BishopAccountability.org
	Tarnishing the Golden Dome? By Alfredo Delgado Taylor Daily Press May 11, 2009 http://www.taylordailypress.net/articles/2009/05/09/news/opinion/news02.txt The University of Notre Dame, the premier Catholic institution located in South Bend, Ind., has invited President Barack Obama to give the 164th commencement address. He has accepted this invitation and will also be honored with a Doctor of Law degree. However, the event graduates and their families have looked forward to after years of rigorous study and sacrifices will be marred by pro-life protesters who are angry over the invitation extended to the president for his pro-choice stand and his authorization of federally funded stem cell research, both issues which are not in keeping with Catholic Church beliefs. Notre Dame has in the past invited all standing presidents to speak since President Eisenhower and continuing with Kennedy, Reagan, Carter, Ford and both Bush presidents, with George W. Bush giving the commencement address in 2001. Taking the lead in denouncing the university, its president, the Rev. John Jenkins, and others associated with the university administration is Bishop John D’Arcy of the diocese of Ft. Wayne, South Bend. He has publicly denounced this invitation and vowed not to attend the graduation ceremonies. The move to prevent Obama from attending and speaking at the commencement ceremony has escalated to the point where approximately 90,000 signatures on a petition circulated online. Also, openly protesting the Obama invitation are another 50 bishops and Cardinals, including Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston and, not surprisingly, Bishop Gregory Aymond of the Austin Diocese. However, there are troubling questions surrounding the protest by church officials. During the past eight years the Bush administration found solid support for its policies despite overwhelming evidence that Bush, and the likes of Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others, were essentially pandering to the Catholic Church. It was not, as church officials thought, that the Bush administration was anti-abortion. Instead the Bush administration manipulated the church hierarchy and the many faithful in this country in believing their political efforts were presumably pro-life. During the presidential elections of 2000, 2004 and again in 2008 the Catholic Church committed significant financial resources to remind Catholics of their voting obligations. Slick brochures were distributed at church services providing that message. Even though the brochures urged church members to exercise their right to vote according to their conscience, the larger than life message in 2008 was, don’t vote for Obama. However, the propaganda did not convince the majority of American voters, including millions of Catholics, that voting for Barack Obama would be a sin in light of the church’s opposition to Obama’s pro-choice stand. In the 2008 election, Catholics overwhelmingly supported Obama’s call for change from the past blunders of the Bush administration despite the vague threat from the church to vote for the candidate who was pro-life. In retrospect there is very little to support Bush’s pro-life claim as promoted by Catholic Church officials. First of all, Bush, as governor of Texas, executed more people on death row than any other governor in the history of this state. Furthermore, because of his ill-fated invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, more than 4,200 young Americans have died in a war that has been called unjust by Pope Benedict XVI. Thirty thousand other young servicemen and women have been wounded, many with severe head trauma. Add to that the more than 150,000 Iraqi deaths since the war began, including women and children. Let us not forget the unconscionable torture technique known as water boarding that was permitted by the Bush administration, rationalized in helping end the War on Terror. Pro-life, hardly! Where were the princes of the church then? Not a word of protest from them during the past eight years. Lets go back further in history and recall the Holocaust. Over 6 million people were killed simply because they were Jews. Not one word of protest from the Catholic Church during that horrible period of world history. Let’s not forget the priest sex abuse scandal that was finally uncovered earlier this decade. It was also found that bishops perpetuated this evil by moving priests around even after creditable evidence showed they had been sexually abusing children. One more point that must be made. Condoleeza Rice, Bush’s secretary of state and a pro-choice advocate, was awarded an honorary degree by Boston College, a Jesuit school. Where was the outrage then? Recalling these past events of church neglect in promoting the life of another human being, it must be asked if the Catholic church is truly pro-life or simply pro-fetus. Trust in church leadership has waned considerably. Catholics would adhere more closely to the church’s tenets and teachings if there was more consistency to the demands made of them in exercising their faith, religion and traditions, and only if they were given good examples from church hierarchy. There have been woefully too few of those in the recent past. And the hysteria created over President Obama’s visit to Notre Dame is a clear example of a double standard at work in a religious vacuum. Pope Benedict XVI has stated, “A university must be free of political and religious influences in order to provide an environment of free thought.” Evidently the bishops and others opposed to President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame are unaware of the pope’s thoughts on the matter of study at a university. This event is not about faith, religion or a matter of biblical significance. Its just another opportunity for bishops to flex their muscle and are seen essentially as involved in political posturing. The University of Notre Dame will survive this controversy and will stand the test of time. In fact, the golden dome might shine brighter because of it.
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