Notre Dame Invitees
March 31, 2009
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.
April 1, 2009 at 5:11 PM
There are three key differences that are important to note, as per our discussion the other night. I’d like to see what your other subscribers think.
As I’ve said before, I still don’t know how I feel about the subject but:
1) At the time Governor Cuomo was invited, the administrative overseers of all church-related institutions in their areas (commonly referred to as bishops) did not issue any kind of statement that pro-infanticide politicians should not be honored by said institutions.
2) Governor Cuomo simply spoke at the school (similar to Hillary’s stop at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, with accompanying disclaimer from the school administration that they disagreed with her on life issues), where as President Obama will be receiving an honorary degree from the university, in full doctoral robes. The question is, does the message sent by this photo-op of Obama with a priest handing him a degree imply that the Catholic Church as at most endorsing, and at least laying back and accepting his anti-infanticide agenda? A legitimate question that I don’t know the answer to.
3) Also like Hillary’s stop, Governor Cuomo’s was an educational opportunity for students interested in the topic, not a requirement for all graduating students to be forced to listen his opposing viewpoints.