Posted by
Professor Eisenstein on Sunday, May 17, 2009 1:22:08 PM
Today, the American Catholic Church has sold its theological soul on the platform of popular opinion and Hollywood popularity. Today, the best know American anti-life politician, President Barak Obama, will be the honored guest and speaker at the commencement ceremony of Catholicism’s most revered and renowned school of higher education in the United States, the University of Notre Dame. To put this in perspective, Notre Dame has by far greater influence on American public opinion and therefore the lay Catholic thought than the Washington D.C. based Catholic University of America. It is true a large part of that did not come from theology. Knut Rockne was at Notre Dame (Ronald Reagan was not; but the “Gipper” was.)
This is not a question of free speech or academic freedom. There is no state agency or law preventing President Obama from speaking. In addition, I am willing to bet that over 90% of the faculty at Notre Dame is anti-life, which is consistent with national academic figures. Consequently, Notre Dame’s students have been exposed, ironically, primarily to predominantly, if not solely, the anti-life, i.e. anti-Catholic, position.
At a time, this week to be exact, when the American national polls are showing for the first time that more of America’s citizens are pro-life than anti-life, this godless university decides to legitimize the position of proclaiming an abortion free for all by honoring its number one proponent in the world, Obama.
It is not just that President Obama is for abortion. He is the most anti-life politician on the planet. He has voted and argued for abortion positions that most American politicians have rejected as far too extreme. On this issue, he is even more radical than Mrs. Clinton and Planned Parenthood. In fact, Obama’s position is definitely more radical than current abortion law is in any European country.
In this Country, all that may very well be the Obama’s right to believe. There is no law against being wrong and/or immoral. But, there is no requirement that a Catholic university honors such a person and legitimizes this radical position. What the University of Notre Dame is legitimizing is that this is one alternative acceptable position among others. And further, we do not have a problem with people who hold this anti-Catholic theological position.
Irrespective of what comes out of Obama’s teleprompter today, Notre Dame has done irreversible damage to American Catholicism’s legitimacy when it argues for its cogent theology. The Pope, by not criticizing the University, has placed politics above belief. Although in this world that is understandable; it will not win any believers.
The fact is that one cannot be anti-life and still claim to be a Catholic. All that one is claiming when they say this is that I was baptized a Catholic and that is it. This might be true but meaningless as far as religion and God is concerned from a Catholic perspective.
Frankly, I am not Catholic. Yet, I am furious at the Catholic Church for speaking and acting out of two sides of its mouth. One is theological pro-life, which it tends to feed a lot and stand on in Africa and other “third” world countries. The other is political correctness to the point of making its beliefs vacuous. In the process it is not just remaining neutral, it is doing severe damage to the pro-life believers and is defending the killing of created souls. (By the way, I do realize that there is also a controversy about stem cell research but that is morally so far removed when you are confirming the legitimacy of an individual who supports the literal killing of “mistaken” aborted fetuses.)
With this speech, the University of Notre Dame and the Catholic Church forever end their place as the pontificators of the moral high ground. It is ironic, just as people were beginning to listen, the academic have succeeded to undermine the most powerful church in the world.