‘Pro-lifers’ in a frenzy over Obama’s Catholic university address

IN four day’ time, on May 17, President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at the Notre Dame University in Indiana – and the hysteria among “pro-lifers” opposed to his appearance at this leading Catholic institution has to be seen to be believed.

A group called Operation Rescue has issued an “action alert” in the form of a petition demanding that Obama be stopped.

It says:

It is a scandal that one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States would bestow such an honor on Barack Obama, given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict their own faith’s fundamental teachings on life and marriage.

This is a man who holds positions on the issue of abortion that are in direct contradiction to those who support and attend Notre Dame University, on issues such as traditional marriage, conscience protections for pro-life doctors and nurses, and expansion of abortion ‘rights’.

Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, and popularity over morality. Whatever people may think of Barack Obama, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos.

This decision to invite Barack Obama to speak at Notre Dame’s commencement ceremony is WRONG, and it needs to be challenged vigorously.

Another petition has been launched by The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for Catholic colleges, which has been signed by more than 358,000 people.  The Society describes Obama’s address as a “scandal” and insists:

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

But according to this report, the effort to get the university to rescind its invitation to Obama highlights a political disconnect between the conservative Catholic hierarchy and millions of US Catholic voters.

Catholic activists and bishops have been outspoken in their criticism of Obama, yet polling and other evidence shows that Catholic voters have a largely positive view of the President, an indication that Catholics don’t always follow the Church hierarchy, whether on issues such as abortion and contraception or political preferences.

Obama is also widely popular among Hispanics, a fast-growing growing Catholic population in the U.S.

Patrick Whelan, a physician at Harvard Medical School and president of Catholic Democrats, said that by taking such a hard line against Obama, bishops and other conservative leaders risked driving Catholics away from the church rather than cool their support for the President.

There are unintended consequences to this kind of angry, vituperative language about their opponents. By making themselves pawns of the conservative right, the bishops are playing into a cycle of decline for our church.

Notre Dame students are generally enthusiastic about Obama’s impending visit to their northern Indiana campus. He won about 57 percent of the students’ vote in a mock election in October, compared with 41 percent for Republican John McCain, an abortion rights opponent.