While criticism of Notre Dame continues to pour in a group of pro-life students will be holding an alternate graduation ceremony with the always wonderful Father Frank Pavone as their speaker.
Two threads by me.
ROME, May 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Notre Dame University, with its invitation to President Barack Obama to give the commencement address on May 17, has hurt its reputation and Catholic identity, perhaps irrevocably, a prominent US Catholic scholar and author told LifeSiteNews.com in Rome on Friday. Robert Royal, a professor of history and president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., told LSN, "I don't think this is going to end well for anyone."
The university, that he described as having lived under a "sacred canopy" of its religious and academic identity, has made a critical error with the invitation. "I think that, in spite of the fact that the they'll manage the public relations of this deftly, it's going to hurt Notre Dame, and not just financially."
"This sort of thing doesn't do well," he said. "It doesn't contribute to the distinct identity that even Catholic universities now recognise they need to have."
Royal, an author, lecturer and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing online magazine, was in Rome last week as one side of a debate organized by the Italian publishers of his book, The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West. Arguing against a leading Italian secularist, Luciano Pellicani, Royal said that western history has shown that the so-called "triumph of reason" over religion has led to some of the bloodiest episodes of the last two centuries, from the Terror of the French Revolution, the Soviet Gulags, the Nazi Holocaust and, he said, "the slaughter of the innocents via abortion."
Royal described the invitation, and Notre Dame's persistent refusal to admit any mistake in the face of opposition from over 70 bishops, as a "watershed moment."
"It's a watershed for Catholicism in the US, if what is clearly the most visible Catholic university in the country can openly, openly, ignore the wishes of our bishops expressed as a body.
"As a body, the USCCB has asked Catholic universities not to honour people who represent values directly in contradiction to our own, primarily anti-life and family issues. I think this is going to speak ill of Notre Dame for a long time."
. . .
______________________________________________________________
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- Notre Dame students who don't want to attend a graduation ceremony involving pro-abortion President Barack Obama put together alternate plans. Today, they announced that Father Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life, will lead prayer at a pro-life prayer vigil.
The Class of 2009 Vigil for Life will be celebrated at Sunday's commencement ceremony at the same time as the graduation event.
“In standing with these students, I am standing with the true spirit of Notre Dame: a pro-life spirit, in harmony with human reason and Catholic Faith," Father Pavone told LifeNews.com on Monday.
"The scandal that has been generated does not represent what Notre Dame is all about," Pavone added. "It represents a radical betrayal of what Notre Dame is all about."
Pavone said the scandal has resulted in pro-life Catholics standing up for the teachings of the Catholic Church and wanting to hold the university accountable to them.
“Hundreds of thousands of Catholics, hundreds of priests, and dozens of bishops have called upon Notre Dame to end this scandal by withdrawing its invitation to President Obama," he said. "The result of that demand is not in our control."
Pavone told LifeNews.com he thinks pro-life students should exercise their right not to attend the graduation ceremony, where President Obama will give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree.
"One final response to this scandal is fully in the control of each graduating senior: don't show up. Don't participate in an event which will only serve to obscure rather than highlight the Church’s pro-life teaching and the true spirit of Notre Dame," Pavone continued.
"The seniors who do this are manifesting the real meaning of commencement: they are carrying out the witness to truth and service that their hard-earned degrees have prepared them to give in the world," he added. . .
