Bishop weighs in on ND controversy

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP/WANE) - Bishop John D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese won't be attending the May 17 commencement at Notre Dame that will feature a speech by President Barack Obama who will also receive an honorary degree.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, March 24, D'Arcy said his decision to not attend is not meant to disrespect the President and is not an attack on anyone.  D'Arcy stated his decision "is in defense of the truth about human life."

The announcement regarding Obama's acceptance of Notre Dame's invitation to speak at commencement was made Friday.  D'Arcy said that was the first time he was made aware that Notre Dame had made the invitation.

A spokesman for the University of Notre Dame says it won't rescind the invitation to President Obama to speak at its spring commencement despite criticism from some Catholics that his views on abortion and stem cell research run counter to Catholic teaching.
 
School spokesman Dennis Brown says that he doesn't foresee a circumstance in which the school would rescind Obama's invitation to speak at the May 17 event. 

Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins says the invitation to Obama should not be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life. 

The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for greater orthodoxy on Catholic college and university campuses, says more than 28,000 people have signed an online petition calling the choice of Obama "an outrage and a scandal."

The following is the complete text of Bishop D'Arcy's statement.

On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.

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.
I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.

I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.

Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.

Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.