Notre Dame Refuses to Reverse Course

It looks as if President Obama will give that commencement speech at Notre Dame come hell or high water, despite the fact that over 60 bishops have issued individual protests to university officials.

Predictably various media outlets are now running "analysis" stories about how Catholics are warming up to Mr. Obama again, contending that his 100th Day speech, in which he said that passing the (craptastic) Freedom of Choice Act was not an immediate priority, was a sign that pro-life Catholics are making inroads into the presidential heart.

(Note to my Catholic viewers: Please maintain a general mistrust of the mainstream media, the lapdog of the evil Prince of the Air. They do not even recognize when their chain is being yanked.)

I've neglected to mention that Mary Ann Glendon, an American law professor, former ambassador to the Vatican from the U.S., and current president of the Pontifical Council on Social Sciences, who had been selected to receive Notre Dame's prestigious Laetare Medal on the same day, has declined to accept the award in protest of Notre Dame's conferring of a degree upon Mr. Obama. She wrote:

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" and that such persons "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

She's absolutely right. But it takes a lot of humility and courage to turn down one of the most prestigious awards a Catholic layperson can receive. I salute her for that. Many would have taken the award and kept quiet about their objections. Not professor Glendon.

Another voiced raised in objection to Notre Dame's actions is that of "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade fame.

The woman whose pregnancy provoked the Roe v Wade court case that legalised abortion in the United States in 1973 has condemned the decision by Notre Dame University to invite the fiercely pro-abortion Barack Obama to deliver its commencement address on May 17.

Norma McCorvey - the "Jane Roe" of Roe v Wade - is now a Catholic pro-life campaigner. And she has joined 60 Catholic bishops in condemning the university 's decision to honour the most "pro-choice" politician ever to sit in Congress.

"Obama is not the ideal person to speak to a young bunch of kids that are going out into the world for the first time," she told me.

"These people will have to remember that it was him who spoke at their graduation for the rest of ther natural lives. We have many in the pro-life movement that are better qualified to do this.

"I am really surprised more parents haven't pulled their kids out. I have heard that many of them will not show up this reason."

Norma is a brave lady: in the 1980s she revealed herself to be the "Jane Roe" of the famous case, and in the 1990s she converted to Christianity. In 1998 she became a Catholic and now campaigns for civil rights "for everybody, including the unborn". (Incidentally, she never had an abortion: the case took so long that she had the child, which was adopted.)

That's Damian Thompson, blogging at the UK Telegraph. He adds this:

As I wrote the other day, "Notre Shame" is is turning into one of the biggest PR disasters of Barack Obama's presidency, and is quickly eroding his fragile support among American Catholics.

Fr John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, is now the most unpopular priest in America. He and his liberal friends simply cannot see that a Catholic university cannot hold up a campaigner for partial-birth abortions as a moral exemplar for young people, even if he is the first African-American President of the United States.

That pretty much says it all.