged place for a fruitful dialogue between the Gospel and culture" [Ex corde ecclesiae, 3.34].
Of course, dialogue is never instantaneous; it doesn’t begin and end in an afternoon. It is an ongoing process made possible by many acts of courtesy and gestures of respect, by listening carefully and speaking honestly. Paradoxically, support for these actions often falls as the need for them rises – so they are most controversial precisely when they can be most helpful.
As we all know, a great deal of attention has surrounded President Obama’s visit to Notre Dame. We honor all people of good will who have come to this discussion respectfully and out of deeply held conviction.
Most of the debate has centered on Notre Dame’s decision to invite and honor the President. Less attention has been focused on the President’s decision to accept.
President Obama has come to Notre Dame, though he knows well that we are fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life, and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Others might have avoided this venue for that reason. But President Obama is not someone who stops talking to those who differ with him.
Mr. President: This is a principle we share.
As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote in their pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes: “Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.”
If we want to extend courtesy, respect and love – and enter into dialogue – then surely we can start by acknowledging what is honorable in others.
We welcome President Obama to Notre Dame, and we honor him for the qualities and accomplishments the American people admired in him when they elected him. He is a man who grew up without a father, whose family was fed for a time with the help of food stamps -- yet who mastered the most rigorous academic challenges, who turned his back on wealth to serve the poor, who sought the Presidency at a young age against long odds, and who – on the threshold of his goal -- left the campaign to go to the bedside of his dying grandmother who helped raise him.
He is a leader who has great respect for the role of faith and religious institutions in public life. He has said: “Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.”
He is the first African American to be elected President, yet his appeal powerfully transcends race. In a country that has been deeply wounded by racial hatred – he has been a healer.
He has set ambitious goals across a sweeping agenda -- extending health care coverage to millions who don’t have it, improving education especially for those who most need it, promoting renewable energy for the sake of our economy, our security, and our climate.
He has declared the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and has begun arms reduction talks with the Russians.
He has pledged to accelerate America’s fight against poverty, to reform immigration to make it more humane, and to advance America’s merciful work in fighting disease in the poorest places on earth.
As commander-in-chief and as chief executive, he embraces with confidence both the burdens of leadership and the hopes of his country.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The President of the United States. "
Did they get arrested, too?
Obama looked a little unnerved when that baby started crying in the middle of his apologia for abortion.
Obama, like all self-proclaimed messiahs, markets himself as a "uniter;"
nobody has done more to divide the Church in memory than Obama.
There’s a good chance the baby crying was just a recording, but still...nice effect (I’m disappointed more people didn’t come with crying-baby ringtones).
Being the cynic I am, I think there’s also a good chance the cheering masses were hired.
I was about to post and then read your note, you described and summed up my feelings exactly... down to the crying of the little child. That was a sign from Christ.
ND is no longer Catholic.
Was he being "punished with a baby?"
From about the time of that remark, I've associated Obama with the candidate in "The Dead Zone," the one who holds a baby up to shield himself from a sniper...I guess that wouldn't be considered "horror" these days.
Looked all over for a still shot of that memorable scene, but couldn't find one.
That's it in a nutshell but we need to add the valedictorian,father Jenkins and the cheering audience to that.
What an incredible embarrassment. To think that a Catholic University could gather such a large group of ignorami or sly deceivers and think that they were accomplishing anything that would be pleasing to God or to men of good will is a cause for concern.
I cannot believe that a school dedicated to education totally misses the fact there although there are few "truths" and "facts" wherein faith and reason,or revelation and science agree,there is definitely one. And that is life. Both areas know that a unique being is created at conception and that unique life exists to natural death.
Only when this truth is accepted can the dialog begin. Notre Dame is now a joke to all thinking men as well as to all good men.
My head is still spinning just thinking about how absurd all of them were. I just hope I pray that most of them were hoodwinked because they were/are ignorant of the facts and devoid of critical thinking skills. To think that they may be sly deceivers is scarier.
Raymond Arroyo was absolutely brilliant,he was interviewed on CNN before and during the ceremonies. father Martin from America was the catholic spokesman from the left and I hope he gets his walking papers.
I too was also very disgusted with this comparison and with the cheering response from the crowd. The killing of many for the sake of a few.......Lord have Mercy on us!
It was sad, shameful, embarrassing.
Worse than it could have been.
They shouldn't have enabled him to use that platform to give a speech advancing abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Notre Dame's Kabuki Dance with Obama and the Culture of Death
Do you have a link to Raymond Arryo? I don’t do CNN, so I missed it.
Amen to that my sister.
President Obama has come to Notre Dame, though he knows well that we are fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life, and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
He is covering his butt! He is saying... oh please, don't stop the donations! We don't agree with Obama on every matter, so please don't stop the gravy!
This should never have been an issue if Father Jenkins had actually been listening to the voices of the church, rather than appeasing the secular left.
Who is Jenkins going to ultimately bow before? President Obama, or our Blessed Holy Mother?
I think we know the answer.
Well said, Jay!
With all due respect, Rev. Jenkins:
Take your tolerance and stuff it up your ass. We are not called to tolerate evil. If you think you can twist Christ’s commandment to “love our enemies” into a duty to compromise our beliefs, you’re fooling yourself, and this American Catholic is going to call you on it.
Loving our enemies does not mean being “nice” to them. It does not mean allowing them to spew poison into the ears of the young. I means taking them firmly by the shoulders and saying “Brother, you are being used as a tool of the Enemy. Repent and recant your lies so that we may walk together in the Light of the Lord.”
You could have used this as the opportunity of a lifetime to proclaim the Truth of the Catholic Church to the world. Instead, you have taken Our Lady and strapped her to an abortionist’s table.
Shame, shame on you, you whitewashed tomb. May God forgive you.
I’m sorry,I don’t have it,I watched it live. Maybe EWTN taped it and will run it this coming week. It was great.
St. John of the Cross says that we judge others by our own predominant faults.
I am not a modernist heretic. I believe in the Catholic faith that was rejected out there today.
Father Jenkins should be ashamed to be a Catholic for his remarks and his honoring of 0bama and what he stands for. He has been blinded by popularity (mostly media fawning). I pray that he realizes his mistakes and confesses his sins.
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