Molly Bruggeman, daughter of Michael (ND 1981) and Elizabeth Bruggeman (SMC 1982), just signed a Letter of Intent to attend Notre Dame on a crew team scholarship. Molly is a senior at Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School and has been rowing for the Dayton Boat Club and Coach Mike Miles.
I schedule appointments and take clients through the baby pantry. I assist in the parenting classes and provide childcare while the parents attend class. I am working to update the database for our abstinence brochures that we sell. I am also working to acquire email addresses of our constituents for our new electronic update system. I am in charge of putting together the binders for the parenting class. I have been helping to coordinate and manage volunteers that come in to help, and I am also just beginning a marketing project to contact past clients and recipients of certain grants throughout the country. There is never a dull moment!Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the club by paying your dues, buying a raffle ticket, or making a donation. Your support provides a direct benefit to students like Kelly and to the Life Resource Centre.
Well, that’s definitely going to be the highlight. I’d have to say there are two things that I’m really looking forward to. One is just going out the hatch especially for the first time and just looking outside, being outside in my own spacesuit, you know, kind of my own little satellite there, and looking out into space through that visor, no windows; looking down at the Earth, watching it pass by, looking at the colors, looking out into space, seeing the stars. But just being outside of a vehicle traveling around the world, hanging out there in space, I think that’s just going to be fascinating and I think it’s something that obviously not a lot of people get to do. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. The other thing I’m really looking forward to is, once I’m out the door, translating over to the Hubble Space Telescope and, and grabbing a hold of it. I’ve, I’ve looked up from my driveway and watched the Hubble go overhead — you can see it, it’s a, a bright light on a clear night — and I’ve just imagined myself actually being up there and, and holding on to that thing as it’s, as it’s speeding around the world. I think that’s going to be pretty cool. And then once I get over that, I’m going to pull out my power tool, I’m going to undo a couple bolts, and we’re actually going to open up the doors to Hubble and we’re going to crawl inside and actually get to work on the telescope from the inside. I think that’s going to be pretty exciting.
Given the high level of interest and discussion around Notre Dame’s Commencement, we have prepared a highlights video of the speeches given earlier today. We invite you to view the highlights video.
“At the 164th Commencement The May Exercises
The University of Notre Dame Confers the degree of
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on the 44th president of the United States, whose historic election opened a new era of hope in a country long divided by its history of slavery and racism. A community organizer who honed his advocacy for the poor, the marginalized and the worker in the streets of Chicago, he now organizes a larger community, bringing to the world stage a renewed American dedication to diplomacy and dialogue with all nations and religions committed to human rights and the global common good. Through his willingness to engage with those who disagree with him and encourage people of faith to bring their beliefs to the public debate, he is inspiring this nation to heal its divisions of religion, culture, race and politics in the audacious hope for a brighter tomorrow.
On Barack H. Obama, Washington, District of Columbia”
May 11, 2009
Dear Members of the Notre Dame Graduating Class of 2009:
This Sunday, as you receive your degrees at Commencement, your joy – and that of your families – will be shared by the faculty, staff, and administration of the University. We have had the privilege of laboring with each of you to inquire and discover, to teach and to learn, and we will send you off with affectionate and fond hopes for the future.
For those of you who are undergraduates, I feel a special kinship. You arrived in your dorm rooms as I arrived in the President’s Office. You have learned much; I may have learned more. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to learn with you, come to know you, and to serve you during our time together at Notre Dame. During your years here we have endeavored to train you in the various disciplines and urged you to ask the larger questions – discussing not only the technical and practical but also the ethical and spiritual dimensions of pressing issues. I have been proud of you as you’ve grappled with intellectual, political, and spiritual questions. But I have never been more proud than I have been watching the way you’ve conducted yourselves over the past several weeks. The decision to invite President Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary degree and deliver the Commencement address has triggered debate. In many cases, the debate has grown heated, even between people who agree completely on Church teaching regarding the sanctity of human life, who agree completely that we should work for change – and differ only on how we should work for change.
Yet, there has been an extra dimension to your debate. You have discussed this issue with each other while being observed, interviewed, and evaluated by people who are interested in this story. You engaged each other with passion, intelligence and respect. And I saw no sign that your differences led to division. You inspire me. We need the wider society to be more like you; it is good that we are sending you into that world on Sunday.
I am saddened that many friends of Notre Dame have suggested that our invitation to President Obama indicates ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching. The University and I are unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.
Notre Dame has a long custom of conferring honorary degrees on the President of the United States. It has never been a political statement or an endorsement of policy. It is the University’s expression of respect for the leader of the nation and the Office of the President. In the Catholic tradition, our first allegiance is to God in Christ, yet we are called to respect, participate in, and contribute to the wider society. As St. Peter wrote (I Pt. 2:17), we should honor the leader who upholds the secular order. At the same time, and born of the same duty, a Catholic university has a special obligation not just to honor the leader but to engage the culture. Carrying out this role of the Catholic university has never been easy or without controversy. When I was an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Fr. Hesburgh spoke of the Catholic university as being both a lighthouse and a crossroads. As a lighthouse, we strive to stand apart and be different, illuminating issues with the moral and spiritual wisdom of the Catholic tradition. Yet, we must also be a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures. At this crossroads, we must be a place where people of good will are received with charity, are able to speak, be heard, and engage in responsible and reasoned dialogue.
The President’s visit to Notre Dame can help lead to broader engagement on issues of importance to the country and of deep significance to Catholics. Ultimately, I hope that the conversations and the good will that come from this day will contribute to closer relations between Catholics and public officials who make decisions on matters of human life and human dignity.
There is much to admire and celebrate in the life and work of President Obama. His views and policies on immigration, expanding health care, alleviating poverty, and building peace through diplomacy have a deep resonance with Catholic social teaching. As the first African-American holder of this office, he has accelerated our country’s progress in overcoming the painful legacy of slavery and segregation. He is a remarkable figure in American history, and I look forward to welcoming him to Notre Dame.
As President Obama is our principal speaker, there will no doubt be much attention on your Commencement. Remember, though, that this day is your day. My fervent prayer is that May 17 will be a joyous day for you and your family. You are the ones we celebrate and applaud.
Congratulations, and may God bless you.
In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
Using a term reminiscent of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("mostly harmless"), the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano declared the movie, Angels & Demons, to be "harmless entertainment" with many factual errors and little cultural value. It also called the movie "modest" and "rather innocuous." This is fitting justice to the movie's producers who wanted to stir up some controversy with the Church.Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”
With this decision in mind, the recent review by the Vatican made sure to complement the "splendid photography" and the "magnificent" reproductions of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. It seems the writer had a sense of humor, which is probably the best response here.
For those who want to be able to counter the factual errors and libels against the Church, the most complete explanation of the real truth is found in this article by Steven D. Greydanus.
For most Catholics, they'll probably just skip the movie. Why pay money that will just be used to support a future film that attacks the Catholic faith?
“We are, of course, disappointed that Professor Glendon has made this decision. It is our intention to award the Laetare Medal to another deserving recipient, and we will make that announcement as soon as possible.”
Former Ambassador to the Vatican and Harvard Professor Mary Ann Glendon has declined to accept the Laetare Medal and Notre Dame's invitation to speak at Commencement. The reason for her decision is found in her letter, which is copied in full below.Dear Father Jenkins,
When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches.So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.
Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.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.
Then I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:
• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”
• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”
A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.
Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.
It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.
In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.
Yours Very Truly,
Mary Ann Glendon
University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., spoke to approximately 200 Alumni representatives from all parts of the country as part of the Alumni Senate on Thursday, April 23, 2009. The talk lasted for approximately 45 minutes with Fr. Jenkins speaking for about 10 minutes and taking questions for the remaining time. The talk was closed to the press. It was videotaped, but there were problems with the audio early in the presentation that may make the video unusable. In any event, the video is not online at this time. The following is a summary of his talk and the question-and-answer session that followed. It was prepared by our club’s representatives at the Alumni Senate who attended this talk in person. It is presented as an informational service to our club members and does not include interpretations, impressions, or reactions of the authors except when describing the tone and body language of Fr. Jenkins and the alumni. The links are to documents that were referenced but not quoted or read at the talk. We included the links to provide better context for the discussion.
He referenced the motto above the side entrance to the Basilica: “God, Country, Notre Dame.” “We offer the President respect because he is the civil authority in our country. When we offer respect to the civil authorities, we are not giving an endorsement of all of their views.”Jared Rizzi, a Notre Dame graduate and producer of Lino Rulli’s The Catholic Guy Show on the Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio gave the following perspective in this podcast:
It appears that the decision from Fr. John Jenkins is final. It appears that the President will be speaking at the University for Commencement. Let’s treat the decision as final. I don’t really like the idea of students and faculty, alums, people who feel a strong affinity to the Church or to the University saying he should or should not be coming. It seems like it’s happening. I believe there is a place for that debate, and I don’t think it’s over just because Fr. Jenkins has put his foot down. We have to look at this as an opportunity to open up the first real dialogue with this President on these issues. There are going to be other people on the dais who are going to have other opinions on this. The President is going to be there, and he’s not just going to be there for the twenty minutes of his speech. He’s going to be on that
campus. And if you don’t think that campus can change somebody, I would suggest you go there and take a visit. If we really hope that the President going there can reignite a national dialogue between Catholics, and maybe wake Catholics up a little bit about how they need to approach these issues if their elected officials are going to take notice. I think that is the best thing that could come out of this event in May.
Concerning President Barack Obama speaking at Notre Dame
graduation, receiving honorary law degreeMarch 24, 2009
On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.
President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.
This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith “in season and out of season,” and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions. My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life. I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.
I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.
Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.
Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.
Dear Club Leaders:
As you know, the University recently announced President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary degree at Notre Dame’s Commencement ceremony this May. President Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University, and the sixth to be the Commencement speaker. Here is the press release about the announcement.
Many alumni, parents, and friends of the University have expressed their opinions about the selection of the Commencement speaker. We welcome their feedback and appreciate the passion the Notre Dame family has for Our Lady’s University.
As leaders of ND clubs, classes, and alumni groups, you may receive phone calls, e-mails, and letters from alumni, parents and friends regarding the Commencement speaker.
If alumni, parents or friends would like to express their opinions to the University regarding this issue, please ask them to send an e-mail to the Alumni Association at ndalumni@nd.edu. They will receive a timely response.
The Alumni Association also welcomes you to share your personal views on this issue, but requests that any communications be sent outside the structure and distribution lists of the Notre Dame club, class or alumni group that you represent.
Here are a few University observations about the selection of the President as the Commencement speaker:
The University does not support President Obama’s positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life, including abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Notre Dame’s positions on these issues are firm and unwavering. The invitation to the President to be the Commencement speaker shouldn’t be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions that contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Rather, the University has invited the President to campus for what he’s done for racial equality, and for his stands on poverty, health care, immigration, education, infectious disease, and seeking peace. These are causes dear to the heart of Notre Dame, and he has elevated these causes and made them his own.
It adds special significance that the Notre Dame family will hear the Commencement address from our first African-American president, a man who has spoken eloquently on the issue of race in this nation. That said, presenting a Commencement speaker with an honorary degree does not imply approval of all a person thinks or does. We recognize that the University has differences with the President on specific issues of protecting life, and we hope his visit to campus will provide an opportunity to address our concerns in a dialogue that can deepen over time, and ultimately lead to better policies for protecting life. A policy that is never discussed is policy that is never changed, and we’re going to get more discussion on these issues because of his visit to Notre Dame.
Also, I want to mention that Fr. Hesburgh spoke last Friday evening (3/20) to a group of alumni, parents, and friends who had gathered on campus for the Academic Recognition Weekend. Someone in the group raised the question: what did Fr. Hesburgh think of the University’s announcement of Obama as Commencement speaker? “No speaker who has ever come to Notre Dame has changed this University, he explained. We are who we are. But, quite often, the very fact of being here has changed the speaker.”
Do we expect President Obama to reverse his stance on life issues after visiting campus? No, but we do expect that the national attention drawn to these matters by virtue of his being here will open up the conversation around these critical issues—and shed light on Notre Dame’s and the Catholic Church’s firm opposition to abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Your devotion to Notre Dame is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support and all you do for Our Lady’s University.
For Notre Dame,
Charles F.
Lennon Jr. ’61, ’62 M.A.Executive Director, Notre Dame Alumni Association
Fr. Jenkins responded to questions about the choice in an Observer article from March 23:
The Catholic News Agency has collected comments from several Catholic scholars and Notre Dame professors in an interesting March 23 article. The Cardinal Newman Society and CatholicVote.org are sponsoring a website, http://www.notredamescandal.com/ to collect signatures to send to Fr. Jenkins protesting the decision. As of Wednesday morning, the number of signatures was reported to be over 108,000. The National Catholic Register interprets Notre Dame's decision to be opposed to the June 2004 statement from the United States Catholic Bishops called, "Catholics in Political Life." That document concludes with several points of emphasis, including the following:"Presidents from both parties have come to Notre Dame for decades to speak to graduates about our nation and our world. They've given important addresses on international affairs, human rights, service, and we're delighted that President Obama is continuing that tradition," Jenkins said. "The invitation of President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of life, such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research," Jenkins said. "I would say that it's a special feature for us that we will hear from the first African American president here at Notre Dame, a person who has spoken eloquently and powerfully about race," he said. "Racial prejudice is a deep wound in America and President Obama has been a healer, so we honor him for those reasons."
Cathleen Kaveny, a Notre Dame professor of law and professor of theology and a big supporter of Obama in the election, offered this perspective Sunday in a blog post on dotCommonweal:
Current ND students appear to have voted for Obama over McCain by about 10 percentage points.
Many of them identified the economy and foreign policy as major factors in their votes.
To get a sampling of what Catholic blogs are saying about the invitation, check out this search engine dedicated only to Catholic blogs.
It's safe to expect a significant number of protests on campus. The Observer explains the following:Junior Mary Daly, president of Notre Dame's Right to Life club, said that she has been contacted by many pro-life organizations around the country. "There are a ton of ideas flying around," Daly said. "But we don't have any decisions yet. Those will be coming out in a few days." Although she said she believes it is an honor to have the President speak at Notre Dame, Daly said Obama's strong pro-choice beliefs and support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) contradicts the Catholic mission of the University.
Sticking with the Rolheiser theme, I thought I would give you an excerpt from his column this week that was particularly apt for Ash Wednesday:One of the images for [Lent] is the biblical idea of the Desert. Jesus, we are told, in order to prepare for his public ministry, went into the desert for forty days and forty nights during which time he fasted and, as the Gospel of Mark tells us, was put to the test by Satan, was with the wild animals, and was looked after by the angels.Lent has always been understood as a time of us to imitate this, to metaphorically spend forty days in the desert like Jesus, unprotected by normal nourishment so as to have to face "Satan" and the "wild animals" and see whether the "angels" will indeed come and look after us when we reach that point where we can no longer look after ourselves.
For us, "Satan" and "wild animals" refer particularly to the chaos inside of us that normally we either deny or simply refuse to face - our paranoia, our anger, our jealousies, our distance from others, our fantasies, our grandiosity, our addictions, our unresolved hurts, our sexual complexity, our incapacity to really pray, our faith doubts, and our moral secrets. The normal food that we eat, distracted ordinary life, works to shield us from the deeper chaos that lurks beneath the surface of our lives.
Lent invites us to stop eating whatever protects us from having to face the desert that is inside of us. It invites us to feel our smallness, to feel our vulnerability, to feel our fears, and to open ourselves up the chaos of the desert so that we can finally give the angels a chance to feed us. That's the Christian ideal of lent, to face one's chaos.
You may read the entire column here.
I am reading a book called, The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality by Ronald Rolheiser. Rolheiser is a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He writes a weekly column that appears in numerous Catholic newspapers, and his website contains numerous videos and podcasts that I have found to be very interesting.
The opposite of depression is delight, being spontaneously surprised by the goodness and beauty of living. This is not something we can ever positively crank up and make happen in our lives. It is, as every saint and sage has told us, the by-product of something else. It is something that happens to us and which we can never, on our own, make happen to us. As C. S. Lewis suggests in the title of his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, delight has to catch us unaware, at a place where we are not rationalizing that we are happy. The famous prayer of Francis of Assisi, with its insistence that it is only in giving that we receive, suggests the same thing.
This is what it would mean to not be depressed: Imagine yourself on some ordinary weekday, walking to your car, standing at a bus stop, cooking a meal, sitting at your desk, or doing anything else that is quite ordinary. Suddenly, for no tangible reason, you fill with a sense of the goodness and beauty and joy of just living. You feel your own life -- your heart, your mind, your body, your sexuality, the people and things you are connected to -- and you spontaneously fill with the exclamation: "God, it feels great to be alive!" That's delight, that's what it means not to be depressed.
This description reminded me of a book I had read while at Notre Dame. That book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, described this same feeling, but called it "the present":I step outside, followed by a puppy. Before me extends a low hill trembling in yellow brome, and behind the hill, filling the sky, rises an enormous mountain ridge, forested, alive and awesome with brilliant blown lights. I have never seen anything so tremulous and live. Overhead, great strips and chunks of cloud dash to the northwest in a gold rush. At my back the sun is setting — how can I not have noticed before that the sun is setting? I smell loam on the wind; I pat the puppy; I watch the mountain. Shadows lope along the mountain’s rumpled flanks; they elongate like root tips, like lobes of spilling water, faster and
faster. A warm purple pigment pools in each ruck and tuck of the rock; it deepens and spreads, boring crevasses, canyons. As the purple vaults and slides, it tricks out the unleafed forest and rumpled rock in gilt, in shape-shifting patches of glow. These gold lights veer and retract, shatter and glide in a series of dazzling splashes, shrinking, leaking, exploding. The ridge’s bosses and hammocks sprout bulging from its side; the whole mountain looms miles closer; the light warms and reddens; the bare forest folds and pleats itself like living protoplasm before my eyes, like a running chart, a wildly scrawling oscillograph on the present moment. The air cools; the puppy’s skin is hot. I am more alive than all the world.
This is it, I think, this is it, right now, the present. I am patting the puppy, I am watching the mountain. And the second I verbalize this awareness in my brain, I cease to see the mountain or feel the puppy.
Catch it if you can. The present is an invisible electron; its lightning path traced faintly on a blackened screen is fleet, and fleeing, and gone.
Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch grace as aman fills his cup under a waterfall.
You don’t run down the present, pursue it with baited hooks and nets. You wait for it, empty-handed, and you are filled. You’ll have fish left over. It is, by definition, Christmas, the incarnation. This old rock planet gets the present for a present on its birthday every day.
But how often do we feel like that? For most adults, this experience is rare. We can go for years and, for all that time, be loving, dedicated, generous, positive, contributing, compulsive adults -- good spouses, good parents, trusted employees, giving friends, prayerful, churchgoers -- and never once during all those years enjoy a thimbleful of genuine delight. It happens all the time. Delight is rare for adults, though not for children. If you want to see what delight looks like, go by any school yard sometime when kids, little kids, kindergartners and first graders, come out for their recess break. They simply run around and shriek. Now that's delight.I'm still reading the rest of the book, which is basically an answer for this problem. Take a look at Rolheiser's website and see if it interests you.
