Notre Dame's Dangerous Ground

Controversy Over Obama and the Commencement Ceremony

By: Mitchell Palmquist

Posted: 4/28/09

If you have not yet heard, you probably will soon hear about the current controversy at Notre Dame University. It was recently announced that Notre Dame had invited President Obama to be the keynote speaker at Notre Dame's Commencement Ceremony this coming May. It has been a standing tradition at Notre Dame to invite presidents to give the commencement speech during their first year in office. Based on this it seems like there would be little controversy, but the issues extend beyond a simple speech. At the same time it was announced that when Obama will give the Commencement address he will also be given an Honorary Doctorate in Law. Frankly this is a failure on Notre Dame's part; it is a betrayal of Notre Dame's Catholic identity. While many Presidents have spoke at Notre Dame before, none have had his intense support for abortion. It is because of this support for abortion and other unjust policies that he should not be honored at a Catholic University.
Many will claim that out of academic freedom someone like President Obama should be allowed to speak at Notre Dame, and I would agree with you. He should be more then welcome to guest lecture on his opinions, participating in a debate on campus concerning these issues. However, he should not be given a platform to unilaterally speak his mind to a captive audience and be given an award by Notre Dame; a commencement address has nothing to do with academic freedom and everything to do with giving graduating students one last encouraging speech before the university sends them off into the world with their degrees. Thus it should not be a speech given by someone who is so opposed to some of the core values that a Catholic school like Notre Dame claims to hold.
Before I go any further, to understand this issue we need be aware of a statement issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2004 on the very issue of speakers at Catholic colleges, especially concerning commencement speeches. This document called "Catholics in Political Life" stated that pro-abortion politicians should not be given awards, honors, or platforms by Catholic organizations. The bishops of our nation drafted this document to deal with issues like this. Now that Obama has been invited to speak at and receive an honor from Notre Dame many bishops have felt the need to speak out. As of April 7th 26 bishops have spoken out on this issue, ranging from disappointment with Notre Dame's decision, to outright anger and outrage. The bishop of South Bend, where Notre Dame is located, has decided to express his disappointment with Notre Dame's decision, and for the first time in his 25 years as bishop he will boycott the Commencement exercises.
Some of the other bishops to respond include Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the USCCB, the Archbishop-elect of New York Timothy Dolan, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Huston-Galveston and many others. With every passing day more bishops are voicing their opposition to Notre Dame's decision to honor President Obama.
If Notre Dame truly respects its Catholic heritage then their President, Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C., needs to resoundingly condemn Obama's pro-choice beliefs, and then at the very least retract the honorary Law Degree, if not completely disinvite the President. This should be done with the upmost respect for the office of the president, but it must be done out of the respect for human life which will always trump protocol.
Currently there are several groups working to encourage Fr. Jenkins to step back from this embarrassing position: the Cardinal Newman Society has collected over 250,000 signitures on their website notredamescandal.com, Student groups at Notre Dame have formed a group to organize students and alumni in their protest and their group can be found at ndresponse.com. Please support these groups and write Fr. Jenkins at president@nd.edu to register your opinion.

Mitchell Palmquist is a Sophomore