Notre Dame Coda

As a few angry protesters were hauled away, President Obama was greeted with "thunderous applause" by "the vast majority" of the 12,000 people gathered at yesterday's commencement ceremonies at Notre Dame. Obama and Notre Dame's president, Rev. John Jenkins, both appealed to "faith and reason" and for opponents on both sides of the abortion/ stem-cell debate to use "fair-minded words" (Obama even chiding his own campaign web site for its choice of words in the abortion debate).

We would also like to quote extensively from the graduation ceremony remarks of Trinity Washington University president Patricia McGuire yesterday:

"The real scandal at Notre Dame today is not that the president of the United States is speaking at commencement. The real scandal is the misappropriation of sacred teachings for political ends. The real scandal is the spectacle of ostensibly Catholic mobs camping out at Notre Dame for the specific purpose of disrupting the commencement address of the nation's first African American president. This ugly spectacle is an embarrassment to all Catholics. The face that Catholicism shows to our new president should be one marked with the sign of peace, not distorted in the snarl of hatred.

The religious vigilantism apparent in the Notre Dame controversy arises from organizations that have no official standing with the church, but who are successful in gaining media coverage as if they were speaking for Catholicism....They have established themselves as uberguardians of a belief system we can hardly recognize. Theirs is a narrow faith devoted almost exclusively to one issue. They defend the rights of the unborn but have no charity toward the living. They mock social justice as a liberal mythology."

"Who Is A Real Catholic"

Catholic author David Gibson has an insightful article in today's WaPo, "Who is a Real Catholic." In it, Gibson uses today's address by President Obama at Notre Dame as a launching pad for exploring how "conservatives have made politics the eighth sacrament, with one's position on abortion and gay marriage becoming the litmus test of whether one is a 'good Catholic' or a Catholic at all." Following much the same argument as the Post's E.J. Dionne earlier this month, Gibson shows how a minority bloc of Catholics, including some Cardinals and bishops, are motivated more -- or have been co-opted -- by a political (read "hard right-wing") agenda rather than by the "inclusive, forgiving, big-church" Catholicism of St. Augustine and the Second Vatican Council.

Gibson has a marvelous quote from the penultimate Pope Benedict - the XV (in 1914!!) - who declared that "no one should consider himself entitled to affix on those who merely do not agree with his ideas the stigma of disloyalty to faith."

First, Heal Thyself

Chicago's Cardinal Francis George is criticizing the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to deliver its commencement address, despite overwhelming support from the University's graduating seniors. The complaints, fueled by right-wing politicos like former Rethug Sen. Rick "Sanctimonius" Santorum wanting to score partisan points, are over the President's decision to allow use of embryonic stems cells in research (which otherwise would be discarded by fertility clinics).

We'd suggest the good Cardinal focus on keeping his priests and bishops from seducing their altar boys and parishoners, rather than on using discarded embryos for curing disease, a position which is supported by a wide majority of Americans. Pax vobiscum, Cardinal, sir.