Posted on 09/02/2010 3:48:07 PM PDT by wagglebee
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, September 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A top pro-life professor at the University of Notre Dame is calling into question the motives of the university after Bill Kirk, a long-time member of the Notre Dame community and the only administration member to join a protest against President Obama's appearance on campus, was abruptly terminated.
In May 2009, Kirk boycotted the official graduation ceremony at which President Obama was giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary law degree, and instead attended an alternate graduation ceremony held by pro-life graduates protesting Obama. Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, whose diocese includes the campus, also opted to attend the alternate ceremony.
The Observer newspaper reported Thursday that Father Tom Doyle, Notre Dame’s new Vice-President for Student Affairs, had terminated Kirk from his position as Associate Vice-President for Residence Life.
Doyle praised Kirk's "thoughtful and caring" service as Student Affairs administrator, but said he had been fired "in anticipation of a restructuring that I want to do."
A Notre Dame spokesman refused to comment to LifeSiteNews.com about the reasons behind Kirk's termination, saying only that the university does not discuss personnel issues.
But Notre Dame philosophy professor David Solomon, the founder and director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, said on the Center's blog, that he sees a connection between Kirk’s “removal from office” and what he called “the background of other events at Notre Dame that inevitably raised questions about its real motivation."
Solomon suggested that Kirk's insistence on maintaining school-wide disciplinary standards for Notre Dame football athletes helped precipitate the move. However, the professor also said the news appears to confirm fears that Kirk's stand against the highly controversial honor to Obama would prove fatal.
"At the time Bill took part in the NDResponse rally, many people commented on the courage it took for him to stand with his wife and other witnesses to this protest of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary degree. I personally discounted these worries, believing that the Notre Dame administration would admire him for his principled stand on a matter so close to the Catholic heart of Notre Dame, even if they disagreed with his particular action," wrote Solomon.
Since the administration welcomed Obama's own "sharp dissent from and attack on central Catholic teaching on life," he continued, "It seemed only reasonable that they would equally welcome dissent from university policy by such a loyal Catholic and member of the Notre Dame family as Bill Kirk — especially when his dissent was made in the name of the Catholic principles at Notre Dame’s heart and in the company of his bishop.
"Perhaps, alas, there was reason for Bill Kirk to be worried about his participation in NDResponse after all."
The professor said Kirk's treatment would undoubtedly have "a chilling effect" on un-tenured administrators in public policy and moral debates on campus. He noted that "a number of other administrators have told me that in light of Bill Kirk’s treatment, they will in the future keep their heads down rather than dissent from the policies of the central administration." "It will be tragic if these pressures toward uniformity become a permanent feature of Notre Dame life," he wrote.
Solomon said that what he termed the "callousness and brutal insensitivity" of Kirk's termination has had "the greatest impact" on the close-knit Notre Dame community: Kirk and his wife Elizabeth, who have already adopted two young children, were in the process of adopting a third at the time of the firing.
The professor contrasted the situation with the magnanimity shown by former Notre Dame President Rev. Ted Hesburgh to Ralph McInerny decades ago when, as an assistant philosophy professor, McInerny received monetary help as he struggled to make ends meet following the tragic death of his 4-year-old son from a brain tumor.
"It may be that in an era when Notre Dame has become more of a brand and less of a community, such actions are no longer possible and that those of us who long for them are simply being naive," wrote Solomon.
"If so, it is surely a great loss."
The prestigious Catholic university has been widely criticized for its handling of other aspects of the Obama controversy as well. Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins continues to refuse to request leniency for 88 pro-life witnesses arrested for peacefully protesting Obama's presence on campus, while pro-Obama and pro-Notre Dame protesters were allowed to roam free. Several pro-life leaders have unsuccessfully urged Jenkins to intervene for the pro-lifers, who continue to face up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine under prosecution by St. Joseph County.
Sad that the guy doing the right thing is the guy in trouble. Guide him, Lord Jesus.
In April '09 I spent a lot of time getting the info on Notre Dame's Trustees, Fellows, and Administrators, all the way up to the CSC Superior in Rome, so we could phone, send letters and emails, etc, to protest the Omabanation, but to no avail.
As for the Pope, he's on his way to England, Scotland, and Israel -- England, where Dawkins and Hitchens want to have him arrested for the crime of being against condoms, Scotland where Catholic properties are being sold off for restaurans and mosques, and Israel where Shimon Peres wants Benedict to intervene with the raggies to release Gilad Shalit, as if he were not only infallible, but omnipotent as well. (Pray for him.)
I don't think he's focusing, right now, on an Associate Vice-President for Resident Affairs in South Bend, Indiana, who got a handshake and a pink slip probably for being prolife (though no one would admit that.) Alas.
Personally, I'm so mad at the CSC's I could spit staples. And as for that Judas Jenkins...
It is way past time for ND alums to get serious about with holding their monetary support of the “Golden Dome”.
Well, I recall that Catholic Universities were supposed to adhere to a mandatum, which I would have imagined would extend to the behavior of the school’s staff. It just seems incredible to me that a priest would deliberately thumb his nose at the Church and it’s teaching especially in regards to ‘life issues’. I remember sending the school a letter years ago over their decision to show the Vagina Monologues. Perhaps the powers that be need to remove the school’s Catholic Charter...
In April '09 I spent a lot of time getting the info on Notre Dame's Trustees, Fellows, and Administrators, all the way up to the CSC Superior in Rome, so we could phone, send letters and emails, etc, to protest the Omabanation, but to no avail.
As for the Pope, he's on his way to England, Scotland, and Israel -- England, where Dawkins and Hitchens want to have him arrested for the crime of being against condoms, Scotland where Catholic properties are being sold off for restaurans and mosques, and Israel where Shimon Peres wants Benedict to intervene with the jihadis to release Gilad Shalit, as if he were not only infallible, but omnipotent as well. (Pray for him.)
I don't think he's focusing, right now, on an Associate Vice-President for Resident Affairs in South Bend, Indiana, who got a handshake and a shiv in the back probably for being prolife (though no one would admit that was the reason.) Alas.
Personally, I'm so mad at the CSC's I could spit staples. And as for that Judas Jenkins...
Yeah, the present Bishop of ND should challenge their right to call themselves Catholic. How did that happen at other formerly-Catholic institutions, e.g. Manhattanville? By their own choice and initiative, or were they forced? I don't know the history.
The tagline is to remind me...
Fixed it.
PART of what most people (including most Catholics) don't realize is that the Cath. Church is not a papal autocracy-- which is why the direct line of responsibility in every wincing instance does not go straight to the pope.
With ND as just one example, the University is a corporation controlled by its Fellows and Board of Trustees, who are basically answerable to nobody. The CSC religious order (which is not under the local bishop) has a controlling majority, or (I'm not sure of the exact wording of the by-laws) at least a plurality on both of these boards, but they are unlikely to get pulled unless they commit either an indictable crime or a canonical delict. Aside from that, they are well-insulated by tenure, by-laws, canonical procedural due process, etc.
Even then, they are answerable to their own Superior (the top CSC guy in Rome), and he's basically answerable to nobody unless he commits and indictable crime, heresy, apostasy, schism, that sort of thing.
For better or for worse, the Church is in administrative fact far, far more decentralized that most people suppose. 99.99% of the "power" in the Church is voluntary compliance, personal loyalty, and customary (as contrasted to canonical) expectations.
This is not to cover up, excuse or deny the fact that the lack of direct whap-upside-the-head discipline is a gut-twisting scandal. Those bishops AND superiors bear a crozier for a reason: because they are supposed to protect the lambs and dismay the wolves, and not the other way around.
In theory, it is possible for a bishop to "suppress" (yank the credentials of) any religious order in his diocese. I can only remember that happening once in my lifetime: Cardinal McIntyre ousting the IHM's in Los Angeles, and that would have been 40+ years ago. (There might have been others, but I don't know about them.)
Priests and bishops? The overall composition of the clergy changes by attrition. Bishops die off or retire, new bishops are appointed--- that's where the pope has his main direct influence, and, as you can plainly see, that's gradual, as in glacial. Otherwise, you have to try to bring people around by dialogue and persuasion when you can, pressure tactics when you must (e.g. public protest, going after the donors, etc.)
And of course, people are doing that right now. Big time.
Thank you for your thoughtful response; I guess like many Catholics, I am dismayed. I have been fortunate that I am the recipient of many graces, so I can say with a high degree of certainty that these things that happen (seen and unseen) are Satanic-driven. There are so many assaults against the Church that it is a great wonder why God hasn’t intervened personally. But I am grateful He is patient which means He is patient with us, but this can’t last forever. My blood boils over these things, if people really knew what would ultimately happen to them if they don’t repent, they would be on their knees walking to their nearest confessional. Being a good Catholic isn’t enough, more prayers and sacrifices are in order; a re-dedication and consecration by everyone in the Church is needed.
"For what I have done and what I have failed to do..."
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