Posted on 03/30/2009 5:38:59 AM PDT by steve-b
The nation's Catholic bishops have another sticky issue on their plates. President Obama has accepted an invitation to deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in May and to receive the customary honorary degree. It is quite a coup for the nation's most resonantly Catholic university. American Catholics and their bishops should be proud.
But the bishops have a policy that says "Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our [Catholic] fundamental moral principles." Upon taking office, Obama lifted Bush administration restrictions on funding for abortions and for embryonic stem cell research, as he had promised to do. Both actions violated fundamental Catholic principles on the protection of human life....
Catholicism is not a sect that shuns the world as evil. As a body, the American hierarchy has usually been both principled and open to political engagement. The bishops have congratulated the new president on his victory and pledged to work with him on issues affecting social and economic justice. Do they now find him morally unfit to speak at a Catholic university?
Obama is not coming to Notre Dame to press a pro-choice agenda but to address issues that affect all American citizens, including Catholics. He will be speaking to students who, like other Americans, gave him a majority of their votes. He will receive an honorary degree because it is the custom, not as a blessing on any of his decisions.
American bishops should remember that it was only a few decades ago that a Catholic was considered unfit for the White House. Do they now believe that a sitting president is unfit to address a Catholic university? It's time the bishops gave a clear and principled response.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Again, these Catholics are LIBERALS, ie, SOCIALISTS & LEFTISTS.
Their “social gospel” - a Trojan Horse for Authoritarian Collectivism - is their primary driving motivation. And “social justice” INCLUDES the “right” for women to be as unburdened by the results of sexual behaviors as men supposedly are.
Kudos to Boston College for putting the kibosh on William Ayers speaking at the school.
Do you think God would want to hear a clear debate of the issues of life? Abortion is the “sacrament” of the Democratic Party. It doesn’t matter that students voted for him, its like saying a child wants something and asking who is the parent?
Of course he is coming to press a pro-choice agenda. He wants to relativize the abortion issue and neutralize the faith of believing Catholics on the issue.
YES (btw, it's the awarding of the honorary degree that's the issue,not the speaking) Next question?
Would Planned Parenthood find it morally wrong to honor GWB? You Betcha!
His appearance at Notre Dame will mainstream abortion in the Catholic community even more. That is his hopes.
The Notre Dame fiasco points out the glaringly obvious situation of the Catholic church. That is, it is time for people who are not Catholic, but call themselves Catholic, to either become Catholic, or exit the church.
This began when immigrants came to America from Catholic nations where the church was an integral part of the political society and secular culture. This evolved many people who were not Catholic, but called themselves Catholic for the secular advantages.
In the tightly knit immigrant communities in the US, such people became the “social Catholics”, who are distinct from the “church going Catholics.”
So what is to be done? Perhaps the wisest thing would be to appeal to the Vatican to deploy several Holy Orders throughout North America on a mission of educating all Catholics, both the faithful and the social, on the orthodoxy of the church.
Their mission is straightforward. To discover the beliefs of the faithful and correct doctrinal error and superstition; and to clarify for the social Catholics that they either abide by the core beliefs of the faith, or that they accept that they are no longer Catholic, so should drop the pretense.
Perhaps the mission should begin with an audit of the Catholic institutions of North America. Of the schools, hospitals and other organizations that keep the mantle of Catholic.
This would be an extraordinary endeavor, and the results of the audit would be guaranteed to amaze the Vatican, in any number of ways.
Such information would revitalize the church bureaucracy, and could mean a century of self-examination and regeneration worldwide.
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