"Mothers, Don't Let Your Kids Grow Up To Be.." IRISH

Seriously. Notre Dame University, in spite of the 'Fighting Irish' legacy, is giving the Irish a bad name. No longer do we have images of Irish monks pulling Europe up out of the dark ages. Thanks to the persistent corruption of Catholic image perpetrated by faculty and administration at Notre Dame, now even the student newspaper is a tool of the 'New Mediocrity' .

Why do parents still pay so much to put their Catholic children in a place where they have to search for authentic Catholicism? Don't they feel cheated? Shouldn't they be getting full-fledged , administration supported, Magisterium loyal, intellectually honest, Truth with a capital 'T' education for their kids?

A football team is not enough. 'Irish' is not enough. The memory of holy priests and professors is not enough.

America has better.


*Note: I do know there are some very faithful alumni,faculty and students at Notre Dame. I know that a Catholic student can maintain their faith in any environment, no matter how insidious the corruption, under the name of 'Catholic'. Perhaps the 'Fighting Irish' will take on an entirely new meaning with the struggle to reform Our Lady's university.

Father McBrien, Notre Dame and Eucharistic Adoration

My daughter's birthday shares Our Lady's feast on September 8. In dismay I read Fr. Richard McBrien's gift to Our Lady in the form of an article in the National Catholic Reporter. In dismay I read that not all the commentors are dismayed by his article! Such is the state of the Catholic church in America today. Dissident, incorrect and heretical priests are given forum in a magazine put forward as Catholic.

Lukewarm Catholic? American Catholic? Not quite Catholic?

(Anyone looking for a more reliable source of faithful Catholic articles might try National Catholic Register.)

Ah well. Someone else to add to my prayer list, to offer up to the mercy of God during Mass and before the Blessed Sacrament.

I am grateful for those faithful Catholic universities that never compromise Truth for expediency or popularity. Places like Ave Maria University in Florida, Franciscan University in Ohio, and Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Ontario. They are welcome respite from confusing and confused institutions with questionable leadership and mixed loyalties. (Yes, I mean Notre Dame)

I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to worship, pray, think, find peace in the Real Presence of God. Many Americans share this wonderful opportunity.

I am thankful for all the faithful priests and bishops, their many hours of prayer and devotion on our behalf, their inspired instruction and their faithful service to Christ in the Eucharist.

God help those who work against Him.


More at Te Deum

Notre Dame - A Clash Of Cultures

I love how the media keeps trying to frame the scandal as 'Catholics against intellectual discourse'. With the help of President Jenkins , of course.

Commencement speeches are not 'intellectual discourse'. They are an honour bestowed upon the speaker by the university. So is an honorary Doctorate of Laws (laws made and to be made against life by Obama?). The Catholic disgust and shame comes from the honour bestowed on the man who stands out as being most radically opposed to Catholic doctrine and teachings on the inherent value of every human life . You'd think the value of human life would be obvious to all (humans, anyway!) but it isn't. Some humans only recognize value in human lives that are not inconvenient, needy or unloved. This way of living, thinking, believing, is the antithesis of Christianity. The ANTI CHRIST.

That's what the BIG DEAL is folks. It's not about a speech, and its more important than a president. I am grateful for those who risked ridicule and jail to stand up for truth today. So few universities are engaged in the pursuit of truth these days, that there really should be a new name for most post-secondary institutions. Perhaps we could call them politically correct finishing schools - where one goes to complete the process of numbing the spirit.

And could Notre Dame please change its name to 'Sebelius U.'? Our Lady deserves better.

Scott Richert has excellent commentary on the 'speech' and link to the text.

Notre Dame Dishonour

Dr. Mary Ann Glendon, America's most respected* Catholic layperson, refuses top honour from Notre Dame.

Catholic World News:

Mary Ann Glendon has announced that she will not accept the Laetare Medal-- the highest honor conferred by the University of Notre Dame-- at this year's commencement exercises.

Glendon-- the Harvard Law professor who recently stepped down from her post as US ambassador to the Holy See-- has indicated that she decided to decline the Laetare Medal because of her concerns about the commencement address that will be delivered by President Barack Obama. In an April 27 letter to Father John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, she wrote that a prospect "that once seemed so delightful has been complicated" by the Obama appearance and by Notre Dame's response to criticism from the American bishops.

In her letter Glendon expressed dismay that Notre Dame chose to honor the President despite his clear public stand against Catholic principles on key moral issues. She also voiced her discomfort with the university's suggestion that her own speech at the commencement exercises might counterbalance the Obama appearance. A commencement celebration, she said, "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 to invite Obama in defiance of clear guidance from the US bishops.

Dr. Glendon's Letter

( * Fr. Jonathan Morris, Fox News )

Notre Dame - The Bishops' Line Up

If I were 'Father' Jenkins, I wouldn't want to play against this team...

(LifeSiteNews)
1. Bishop John D'Arcy - Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN
2. Bishop Samuel Aquila - Fargo, ND
3. Bishop Gregory Aymond - Austin, TX
4. Bishop Gerald Barbarito - Palm Beach, FL
5. Bishop Leonard Blair - Toledo, OH
6. Archbishop Daniel Buechlein - Indianapolis, IN
7. Bishop Robert Baker - Birmingham, AL
8. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz - Lincoln, NE
9. Archbishop Eusebius Beltran - Oklahoma City, OK
10. Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú - San Antonio, TX
11. Bishop Paul Coakley - Salina, KS
12. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo - Houston, TX
13. Archbishop Timothy Dolan - New York, NY
14. Bishop Thomas Doran - Rockford, IL
15. Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty - Scranton, PA
16. Bishop Robert Finn - Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO
17. Bishop Victor Galeone - St. Augustine, FL
18. Cardinal Francis George - Chicago, IL; President, USCCB
19. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger - Evansville, IN
20. Archbishop José Gomez - San Antonio, TX
21. Bishop William Higi - Lafayette, IN
22. Archbishop Alfred Hughs - New Orleans, LA
23. Bishop Joseph Latino - Jackson, MS
24. Bishop John LeVoir - New Ulm, MN
25. Bishop Jerome Listecki - La Crosse, WI
26. Bishop William E. Lori - Bridgeport, CT
27. Bishop Paul Loverde - Arlington, VA
28. Bishop George Lucas - Springfield, IL
29. Bishop Robert Lynch - St. Petersburg, FL
30. Bishop Joseph Martino - Scranton, PA
31. Bishop Charles Morlino - Madison, WI
32. Bishop George Murry - Youngstown, OH
33. Archbishop John J. Myers - Newark, NJ
34. Bishop R. Walker Nickless - Sioux City, IA
35. Archbishop John C. Nienstedt - St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN
36. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien - Baltimore, MD
37. Bishop Thomas Olmsted - Phoenix, AZ
38. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk - Cincinnati, OH
39. Bishop Kevin Rhoades - Harrisburg, PA
40. Bishop Alexander Sample - Marquette, MI
41. Bishop Edward J. Slattery - Tulsa, OK
42. Bishop Richard Stika - Knoxville, TN
43. Bishop Anthony Taylor - Little Rock, AR
44. Bishop Robert Vasa - Baker, OR
45. Bishop Thomas Wenski - Orlando, FL
46. Bishop David Zubick - Pittsburgh, PA

600 Clergy Decry Notre Dame Obama Invite

LifeSiteNews:

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, a national association of 600 priests and deacons, has issued a statement urging the University of Notre Dame to rescind the invitation to President Obama to be the commencement speaker for this year's graduation and receive an honorary law degree May 17...

..."If need be, a Catholic University must have the courage to speak uncomfortable truths which do not please public opinion, but which are necessary to safeguard the authentic good of society," the Pope wrote in the 1990 document, going on to cite the "responsibility to try to communicate to society ... principles which give full meaning to human life" as "a specific priority" of Catholic schools.

"The decision ... to afford an openly pro-abortion politician the privilege of speaking to graduating seniors at the commencement violates every principle of Catholic education insofar as it violates both Divine and Natural Law," said the Confraternity. "We are therefore saddened and outraged that any Catholic institution, let alone a prestigious university like Notre Dame, would afford a public gesture of acceptance and endorsement to a politician who openly supports the so-called legal 'right' to 'choose death', i.e., the direct killing of an unborn human being."

The Confraternity called the reasoning that the invitation would foster "dialogue" with the President on life issues "a non sequitur." "Speaking at Commencement is not an open debate, it is a monologue," said the clergymen. "Parents did not pay tuition for celebrities to speak at their son or daughter's graduation, they paid it to ensure a Catholic education."...

Up To Date Coverage of Notre Dame Disgrace

CatholiCity has a new webpage up with links to up to date articles on the notre Dame scandal. Here you may find speeches and letters by Cardinals, Bishops, priests, students, alumni, and others.

Pass It On.

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Notre Dame "Embarasses" US Catholics - Cardinal Francis George

LifeSiteNews:

...Cardinal George prefaced his remarks by noting that although he is the president of the USCCB, he does not have jurisdiction or authority over other bishops. His role, he indicated, nonetheless has "some moral authority, without any kind of jurisdiction or any sort of real authority. As president of the U.S. bishops' conference I have to precisely speak for the bishops and not in my own name, as I could as Archbishop of Chicago," he added.

George said he had spoken with the administrative committee of the bishops' conference and corresponded with University president Fr. John Jenkins several times on the issue.

"That conversation will continue .... whether or not it will have some kind of consequence that will bring, I think, the University of Notre Dame to its [the USCCB's] understanding of what it means to be Catholic," said the Cardinal. "That is, when you're Catholic, everything you do changes the life of everybody else who calls himself a personal Catholic - it's a network of relationships.

"So quite apart from the president's own positions, which are well known, the problem is in that you have a Catholic university - the flagship Catholic university - do something that brought extreme embarrassment to many, many people who are Catholic," said the cardinal.

"So whatever else is clear, it is clear that Notre Dame didn't understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued this invitation, and didn't anticipate the kind of uproar that would be consequent to the decision, at least not to the extent that it has happened," said George.

The Cardinal urged concerned Catholics "to do what you are supposed to be doing: to call, to email, to write letters, to express what's in your heart about this: the embarrassment, the difficulties."...

(Download the brief video to view in Windows Media format - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/video/CardinalGeorge.wmv - or QuickTime format - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/video/CardinalGeorge.mov - allow time for the download to complete.)

"Christendom vs Notre Dame"

There is a difference between 'marketing' Catholic and BEING Catholic

NCRegister:

The University of Notre Dame’s 2009 commencement speaker: President Barack Obama, one of the most powerful proponents of abortion in the history of the American Republic.

The recipient of Christendom College’s Pro Deo et Patria Medal for Distinguished Service to God and Country, to be awarded at Christendom’s 2009 commencement: Priests for Life founder Father Frank Pavone, one of the most dedicated defenders of unborn human life in the history of the American Republic....

One wins 'prestige' in the domain of the enemy, the other wins Heaven. What is the best use of my 'college dollars', in influencng the adult life of my children?

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Making Lemonade In Notre Dame

Head of Holy Cross order writes 13 page letter to Obama

CNS:

...U.S. Father Hugh W. Cleary, Holy Cross superior general in Rome, said that when Obama receives an honorary degree from the Indiana university and delivers the commencement address in May, he should take to heart the objections of Catholics who have been scandalized by the invitation.

Father Cleary asked the president to use the occasion to "give your conscience a fresh opportunity to be formed anew in a holy awe and reverence before human life in every form at every stage -- from conception to natural death."

The 13-page letter, dated March 22, was made available to Catholic News Service in Rome. Father Cleary also prepared an abridged version of the text as an "open letter" to the president, which was expected to be published on the Web site of America magazine...

"The Struggle For Notre Dame" - Update

Churchmen are lining up to speak about Notre Dame and their deplorable leadership


UPDATE

Archbishop Dolan - Notre Dame made a 'Big Mistake'


Catholic Online:

The escalating outcry over the invitation to President Obama to be the commencement speaker at Notre Dame - and the decision to bestow upon him the “Doctor of Law” degree - has an astonishing momentum. I spoke with William H. Dempsey, one of the organizing members of the “Sycamore Project”, the Alumni group which has taken such a strong stand against both. Among the many insights he brought to the discussion was his belief that this has become a “transformative event”, capable of bringing good out of bad. Indeed it has. The Solidarity among Catholics, other Christians and other people of faith and good will, with one another and for our littlest neighbors the children in the first home of the whole human race, is a potent force for building a New Catholic Action in the U.S. and beyond...

(Bishop Gregory Aymond of the Diocese of Austin, Texas)
"In the midst of such a sad situation, as Catholics we must continue to be pro-life and to proclaim with even greater strength the values of Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church. In my opinion, it is very clear that in this case the University of Notre Dame does not live up to its Catholic identity in giving this award and their leadership needs our prayerful support.” ...

(Daniel Cardinal DiNardo)
"I find the invitation very disappointing. Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning. The President has made clear by word and deed that he will promote abortion and will remove even those limited sanctions that control this act of violence against the human person.... Even given the dignity of the Office of the President, this offer is still providing a platform and an award to a public figure who has been candid on his pro-abortion views. Particularly troubling is the Honorary Law Degree since it recognizes that the person is a "Teacher," in this case of the Law. I think that this decision requires charitable but vigorous critique.” ...

NCRegister posts a contrast to Fr. Jenkins - Joseph Ratzinger's university experience

....“The Nazis had shut down the theological department before the war, because Cardinal Faulhaber had refused to accept faculty who supported Hitler, so the faculty had to be rebuilt, drawing on refugee academicians ..."

Fr. Jenkins Receives A Letter

Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix decries the Notre Dame decision to defy the Caholic Church by inviting Obama to receive honours

NCRegister:

Dear Fr. Jenkins,

I am saddened and heavy of heart about your decision to invite President Obama to speak at Notre Dame University and even to receive an honorary degree.

It is a public act of disobedience to the Bishops of the United States. Our USCCB June 2004 Statement “Catholics in Political Life” states: “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.” No one could not know of the public stands and actions of the president on key issues opposed to the most vulnerable human beings.

John Paul II said, “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with the maximum determination.”

I pray that you come to see the grave mistake of your decision, and the way that it undercuts the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel of Life in our day.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
Diocese of Phoenix

Although Notre Dame is a purportedly Catholic institution, and Fr. Jenkins is supposedly still in communion with the Church, the 'Obama' scandal is only one of several for which he is responsible.
Last year, against the Bishop's guidance, and with much negative publicity, Fr. Jenkins supported the presentation of the extremely vulgar 'Vagina Monologues', on the Feast of the Annunciation (!), and just prior to Pope Benedict's American visit.

CATHOLIC?!

Bishop D'Arcy Not Attending Anti-Life Honours at Notre Dame

"The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."

Bishop John M. D'Arcy will not be attending the Commencement ceremonies at Notre Dame. He has released this statement, via the Diocesan Communications website:

March 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.

Prayer From the Mozarabic Liturgy

We believe thee to be full of grace,
O glorious Mary,
Virgin Mother of Christ,
and reparatrix of mankind!
Great indeed are the blessings
thou hast conferred on us by giving him birth:
for the Fruit of thy womb,
Christ the Son of God,
hath delivered us
from the tyranny of our cruel enemy,
and hath made us companions
in the eternal kingdom.
Be thou, therefore,
we beseech thee, our advocate;
that through thy merits,
thy Son may set us free from our sins,
and after this life,
give us to reign forever in his kingdom.
Grant that he, who out of love for thee,
called thee to be his Mother,
may grant unto us
the rich sweetness of his love. Amen.
(From The Liturgical Year: Book 5)

Notre Dame Scandal Outrages Alumni *UPDATE*

PEWSITTER

“It is beyond sinful that a University dedicated to the Mother of God, in whose womb the salvation of the world became incarnate, would give a platform to the biggest enemy of life in the womb this country has ever seen.”
(Michael Voris ND '83)

"This is a direct slap in the face to all who venerate the Mother of God. To be honoring a man who continues to do everything in his power to destroy the fundamental essence of motherhood through abortion, shows just how far the University has lost its moral bearings."(Marc Brammer, ND Class of ’74 and MBA’76)


*UPDATE*
Well known faithful Catholics weigh in at an NRO Symposium, including:

George Weigel

...It’s bad for Notre Dame, bad for Catholic moral witness in America, and bad for the bishops who are trying to mount a defense against the Obama administration’s assault on the conscience rights of Catholic health-care professionals...

James Schall S.J.

...The accepting of the honor to the president evidently meets his purposes. The awarding it seems to meet the purposes of the university. Some say that it is a perfect fit. Others suspect that both parties, in accepting and giving such honors, manage to demean each other in what each is, in truth, expected to stand for....

Candace De Russy

...President Obama has zealously moved in his first weeks in office to carry out the most radical anti-life, un-Christian agenda of any American president. Among other actions antithetical to the teachings of the Catholic Church, he has increased federal funding for abortions across the world.
For Notre Dame to give President Obama its highest honor is blatantly to break faith and trust with all the Catholic faithful, the U.S. bishops who have expressly spoken against such Catholic institutional awards, and generations of Catholic parents and students who have relied on the university to stand by its hallowed purpose....

Richard Garnett(law prof ND)

...Notre Dame has clouded what should be clear, and deeply disappointed not just her usual critics, but also those of us who want very much for her to succeed....

Patrick Lee

....This is not a mere theoretical disagreement. This act of promoting a virulently pro-abortion politician will cost lives — the lives of many unborn. And it will harm young men and women by obscuring the ugly truth about abortion....

Ralph McInerny(phil.prof. ND)

....Administrators are hugging themselves with delight at this massive publicity coup. The national championship in football has eluded Notre Dame for many years, but when the president dribbles onto the stage at the great event, the hall will erupt in ecstatic applause; the president, Father Jenkins, will wring his hand; and a final nail will be driven into the coffin of a once-great Catholic university. No one will note nor long remember what Barack Obama says on the occasion. Who listens to commencement addresses? But the Lady atop the golden dome, recalling the flight into Egypt, will exhibit one of her many titles: She who weeps.

Patrick J. Reilly

....Beyond the matter of propriety, Catholics rightly suspect betrayal by a Catholic institution. With all of the possible honorees who could have been selected, Notre Dame chose the individual who is today the most dangerous proponent of the Culture of Death in the United States. For centuries, faithful Christians persevered under the persecution of emperors, kings, and Communists; but in the Land of the Free, so-called Catholic intellectuals freely honor those who are responsible for great evil. We have been betrayed.

Paul Kengor

...This invitation is, of course, an outrage. Notre Dame is not asking Obama to compromise his convictions. Notre Dame is asking the Church to compromise its convictions.
It boils down to the abortion issue: The late, great Pope John Paul II, along with the Magisterium (the teaching body of the Church), the cardinals, and American bishops, ordered Catholic colleges not to extend platforms to pro-choice speakers. And Obama is not even your run-of-the-mill “pro-choicer.” He is, flatly, the most radical supporter of abortion ever to occupy the White House...

R.R.Reno

...What was the leadership at Notre Dame thinking? In May the university will give Mary Ann Glendon the Laetare Medal, its highest honor. Glendon has heroically devoted a great deal of her life to defending innocent life. And then Barack Obama — a man who has devoted a great deal of his life to representing elite liberal and anti-Catholic moral views about sex, marriage, and reproduction — enjoys the spotlight. It’s an insult to Glendon.
The complacent leaders of Catholic institutions need to wake up. Many of the richest and most powerful people in our country are utterly and aggressively opposed to traditional Catholic moral principles. Notre Dame can’t pretend that the elite’s fondest hope isn’t for the death of the pro-life movement. And Notre Dame also can’t pretend that giving Obama the podium on commencement day doesn’t create the illusion that his abortion policies are somehow okay.
Alumni and donors need to wake up too....

Fr. George Rutler

This is a highly cynical act, contemptuous of the Church’s prophetic voice in civil society and wagering that there will be no retribution. If a midwestern school seeks attention by granting Mr. Obama an honorary doctorate in law, the next logical step would be to grant Judas Iscariot posthumously an honorary doctorate in business administration.

CHECK OUT Notre Dame Scandal for ACTION