Catholics Overwhelmingly Oppose ND Honor to Obama: Ramussen Poll

LifeSiteNews.com -- Your Life, Family and Culture Outpost ^ | Thursday May 7, 2009

[topher]

Thursday May 7, 2009

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Catholics Overwhelmingly Oppose Notre Dame Honor to Obama: Ramussen Poll

May 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds that more than twice as many Americans - and a wider margin of Catholics - oppose the University of Notre Dame's decision to give an honorary law degree to President Barack Obama, as those who support it.
 
The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that, by a 60% to 25% margin, U.S. Catholics say Notre Dame should obey guidelines issued by the U.S. bishops and refrain from awarding an honorary degree to the president.  Among all Americans, 52% oppose the honor and 25% support it.

"Faithful Catholics are sick to the heart over this scandal, which reflects decades of such scandals in our Catholic institutions," said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society.
 

"The Rasmussen poll confirms that this is not about politics … It's about Catholics who are fed up with Catholic institutions betraying their bishops and putting secular prestige ahead of principle, thereby undermining their own Church on the most serious moral issues of the day."
 
According to the poll, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans believe that it is important for speakers at graduation ceremonies of religious universities to share the views of the university.  Although a majority (56%) of Catholics agree with the statement, support is also strong among Evangelical Christians (87%) and other Protestants (63%).
 
In 2004 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement which reads, in part: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
 
Knowledge of that bishops policy appears to be key to Americans' views on the Notre Dame honor.  When asked whether President Obama should cancel his appearance at Notre Dame because of pro-life opposition, 52% of Americans say "no" and 30% say "yes."  A poll released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life first asked respondents how much they had heard about "criticism of Notre Dame by abortion opponents," then asked whether it was right or wrong for Notre Dame to honor Obama.  Although Mass-attending, White non-Hispanic Catholics opposed the award 45% to 37%, support for the honor was strong among all self-identified Catholics (50%) and all Americans (48%).

 
"Clearly people are respectful of the Presidency and probably don't want politics to interfere with commencement ceremonies," Reilly said.  "But when the context changes to principle over politics, and Americans are made aware that a Catholic university is violating a directive of the Catholic bishops based on moral teaching, public opinion swings against Notre Dame's action."

Rasmussen Reports confirms in its poll summary that "the discomfort on the issue is focused on the university decision rather than on the president," and "the response is tied more closely to the violation of the bishops' guidelines that to the policy issue concerning abortion."  While pro-life Americans strongly oppose the Notre Dame honor, even "pro-choice" respondents are evenly split as to whether Notre Dame should snub the Catholic bishops.

 

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09050707.html

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From the article:

The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that, by a 60% to 25% margin, U.S. Catholics say Notre Dame should obey guidelines issued by the U.S. bishops and refrain from awarding an honorary degree to the president. Among all Americans, 52% oppose the honor and 25% support it.

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[topher]

Also from the article:

In 2004 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement which reads, in part: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

[RU88]

Yet the majority of “Catholics” voted for him. Go figure. You can’t have it both ways.

[topher]

Folks are being educated now... There were many Catholics who were told by the Obama Campaign that he was pro-life...

Folks in South Bend are learning about "Choice" Trucks" and seeing the RCC Airplane flying overhead... These are part of an effort by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform to educate people...

[Galactica]

Unfortunately the Catholic Church has a liberal side and a conservative side, much divided as is our country. Their is a battle within to not let liberlism destroy the Church just as we battle to save our country.

[mware]

So this travesty happens this weekend?

Funny how he can decline the opportunity to attend a Catholic sponsored Prayer Breakfast but has no problem attending a Catholic (well use to be Catholic)University graduation.

Wonder what happen to all that opportunity to dialog???

[RJR_fan]

They always said that the day a marxist becomes president, is the day that pigs will fly. 100 days after his inauguration... Swine Flu

(Check out my new tagline!)

[topher]

Next weekend... South Bend and surrounding areas are under siege by a number of pro-life groups.

Alan Keyes is supposed to be arrested on the Notre Dame Campus today...

[topher]

Sunday after Mother's Day -- May 17th -- is the date that Obama is scheduled to speak...

In a sense, this is turning out to be a disaster for Obama and pro-choice Catholics, as well as the Pro-Choice (abortion/culture of death) movement...

People are realizing: "Obama stands for that -- I wish I knew that before the election."

Of course, I could be wrong... But these poll numbers seem to indicate a disaster for Obama and Notre Dame...

[GOP Poet]

and yet the offer still stands. The president of ND needs to go and NOW!

[Nicojones]

And yet Rasmussen shows Obama with a 57% approval index after going full throttle with the culture of death and socializing our economy. His stongly disapprove/strongly approve index has risen to +8. I feel like an alien in my own Country and Church. What will it take for people to turn against this guy? A total collapse of society?

[RU88]

It's hard for me to understand how a “Catholic” in good conscience could vote for Obama and then turn around and say that he shouldn't go to Notre Dame to be honored. Suppose the point being that these “Catholics” who voted for him don't closely follow the teachings of the Church to begin with because if they did they would have never voted for him in the first place. This can only be viewed as disgraceful, which is nothing new over the last 100 days.

[Toespi]

“Swine Flu”

Oh, so there were pigs on that NYC flyover.

[OpusatFR]

Obama is going to use the ND platform to propose various things to reduce abortion, however, we have to look at what he does and not what he says.

The man’s speech is very seductive. What you hear is not what he means.

So far, he has promoted policies in embryonic stem-cell research, and promoted abortion worldwide by reversing Bush’s policy.

That’s far from pro-life.

[bgill]

All of the ND staff who approved this should be fired.

If Hussein had half a heart, he would see it was tearing up the school and excuse himself. He won’t because his ego won’t allow that.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Hey maybe had Catholics voted against him by the same margin this would not have happened.

[DHC-2]

I'm "losing" it on many fronts. The MAJORITY of catholics don't want this to happen ... but it happens. The majority of people don't want gay marriage ... but it happens. On and on and on ... when will the MAJORITY of people be heard.

On this particular subject, there should be a price to pay for Notre Dame's behavior. Go ahead and "do bad" but here's the penalty. What's the penalty? If there is no penalty, then why are we having this discussion. (Maybe Notre Dame will go to hell instead of heaven?). Cut off the funding for them, stop them from being a Catholic university ... who controls that kind of thing and why are they NOT controlling it? And if nobody can control it, then why don't we change the subject?

[bgill]

Imagine if Mary, aka Notre Dame, had an abortion.

[Fishface]

I know the Catholics that voted for Obama. They are good people but don’t think critically. I write a column for my local paper and clearly detailed Obama’s horrific record on abortion several times. I know that these people read my column. They had the facts, they just chose to ignore or not believe them.

Many were influenced by their liberal college-aged children who were passionate supporters of the new messiah.

No one from the Church challenges these people to think. They’ve become intellectually lazy.

Its really sad.