Obama, Notre Dame: Catholics approve

I wouldn't expect anything less, from an institution of higher learning, Catholic or not ! The issue is too important, for too many citizens, for it to be shunned, and snickered at, in a democratic society. The right to privacy is a constitutional right and can not be abridged by ancient religious tenets and must not be !! Let those who are so adamant about the sanctity of life, holler from the rooftops against guns, that our killing our children, about wars that we start for no good reason, other than to make some more money !! Where is their breast-beating, their rallies, against capital punishment, state-sanctioned murder !! Their arguments, are indeed, " holely ", for political and propaganda purposes !! It is bad enough that the Church has two black-eyes, concerning the despicable behavior of some of its clergy, they shouldn't compound their problems with more hypocrisy !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Listen up people these are not real catholics!. Its hard to be a good catholic, there's tough decisions that have to be made and there not always easy. The 47% indicated in the article tells me that these people are just riding the Obama wave. To follow the doctrine of the catholic church means sacrifice. Please don't spoon feed me the drivel that he represents an alternate view. If anyone at Notre Dame had any guts they would have with withdrew the invitation.

I just love the deceptive yellow journalism that is surrounding this event--particularly how the liberal media twists the results of the survey in their titles.

The survey actually showed that people that identify themselves as Catholic AND attend weekly mass (you're not a true Catholic if you don't--just a C.I.N.O.) oppose the invitation.

This is not about Obama, this is not about academic freedom. This is about a university that claims a Catholic identity that wants to honor a person who actively and openly opposes Catholic teachings. If the university wants to do that, then they can't claim their Catholic identity as it is against clear language from the U.S. bishops and the pope.

I would love to find the "Catholics" that Pew polls! I've asked around in my church and none supported abortion. As far as Notre Dame goes, the president, John Jenkins, actually insulted his own bishop and refused to follow the teachings of his own church! The issue is one of defiance from Jenkins and Obama is involved only as the 3rd party Jenkins involved. This is Jenkins' rejection of his own religion and that is why Catholics who understand this want the honorary degree withdrawn.

If the university wants to do that, then they can't claim their Catholic identity as it is against clear language from the U.S. bishops and the pope.

Posted by: Catholic Voter | May 1, 2009 11:03 AM

Funny...I thought the Pope was against Iraq. Hmmmm. But it is good to know that the right is willing to say who is a good Catholic or not as well as who is a good American or not.

I love it. Most Catholics haven't even heard of "the controversy". Of those that have, most think he should have been invited. Only white, conservative, mostly those who attend church more than once a week think Obama shouldn't have been invited.

All the rest get labeled as "not real Catholics", CINO. The sure sign of a dying cause, when they turn on eacj=h other to prove who is the 'pure'. Sounds like what's happening to the Republican, pro-torture, Party.

Even the Pope says, "freedom from ecclesiastical and political authorities is essential to the university's "special role" in society. He said the Pope "certainly should not try to impose in an authoritarian manner his faith on others."

Radical, extreme, outside the mainstream, splinter group, whatever!

Paul is still screaming about 'real Catholics'? You should hear yourself you cretin.

All these protests are ridiculous. The reason Obama was invited is just for the thrill the students will have to say the President of the United States spoke at their commencement. It is NOT political. Those yelling against are simple minded grandstanders that just don't get it.

30-40 years from now, many of those students protesting against the president's appearance, will be teling theit grandkids with pride about how they had the priviledge of the President of the United States speaking at their graduation. And the politics of the time won't even be an issue.

I spent 7 yrs at ND, as an undergrad and law student. Like most grads, I love the place; it is indeed a special place. I would be sorely disappointed if ND were ever to hesitate to invite the most powerful political figure in the world to speak.

In 1964 as a Student Government officer, I arranged to have us co-sponsor the appearance of racist presidential candidate George Wallace of Alabama. It's not about agreement or disagreement with the speakers views, it's about the freedom to hear all views without sanction.

George Bush spoke at ND even though the US Catholic Bishops Conference has been clear about its opposition to capital punishment. Did ND endorse capital punishment, which was not even the subject of Bush's speech, by giving Bush a podium?

Does ND endorse Obama's view re abortion, even though it's not even going to be the subject of his speech, by giving him a podium?

I spent 7 yrs at ND, as an undergrad and law student. Like most grads, I love the place; it is indeed a special place. I would be sorely disappointed if ND were ever to hesitate to invite the most powerful political figure in the world to speak.

In 1964 as a Student Government officer, I arranged to have us co-sponsor the appearance of racist presidential candidate George Wallace of Alabama. It's not about agreement or disagreement with the speakers views, it's about the freedom to hear all views without sanction.

George Bush spoke at ND even though the US Catholic Bishops Conference has been clear about its opposition to capital punishment. Did ND endorse capital punishment, which was not even the subject of Bush's speech, by giving Bush a podium?

Does ND endorse Obama's view re abortion, even though it's not even going to be the subject of his speech, by giving him a podium?

I suspect that the library at the University of Notre Dame contains books that are objectionable to Catholic teachings.

Those who oppose Obama's invitation should be consistent and insist that objectionable books be burned or banned from the library.

Furthermore, Notre Dame needs to question all staff and faculty members to make sure they also adhere to the strict beliefs of the Catholic Church.

Non-Catholics should be barred from teaching or working at the school no matter what position they may hold.

Only then will the Obama objectionists be consistent and not look like they are just making a conservative political statement

It is unreasonable to expect non-Catholics to adhere to Catholic views given religious freedom in the USA.

If Catholics want to reduce abortions they should make sure that there are zero children in foster care.

Catholics seem hypocritical about stem cell research. They oppose destruction of human embryos yet most of those are excess embryos created by infertile couples trying to have babies. Why is it better to just "kill" excess embryos rather than use them in life-saving research?

Infertile couples should get the message that God didn't want them to have children.

Where was the righteous indignation when GWBush spoke at ND in 2001? Is the church pro-death penalty? Bush was not only aggressively pro-death penalty...HE PRACTICALLY THREW THE SWITCH WHEN HE WAS GOVERNOR.

Oh, and how about Ronald Reagan in 1981? I must have missed when the church ok'd divorce.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan? He got the highest honor ND gives and you'd be hard pressed to find a more vociferous proponent of the pro-choice movement.

At the end of the day this either about politics or race...I hope it's about politics, but I'm afraid it's about race (WWJD, anyone?)...either way it's despicable.

"Listen up people these are not real catholics!." YOU listen up! Pro life-anti war-anti death penalty Catholics voted for Obama. For the dunces who fail to remember history, his opponent constantly flip flopped on the abortion issue-felt it should be left up to the states, and approved abortion in certain instances. He also supports embryonic stem cell research. Bush has been quoted (I have all the quotes and dates) as saying it wasn't time to overturn Roe, and he supported abortion in the same instances as McCain. Moreover, 2/3rds of abortions have been done under republican administrations and it was 6 republican justices who gave us Roe to begin with. For Catholics who have worked for over 30 years on right to life matters, it became clear that the republican candidates have been feeding us a line of bull for that long. And, the 'real Catholics' for the most part, including our bishops, were strangely quiet on the Iraq war when the HEAD of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican made it clear to them and to Bush that the war was (and is) a crime against God-immoral. So buddy, get off your moral soap box and take into consideration the statement recently made by a retired Archbishop in Alaska that the bishops raising a fuss over Obama's address at ND are acting more like Republican Catholics than Roman Catholics. Or you might consider Archbishop Wuerl's more Christlike approach to the issue. I'm just amazed at how many sinless folks there are out there-or I hope they are because they've been heaving a lot of stones.

Bishops should stop trying to force politicians to do what they have been unable to impress on the conscience of their faithful. Abortion is an horror, but so is war, injustice, greed, public immorality, etc. The list is endless. Some American Catholics seem to be obsessed with abortion, while they don't seem to have anything to say about other public sins and perversions. There is a lot of hypocrisy in all that. It's another fight so dear to all mollahs and priests, the fight for the control of behaviours, not even of consciences.

The facts are very simple. Most people who identify themselves as Catholic are not really Catholic by the simple reason taht they don't believe in the rules of Catholicism (doctrine). If one doesn't believe or support the doctrine, then they are not Catholics in good standing (to Paul's point). The Bishops have made it policy not to give a podium to people who actively support topics contrary to Catholic doctrine. this has nothing to do with anything else...the fact is, that the University was obligated to follow the policy. They did not. It was not their policy to alter as they wished. It is a policy for US Catholic institutions. The request should have been submitted and formally approved but the university knew it was rejected. Notre Dame receives millions of dollars every year from the Catholic church and other Catholic institutions. What should occur is that there should be financial penalties against the school for breaking policies and there should be penalties against the president of the school.