Notre Dame Invites Most Pro-Death President To Speak

For those of you who are Catholic, this is probably something you've heard about already. For those of us who aren't Catholic, it's still a big deal in terms of the sanctity of life. First, the sterilized AP version:

Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.

Many Catholics are angered by Obama's planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure.

The consensus Thursday on the campus of the nation's largest Catholic university was that any president should be welcomed at Notre Dame.

Not according to a growing number of Notre Dame student groups, bishops, and other Catholics around the country. Some choice quotes:

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.

And:

A number of student groups at the University of Notre Dame issued a statement today repudiating the University’s selection of President Barack Obama to deliver its 2009 Commencement Address. The statement criticizes the president’s position on abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and other life issues, and chastises University administration for apparently looking over what they termed "fundamental moral principles."

An online petition -- boasting over two hundred thousand signatures -- protesting the 'scandal' of having Obama speak at commencement is rapidly gaining steam. Now, even a Cardinal has joined the chorus demanding Notre Dame withdraw its invitation:

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.

Why the outrage? If you don't know the record, here's a refresher from Gateway Pundit:

Already, Obama has signed several major pieces of abortion legislation in his first 50 days in office including funding foreign abortions. He also signed legislation to use taxpayer money to kill embryos in research.

Barack Obama is the most radical pro-abortion and infanticide president in the last 35 years. Barack Obama even voted 4 times to support infanticide.

The Vatican already attacked "arrogant" Barack Obama for using taxpayer money to fund foreign abortions.

We've also covered his aggressively pro-abortion positions here, including scuttling a ban on infanticide (see here, here, and here) while in the Illinois legislature, the same ban which passed the U.S. Senate unanimously (and which NARAL even supported).

There is no doubt that Barack Obama is the most pro-death President we've had. His record proves it. It will be very interesting to see how one of the most venerable Catholic insitutions in the nation will handle this situation.

Even if the school administration refuses to withdraw the invitation, the students and faculty still have a choice that could prove almost as effective - don't show up. It would send a clear and unmistakable message if Obama gave his commencement speech to an empty auditorium. It would also prove that there is at least one religion besides Islam that is willing to stand on its core principles no matter what.

There's my two cents.