Notre Dame Invitees

Pat Buchanan poses the question, “Is Notre Dame Still Catholic” in his commentary piece this week. I’d link to it, but I can remember Mr. Buchanan breaking my pseudo-11th commandment policy, so you can find it over at Human Events.

Mr. Buchanan asks because of Obama’s forthcoming commencement speech, as was Notre Dame’s tradition of inviting newly-elected Presidents to give it since at least Carter. At least a couple of commenters pointed out that Mario Cuomo, another pro-infanticide politician (though, not as pro-infanticide as Obama), was invited to speak at Notre Dame way back in 1984. It was amongst the first major “privately anti-infanticide, publicly pro-infanticide” argument. I still do not know what to think about the situation Notre Dame put itself into, but seeing as this will not be the first time the university allowed prominent politicians espouse anti-Catholic beliefs on their stage, I thought a little historical perspective might help make up people’s minds about it.