What Notre Dame Taught

Takimag ^ | 5/17/09 | Tom Piatak

[Thorin]

Notre Dame taught a clear lesson today, in its decision to have President Obama as a commencement speaker and to award him an honorary degree. That lesson is this: American politicians can freely embrace abortion and face no negative consequences at all. Any pro-abortion politician who climbs to the top of Benjamin Disraeli’s “greasy pole” will get nothing but applause and praise from those who now run Notre Dame.

The Second Vatican Council defines abortion as an “unspeakable crime.” Not so Notre Dame. Father Jenkins’ effusive introduction of Obama never hinted that abortion is an “unspeakable crime.” According to Father Jenkins, nothing is “unspeakable” because what matters is that we have a “dialogue,” even though “Difference must be acknowledged, and in some cases even cherished.” Amazingly, he praised Obama’s supposed courage in coming to a place that showered him with applause, that vigorously arrested all pro-life demonstrators coming onto campus, and that provided him with a photo opportunity more effective than millions of dollars spent on campaign ads in demonstrating to Catholics that they need not worry about a candidate’s support for abortion in deciding how to vote: “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 full well that we are fully supportive of Church teaching on the sancity of human life, and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.” How Notre Dame opposed Obama’s policies was not described. In fact, it is not at all clear from Notre Dame’s own statements that it does oppose Obama’s policies on abortion and stem cell research. Notre Dame’s official press release on the commencement noted that Obama’s “stance on abortion was likely unacceptable to some” at Notre Dame. And Father Jenkins could not even bring himself to say that the policies Obama supports are wrong, much less evil. Describing things as they are would apparently interfere with the “dialogue” Father Jenkins is so excited about.

Any politician watching today’s spectacle would have to conclude that the worst risk he runs from such as Notre Dame in supporting abortion is that he will be given an honorary degree, applauded, and told that it is important to “dialogue.” This lesson is especially harmful to the dwindling band of pro-life Democrats. Given the national Democratic party’s ironclad support for abortion, pro-life Democrats take a stance that prevents them from aspiring to their party’s presidential nomination. And, if such politicians take a pro-life stance for fear of Catholic opposition, Notre Dame sent a powerful signal today that they limit their ambitions for no good reason.

Obama has not been reticent in voicing his support for the “unspeakable crime” of abortion. Obama does not even claim to be “personally opposed” to abortion. Instead, he said during the campaign that he would not want his daughters “punished” with a baby if they engaged in extramarital sex. His unstinting advocacy for abortion is a matter of public record, and he did not retreat from it at all at Notre Dame. Instead, he indicated in his speech that he has already learned that he has nothing to fear from Catholic prelates eager for “dialogue.” His praise for the late Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago obscured the salient point that nothing Bernardin said or did caused Obama to modify in any way his support for abortion. Even some of the Obama lines that drew applause at Notre Dame at least hinted at his opposition to Catholic teaching. Obama drew applause when he called for “reducing unintended pregnancies”—a likely reference to the federal funding for artificial contraception that Obama supports—and when he called for “health care policies” with “respect for the quality of life”—the same terminology used by those advocating for euthanasia.

It should not have been like this at a Catholic university, particularly at a Catholic university as inextricably intertwined with the American Catholic idenity as Notre Dame. As John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “But today, in many people’s consciences, the perception of [abortion’s] gravity has become progressively obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behaviour and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.” By awarding Obama an honorary degree and showering him with applause and praise, Notre Dame has assisted mightily in obscuring the gravity of abortion. And, when Obama appoints the next pro-abortion justice to the Supreme Court, signs a law providing for the federal funding of abortion, and signs the Freedom of Choice Act—all things he is commited to doing—he will be able to say, with some justice, that he is doing so with the imprimatur of Fr. Jenkins and the nihil obstat of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees.

[HiTech RedNeck]

So sadly true, that parents sending their kids to Notre Dame have cared far more about its Catholic “cachet” than about what it will actually be teaching said kids. Hello, the church isn’t a club.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Jesus suffered the (pardon the term) unspeakable penalty of that day so that the price of evil might be paid and the burden we cannot bear be borne. (It really was unspeakable. There is no literal word for cross employed in the N.T. Greek. The term used is the euphemism “tree.”)

[BlackElk]

Misterioso: More than 50 million unborn infants have been sliced, diced and hamburgerized under the tyranny of SCOTUS and Roe vs. Wade, theoretically under the "rule of law."

What do you think should be the subject of more extensive discussion here than the American holocaust? Balancing the federal budget? Reducing your taxes? Whether Ayn Rand's lifestyle of serial adultery should be a model for America? Curious and eccentric notions about the constitution that have not been honored since Lincoln invaded South Carolina and maybe earlier???

[Balding_Eagle]

‘we’ simply was a shortcut to mean the Pro-Life side.

We won the opportunity to tell the Pro-Life story, and bring attention to the issue. Our side did a great job, from the simple protestors, to the gruesome photos, to the arrests.

Minds were changed, hearts were influenced, and NONE of that would have happened if Obama hadn’t been awarded the honorary degree.

The 70% student support? Ignore them, for now they are the lost, in time some will come to our side, but for now they are simply rocks in the road.

We are winning this arguement, little by little. This was one more step forward. It may have been several steps.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Certainly foiled any attempt to keep it hushed up!

[exit82]

All those parents and students clapping for Obama. Talk of finding common ground and discussing abortion with open hearts and open minds. Only 25-30 students choosing to attend the alternative graduation program. I don't feel like the anti-abortion message prevailed. Evil triumphed and I am saddened by the events at Notre Dame.

Evil thought it triumphed today.

But evil can only triumph if good men do nothing.

Today, the veil was lifted. The curtain was turned back. The outright lies of the President, and the moral vacuum that is Notre Dame, was exposed.

Tonight, millions of good hearted believers everywhere realize that no longer can they be silent. No longer can they stand on the sidelines.

Today was a turning point. We must choose who we will serve, God or Mammon.

We are the ones that must speak the truth to power, that must be the voice of the unborn and the helpless.

We must speak up and defend life and turn the tables on the pro-death and anti-American and anti-Christian forces in our country.

But first, we must gird for the battle. We must pray, and pray hard, for God's strength in this fight.

For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the very spirits of evil.

And this battle is not ultimately ours, but God's.

All God asks of us is to be faithful to Him and to be obedient, and to trust Him for the power we need to do the task He gives us.

Evil thought it triumphed at the Cross.

It may be Friday, but Sunday's coming, my friend. Sunday is coming.

[nikos1121]

You know something? I’m tired of this whole chit chat. I understand that the Vatican has said nothing on this. They have stayed out of it.

As far as I’m concerned ND and half of the catholic churches in this country are about money and power.

There are dedicated Catholic followers out there, who apparently hear and see no evil here.

In summary, I think Catholics need to look at themselves. What was the final count of people protesting and not going to the commencement? Did it amount to more than a handfull of people?

This country is not the same country in was ten or twenty or thirty years ago. We are seeing its demise before our eyes folks....

One word says it all...Apathy...

[Balding_Eagle]

I forgot to add, look at the bigger picture, millions of people were given an opportunity to chose (mentally) which side they were on. The Lefties aren’t worth your time to worry about them.

[Misterioso]

Curious and eccentric notions about the constitution that have not been honored since Lincoln invaded South Carolina and maybe earlier???

Whew! You win. I'm outta here.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

This travesty was very disturbing on a number of levels. Jenkins attacked pro-lifers for "demonizing" opponents. Obama invoked both crackpot modernists, Hesburgh and Bernardin, for his version of "seamless garment" liberation theology, minus the sanctity of life. It was the usual appeal to moral relativism as the supposed higher ground. Then there was the very unfortune slur, the president's reference to "parochial" views. This is ALWAYS code for an anti-Catholic dig. Suggesting "parochial" views are in conflict with a higher ground of "universal" moral relativism.

Jenkins' hysterial speech praising Obama was disgraceful. One of the most disgraceful and shameful moments in Catholic intellectual history and the postconciliar period. It's clear Jenkins' is an hysterical supporter of Obama and shameless liberal. This was absurd from the Stockholm Syndrome valedictorian to the hysterical cheering for Obama.

The other disgusting part was Obama's canard about the boy with diabetes and stem cells. That any Notre Dame student cheered for this line was a damnable indictment of the education going on there. There is NO scientific evidence that embryonic stem cells will EVER cure diabetes. And there are plenty of distinguished medical researchers who will testify to that. That Obama used the ND commencement platform to push for embryonic stem cell research was disgusting, revolting, and grotesque. Diabolical.

One moment of great irony: As Obama started his spin on relativism for abortion you could hear a baby crying in the audience on the Fox News feed. It was eerie. God and the Holy Ghost showed up.

Notre Dame's Kabuki Dance with Obama and the Culture of Death

[HiTech RedNeck]

Puzzled the dickens outta you. Hint: the mind set on the flesh cannot grok the difference between good and evil.

[Uncle Sham]

"Shame on Fr. Jenkins and shame on Notre Dame. "

"Notre Damned" would be a better name at this point.

[Freee-dame]

That any Notre Dame student cheered for this line was a damnable indictment of the education going on there. There is NO scientific evidence that embryonic stem cells will EVER cure diabetes.

O didn't even mention the word "embryonic." Education is so lacking these days that I'll bet even these university grads largely think conservatives are against all stem cell research. We must stop ceding control of language to the left.

[Misterioso]

Trite.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It was Orwellian.
He tries to make baby killing sound "fair-minded." He is a highly gifted sophist.
Harvard should be the next to give him an honorary doctorate: in sophistry.

[jesseam]

Notre Dame is setting up his throne and scepter with a golden crown designed to keep his nose in the air.

[Balding_Eagle]

Look back 20 years.

20 years ago no one showed up to protest this kind of stuff.

Today millions saw the protests.

20 years ago..........ZERO

We are in the stage of this battle where progress is made every day, not just once or twice a year.

If Obama hadn’t foolishly cooperated with the Pro-Life side to bring attention to this it might have been a zero today too.

We are making so much progess that even the Pro-Abortion side is forced to cooperate.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Call it anything but it’s true

[nikos1121]

“If Obama hadn’t foolishly cooperated with the Pro-Life side to bring attention to this it might have been a zero today too.

We are making so much progess that even the Pro-Abortion side is forced to cooperate.”

I’m brain dead tonight. I’m not sure I follow you. Please explain.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yes, Obummer and Jenkins made a lame attempt to look like they were cooperating.

The result, however, is impossible to hide. It is the urging that no matter how important the matter, that it simply be bumped down to obscurity in favor of other Catholic-favorite social issues. Earth to Mars, Earth to Mars, it is silly to worry more about people’s living CONDITIONS than about their LIVING. The Kumbaya pres__ent will have to learn this the hard way.