Obama to Speak at Notre Dame

As many of you have heard, President Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at this year's Commencement Ceremony on May 17. Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Notre Dame and the sixth to be the Commencement speaker. The official announcement is on the Notre Dame site.

Fr. Jenkins responded to questions about the choice in an Observer article from March 23:

"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."

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:

• 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.


• We commit ourselves to maintain communication with public officials who make decisions every day that touch issues of human life and dignity.

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.