The Hunchback of Notre Dame





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Obama, Notre Dame & the Modernists
 

On Sunday, May 17, Mr. Barack Obama delivered the commencement address to the University of Notre Dame graduating class of 2009. The University's invitation to Mr. Obama to be the commencement speaker, and to receive an honorary Doctorate of Law, had provoked a crescendo of criticism from pro-life Catholics and Notre Dame alumni, and even from dozens of modernist bishops across the United States. Yet, there was no official statement from the Vatican.

Despite the protests, the board of trustees of the University maintained a stony silence. The lay board, heavily laden with affluent novus ordo Catholics who have a deep and longstanding connections with leftist Clintonian politics and politicians, did not even acknowledge, let alone consider, the calls to rescind the invitation, despite the large number of alumni who threatened to cut off their financial support of the University if Barack Obama―a supporter of abortion-on-demand―was the commencement speaker. A small number of the graduates themselves boycotted the commencement exercises in protest. Other graduates blamed the protests―not the invitation to Obama―for ruining their graduation. This year's valedictorian stated that, in her estimation, Mr. Obama did indeed represent Catholic values, and the bishops were wrong to object. The bishops who spoke out against the honor for Mr. Obama did not make an appearance to support the protests, and posed this mystery: why would they object to Mr. Obama speaking at Notre Dame when they themselves routinely "serve communion" to pro-life politicians in their parishes and host pro-abortion-rights celebrities speaking at the colleges in their own dioceses?

 Alan Keyes, diplomat and presidential candidate, entered the campus with a group of two dozen pro-lifers praying the Rosary; most were promptly arrested and taken to jail. One of those arrested for praying on campus was a 78-year-old Catholic priest. Imagine: arrested for praying the Rosary on the campus of a university consecrated to the Blessed Mother of God! And the day after Barack Obama received a standing ovation from the 2009 graduating class of the University of Notre Dame―whom he had just told there could never be agreement between abortion-rights and life-rights―the Vatican's own newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, complimented Obama for "seeking common ground" on the issue of abortion and human life. It has come to this.
 

Commentary from Fr. William Jenkins, a traditional Catholic priest
 

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  • Glby Glenn McCoy at Townhall.com