Here is the text of a letter sent by the Archbishop of the Catholic Church's local franchise to the President of the University of Notre Dame, who has invited President Obama to deliver the commencement address there later this spring.
March 26, 2009
Rev. John Jenkins
President, University of Notre Dame
400 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Dear Father Jenkins:
I have just learned that you, as President of the University of Notre Dame, have invited President Barack Obama to be the graduation commencement speaker at the University’s exercises on May 17, 2009. I was also informed that you will confer on the president an honorary doctor of laws degree, one of the highest honors bestowed by your institution.
I write to protest this egregious decision on your part. President Obama has been a pro-abortion legislator. He has indicated, especially since he took office, his deliberate disregard of the unborn by lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research, by promoting the FOCA agenda and by his open support for gay rights throughout this country.
It is a travesty that the University of Notre Dame, considered by many to be a Catholic University, should give its public support to such an anti-Catholic politician.
I hope that you are able to reconsider this decision. If not, please do not expect me to support your University in the future.
Sincerely yours,
The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt
Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
If The Most Reverend Nienstedt were a judge instead of the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, you might say that his letter--what with "egregious" and "travesty" and the name-calling and the attempt at satire ("considered by many to be a Catholic university")-- exhibits a lack of judicial temperament. Perhaps that is why his letter, which is all over the Web, was not released by the Archdiocese. Someone who works there, though not the Archbishop, is sufficiently level-headed to recognize an embarrassment.
The appellation "anti-Catholic politician" made me wonder what American Catholics think about the subjects mentioned in The Most Reverend Nienstedt's letter. Turns out that, according to both Gallup and The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the views of Catholics on abortion, stem cell research, and gay rights are virtually indistinguishable from the views of the general population. For example, in the Gallup survey 40% of Catholics, and 41% of non-Catholics, indicated that abortion was "morally acceptable." For medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos, the comparable figures were 63% (Catholics) and 62% (non-Catholics); on homosexual relations, 54% of Catholics, but just 45% of non-Catholics, have no moral objection.
And here's a shocker on a subject The Most Reverend Nienstedt did not take up: Catholics are somewhat more likely than the general population to give their imprimatur to gambling.
Everyone knows the Catholic Church has a problem with pedophile priests. I was unaware of the extent to which the Church is threatened by Catholics who are, if we employ the logic and diction of The Most Reverend Nienstedt, anti-Catholic. Surely there must be a Bible passage that advises against condemning others when your own imperfections may be detected by the most casual of auditors.
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