Jesuit educators back Obama Notre Dame invitation

He has isn't speaking for this Jesuit who taught both at Georgetown and Fordham when they were truly Catholic Universities.

The Order has always leaned left with a large number of moderates and conservatives.

My generation is the most conservative and may I add certainly disapprove of some of the activities Jesuit Universities are having on their campuses.

The good Father once again has been affected with the virus of rationalization.

It's not a good virus to have because the ultimate end is VERITAS

Figures.

Thank God for the Jesuits.

Thank you for this enlightenment on the subject.

Why limit the objection to the abortion issue?

Why not the broader pro-life ethic?

The wars we're in violate the Catholic definition of a Just War.

Obama's sending more troops to Afghanistan and building up the military!

Why does a Catholic university support ROTC?

Way to go, Jebbies!

This is exactly what we need now. While we may not agree with any given politician on any given issue, the fact of the matter is this is the President of the United States we're talking about. Yes he opposes re-criminalizing abortion and has rolled back a lot of Bush era policies about non sponsorship overseas and all, but that should not diminish the fact that his election alone is a remarkable achievement in American society and in it's own way advances some key Catholic notions about the dignity of the human person. While he may be on the wrong side of a key issue for conservative Catholics, I cannot think of any American politician of any religion who has totally toed the line in regard to Catholic social teachings, whether it be about right to life or other various human dignity/rights issues. Therefore, because this is how our society is set up, all of us need to continue to talk about the issues openly, fairly and honestly and realize that we can still disagree with each other yet honor each other for our accomplishments and as humans. Our baptism demands nothing less in my opinion.

I am so tired when the word "children" is used by certain Bishops as if the organism being "killed" is a living, breathing walking talking little person with a nervous system, rather than a small collection of cells, which it is, in the vast majority of abortions. Why is it that people (especially the Bishops) cannot discuss this issue in incremental and developmental terms, rather than use such hyperbole? I still believe it is a matter of misplaced motivation, and a lack of concern for the welfare of the Mother and already-existing children. I will never really believe otherwise. The Church has ceased to be pastoral, especially toward women. For that reason, I have left. I am extremely disappointed in the remarks made by Cardinal George. (I always said that if I lived in his Diocese, I would still be Catholic, but I guess not now.) The Church has really become nothing more than a right-wing political party, as far as I am concerned.

"Father Joseph?" Curious. Jesuits generally use their surnames, not their Christian names...

Now is the time for every good, true and patriotic American to stand behind our courageous and upstanding new President, who so effectively, as a skilled mechanic, repairs the profound damages done in these past eight years of all out pizza throwing wealthy only frat partying which have left us so morally and financially bankrupt we cannot now perceive the dawning of an audacious new day of Hope, now, within the first rays of a new rising Sun. Where are those patriotic Knights of Columbus now?

Thank God for brilliant Catholic theologians, scholars, teachers and preachers like the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien who hold and guide this pilgrim People of God along the wise and straight path of peace, of compassion, of prayer. Let us pray now with our fine new President as he draws us all together once more as one people, one nation, under God, with economic justice for all. E pluribus unum.

Yes, Thank God for the Jesuits.

Thank You Fr. John Jenkins for having the courage and foresight to invite Barack Obama to be the commencement speaker for ND graduation this year. Obama is certainly a man of good moral character.

Because some believe that in EXTREME circumstances the death penalty is necessary or that an abortion is necessary or that even war is necessary doesn't make those people anti-life.

However, people who go to war for obtuse political reasons or call for the death penalty because we want to 'clean up the streets', I would think they could hardly be called pro-life. Yet our past president did believe in those things and was in fact supported by the Bishop of the Fort Wayne/South Bend Diocese when he went to the graduation at ND where THAT president spoke.

Barack Obama has proven by his own life that he is indeed Pro-Life NOT anti-life.

Thank you Fr. Currie and other Jesuit Educators who also spoke out in support of Barack Obama speaking at Notre Dame.

Indeed, thank God for the Jesuits. And as one who belongs to the Notre Dame family--two sons and a daughter-in-law are graduates--I say thank God for Notre Dame, too. You know what characterizes ND and the Jesuits, and President Obama? Intelligence. What a shame that there is so little of it in the institutional church that criticizes them.

Some of these bishops are as stupid as can be. Wouldn't it be far more constructive to engage the President in a dialogue about the "life issues" than to attack and condemn him out of hand? Attacking only raises the defenses in the person attacked and tends to harden them in their positions. The only folks Jesus ever explicitly condemned were the Pharisees who, by the way, in many ways resembled some of today's bishops.

Kudos for Father Currie, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and Cardinal Francis George.

If there is a tension between Ex Corde Ecclesiae, an apostolic constitution regarding the nature of Catholic higher education, and a U.S. bishops’ statement on political life, then it's quite clear that the apostolic constitution has the greater authority.

God Bless

Yes, Thank God for the Jesuits.

Am delighted the Jesuit Educators are standing behind Notre Dame's invitation to Pres. Obama. How do folks dissolve all areas of political life to the one area of abortion? No one is Pro-abortion. It should be RARE, LEGAL, and MEDICALLY SAFE. Have any of the screamers ever sat by the bedside of someone dying because of an illegal "coathanger" abortion? Have any of the screamers ever been in a tragic life situation that has brought a woman to such a dire choice? I think not. Compassion, compassion, compassion. Best wishes to Notre Dame and our President.

Would Notre Dame have invited George W. Bush to speak because he is in the pro-life party, although - don't get me started - he did more things in eight years to be anything but pro-life than we can mention in the time it will take Pres. Obama to deliver his speech?

Furthermore, what's up with this one-issue condemnation?

The cardinal is playing into the hands of those who wish to narrow the life issues to abortion making the Church, as Tolstoy observed, the tool of the state by which it can justify its barbarity. Thank you, Father Currie, for reaffirming the college and the university as open arenas of thought and debate, not merely tools for indoctrination.

The ignored and forgotten children splattered over the walls of Baghdad are grateful that their fate, too, is a life issue. President Obama's vision is life-giving for the Earth; Cardinal George's vision is life-preserving for the privileged and the few.

Bob Sauerbrey
S.E. Indiana

What mystifies me is that President Obama (who is not Roman Catholic) is much more in accord with the overwhelming majority of Catholic social justice issues (e.g., just vs. unjust wars, education, healthcare, workers' rights, stewardship of creation, providing for the common good, the role of government, etc.) than the anti-abortion storm troopers or current crop of bishops appear to be.

One wonders, is tunnel vision a natural result of championing only one issue?

The anti-abortionists' ways wouldn't be nearly as divisive if they would only show interest in children after they're brought to daylight. As one who sees the heartbreaking results of bad parenting on a daily basis, I respectfully challenge the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to put their (actually, OUR) money where their collective mouth is. If Cardinal Francis George and his brother bishops truly care about the lambs in their care, they will create an effective parenting skills program, institute it in all parishes, and put at least as much effort (as they do fighting abortion) to encourage parents and like caregivers to learn how to mirror God's unconditional love for us. After two or three generations of parents & children with healthy self-images, there's a good chance that the abortion problem and other social ills just might solve themselves.

The ultimate goal is to transform the world into the kind of world God had in mind when He created it. — Harold Kushner in To Life! (Yes, we CAN!)

Thank you, Father Currie. Your action restores my faith in the activities of the Church. So many remained silent in the aftermath of large scale clergy abuse and then jump on an anti-Obama bandwagon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

What is Truth?

It is a travesty that Jesuits promote a faith that is non-transforming and lukewarm. We need to pray for a deeper conversion of the hearts of Jesuits, and all of us, so that their faith is not just an accessory to their lives, and becomes more like the St. Paul faith that crossed oceans, got him stoned, whipped, imprisoned, chained and eventually beheaded for the bible.

-John

1967: THE YEAR THAT WILL GO DONW IN INFAMY, the year when, at the Land O' Lakes, many American Catholic Universities issued their Declaration of Independence from the hegemony of the Catholic Church, the year Notre Dame's Fr. Hesburgh, the new Father of the Nation, spearheaded this act of rebellion, the year many Catholic instiutions of higher education sold their souls for a plate of lentils at the trough of the State,and thereafter fought tooth and nails against Pope John Paul's document on Catholic universities, "Ex Corde Eccleasiae." And the Jesuit institutions of higher education were co-conspirators.

God Bless the Jesuits!

It's fantastic to see these educated, faithful, vowed men act on their intelligence and faith and not cave into emotionalism, and bully tactics from a VERY FEW emotional, single issue nuts within the church.

It's time for those of strong faith and sound reason to stand up and be counted!

A question to Father Joseph,sj

What does it mean 'to be a Catholic"? Is it to be a member of the Imperial Roman Religious Institution engendered by Constantinus and officially established by Theodosius I em 380 d.C.? Certainly, Jesus wasn't a Catholic! And he even adverted his disciples: "Don't put new wine into used wineskins..." (cf.Mt9,17). And "the ultimate end", isn't Jesus who said:"I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life" ? (cf. Jo 14,6).

Some of the U.S. bishops have been little more than cheerleaders for the Republican base, sanctioning the incivility and irrational discourse that we hear on Fox news and from Rush Limbaugh. Most needed in our society--and the hierarchy of the Church could/should lead the way--are civility and rational discourse, conversation that is marked by comity and intelligence. Thank God for the Jesuits!

On Passion Sunday at the Breaking Open the Word with our catehcumens, they brought this subject into their discussion. One wise catechumen said, "Wouldn't it be the more loving thing to do to embrace our President and affirm him for all the prolife issues he is taking a stand on? Instead of condemning him and alienating him through our harshness and unforgiveness?"

I am happy to hear this and I also hope this will produce some reasoned dialogue, esp regarding the politicization of the Eucharist. Reducing our faith to one issue cannot be acceptable for the majority of reasonable people. There are good political leaders who we will not agree with on every issue but if there is one issue that is most important to the voter, the voter should not feel guilty for voting for someone who is pro choice. An example I hold is that 46 million Americans are uninsured and do not have access to health care, for me that was a good reason to vote for Obama. It is not a sin to vote for a pro choice candidate if you are voting for him or her regarding an important matter other than the fact they are pro choice.

Where were you when they were torturing people held in our prisons? And keeping health care from folks so that eventally they would die? Did Jesus come just for the unborn? And then why should you? Didn;t Jesus come so that the blind could see? Well, see. These ideas -- that any one is important enough to be paid attention to-- are not radical. They are 2000 years old. Come out of self-righteousness and start paying attention like Jesus did--to all of the children. There is so much more to Obama.
and life.

Why is anyone surprised? Except for Joe Fessio the Jesuits qua talis ceased to exist during and since the reign of Arrupe. We were a Jesuit family. My brother received two degrees from John Carroll and I attended Xavier and later received degrees from The Pontifical Gregorian University (the Greg was then still Catholic), and from Georgetown University. Two daughters graduated from the College of the Holy Cross. On those rare occasions when we discuss ths Jesuits it is only to consider whether the time is appropriate for another suppression or whether we should leave it to the Darwinian theory of natural selection. They were 36,000 members when they were Catholic, and they are now about 18,000. It shouldn't take too long.

Where was the outcry when St. Vincent College invited President Bush (who has never upheld the Catholic teaching against capital punishment and who initiated the Iraq war which was condemned by the Vatican) to deliver the commencement address? The level of hypocrisy among many of our bishops is scandalous.

Remember the discussion on civility? Well, this is an opportunity for all interested parties to cut down the rhetoric and begin the process, as slow and tedious as it is, of actually discussing, sharing and critizing each other in mutual respect and understanding. That is what being Catholic means - not necessarily agreeing with everyone - but giving everyone the respect civil society needs and demands. As sacred as our Catholic faith is to us - we should witness to it with joy and conviction - but never should we be harshly dismissive to those who do not share our faith.

Yes, thank God for the Jesuits.

I have been reading once more the collection of writings by the Salesian Reverend Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide published in English translation by the great Orbis Books in 1990. I suggest we read once more his experience with bishops and ours, in unity of prayer. Read the original if able, including in light of the sometimes infelicitous translation.

In particular let us consider this paragraph recalling the time after the departure of Baby Doc Duvalier, when right-wing military coups cancelled two elected governments and repressed the people even more brutally than ever.

"Death squads were in the streets every night. Every night there was gunfire. Every morning there were bodies. In the streets, they rounded up the orphans who came to me for shelter and food and affection, and took them to Fort Dimanche and beat them till they had marks across their bodies. They hunted down literacy workers, and killed them. They followed journalists through the streets and threatened them over the telephone. They tortured and killed members of peasant movements. Students were slain. A priest was kicked out of the country. The Haitian bishops remained silent (p. 48)."

Those bishops of course had been hand-picked by the dictator for life Papa Doc Duvalier. Father Duvalier himself went on to be elected as President, despite the frequent threats and attempts against his life, and hard hitting disinformation in the States.

Now our nation struggles to recover with the audacity of hope from our own dynastic regimes of Papa and Baby Bush, with Obama as our President Duvalier. We can decide not to show up. We can decide to sit silently or we can join with our President in prayer and with all of our strength in the arduous task of rebuilding our nation from the moral and financial bankruptcy into which the prior regimes maliciously and eagerly immersed us.

The Reverend Father Aristide continues: "For hope is always there, even in the darkest times, even in the most obscure places, as long as you and I have the energy and the commitment to search for it, and then to bring it forward, to share it. Hope is there, no matter how heavily the boots of the Army tread upon it, in their effort to stamp it out. Hope is there beneath the earth - like the fire of a charcoal pit - and all it takes is a little air, a little oxygen, a bit of fanning to make it ignite and explode and burst through the surface like a refiner's fire, a purging blast of heat that will someday - if we work hard and carefully enough together - turn into a steady, even flame over which we can cook good, nourishing food for all the people; someday, that purifying furnace will heat a decent, poor man's kitchen stove. That is our work, to fan the fire of hope and turn it into a tool for the people (pp. 48f)."

Now listen up: We can honor somebody who says women can murder their own babies. But only if he's non-catholic. It's okay for non-catholics to be mass murderers.

Oh well, so much for Jesuit intellectuals. Sic Transit. I hear they've still got some decent business schools.

Now listen up: We can honor somebody who says women can murder their own babies. But only if he's non-catholic. It's okay for non-catholics to be mass murderers.

Oh well, so much for Jesuit intellectuals. Sic Transit. I hear they've still got some decent business schools.

I suppose given all the hoopla about Mr. Obama bowing to the leader of another nation, and Mrs. Obama touching the queen of England, one would expect all this attention to criticizing one who has different ideas. It's been my experience that it is those with the least self confidence that belittle the opinions of others.

As a graduate of the University, I have had many disagreements with it over the years, but this decision makes me proud. I do not approve of abortion any more than he does, but I agree with him that the decision should be afforded to each person. No matter how deeply you believe something to be true nor how many people believe it, as long as the word "believe" is in the statement, it is not a fact. And even "facts" change. The world used to be flat. It was a fact.

Interesting that Cardinal George and some bishops can lecture Notre Dame on its responsibilities as a Catholic institution, but seem not to be aware of their own responsibilites as Catholic hierarchy when it comes to the pediphilia scandal in the church. Strange, also, that some Catholics can get so in a lather about what happens to a fetus, but not seem to care a whole lot about what happens to young children who are molested by the clergy. When will this church get its values straight????

If there is one among us who is truly without sin, let that one cast the first stone. Othewise, it might be well to shut up and listen for a change.

This crisis is not a tempest in a teapot. It is a very serious one for the future of the Catholic Church in the US and, unless it is dealt with responsibly, the US Church could well follow the Church in Europe and find itself with far more empty churches than it has already. Cardinal George, the President of the Bishops' conferenee, has been all over the place on this issue, tacking left and right as the winds blow. Some of the bishops, like Bishop Martino of Scranton, seem to want a decisive confrontation with the Catholic colleges and universities whereby they "submit" to a type of fundamentalist Catholicism or else. Some, like Mr. Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, consider only about 20 of our Catholic colleges and universities as "truly" Catholic and are trying to force all the 260 or so others to submit to their views of what a Catholic university should be or to dis-affiliate from the Church. It seems that perhaps 30 bishops so far agree with Mr. Reilly, while the others, as usual, stay silent. Fr. Currie is right. A real dialogue is needed. If the USCCB can dialogue with Jews and Muslims and many others it can certainly dialogue with those who administer the US' great Catholic institutions of higher education.

The following are excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on life issues Evanglelium vitae.
“A new cultural climate is developing and taking hold, which gives crimes against life a new and - if possible – even more sinister character, giving rise to grave concern: broad sectors of public opinion justify certain crimes against life in the name of the rights of individual freedom and on this basis they claim not only exemption from punishment but even authorization by the State, so that these things can be done with total freedom and indeed with the free assistance of health care systems … The more radical views go so far as to maintain that in a modern and pluralistic society people should be allowed complete freedom to dispose of … the lives of the unborn.” The Holy Father went on to argue that it is the responsibility of all people of good will, but particularly Catholics, to work within the “civil law … to guarantee an ordered social coexistence in true justice…” so that all classes of human beings, including the unborn, are allowed their most fundamental right to live. Such statements provide the utmost clarity in suggesting that the defense of the sanctity of life for unborn children as being a primary objective when Catholics interact in the public square.

President Obama is a vocal and consistent champion of abortion. His past voting records and statements leave no doubt where he stands on this issue. He has been invited by Notre Dame to address their upcoming commencement. It is hard to imagine how presenting the President with such an opportunity to speak at a premier Catholic University and awarding him with an honory degree will further the cause of protecting defenseless unborn babies from the abortionist’s deadly grasp. During the upcoming commencement weekend the President will offer false concern for the unborn, present the appearance of compromise, try to project himself as a moderate voice on this issue and suggest that we all move beyond divisive issues to areas where we can all agree. His hard line unwavering proabortion stance will be blanketed by a façade of sensibility, and he will be presented in a shroud of reasonableness by a complicit pro abortion media. Conversely, Catholic bishops and others who express concern over this issue will be presented in a negative light. The pro abortion cause will be furthered as political protective coverage is provided by this Catholic enablement.

So why would a nominally Catholic institution do such a thing? One can speculate that Notre Dame may have fallen prey to the sin of pride. Most media reports have provided positive coverage of the college for their “openness” and “willingness to engage in a broad minded dialogue.” Prominent members of the intelligentsia will praise the university and its administrative grandees for offering a sophisticated Catholic voice as opposed to the anti-abortion rubes that afflict the Church with their repressive Pro-Life beliefs. The media will suggest that “modern” Catholics should follow the “intelligent” course that Notre Dame has so “bravely” undertaken. One can suppose that it is nice to have the President speak at your institution and then have the chattering classes bestow neat comments upon you. In fact, it is something that you can take pride in.

Long ago St Augustine warned us that the sin of “pride is the commencement of all sin.” He taught that it is the sin of sins, and it is often the root cause of much of the suffering that afflicts the human race. But on the other hand, why should Notre Dame bother with St Augustine, papal encyclicals and 2000 years of Christian teachings when you got the NY Times writing really cool things about you.

It is interesting to see so many different Catholic opinions on what an academic institution should be doing if it is Catholic. It is just another indication that being Catholic has a much broader spectrum of understandings than some people think. Surely if we are called to "love our enemies" that it can not be dangerous to listen to some one with a different position on even a serious moral issue especially when we agree on so many other moral issues.

Yes, let us listen to the wise words of the Jesuits who are too embarrassed to put the crucifix in the classroom for fear of not being "inclusive."

Yes, thank God for the Jesuits!

These protesting Cardinals and Bishops are only hurting themselves. They won't get Jenkins to change his mind and;

They'll come off as being further ineffectual in their authority.

They'll look mean spirited

And people are still going to say, "where was all your righteous ire during the sex abuse scandal"

Notre Dame will be fine, but these Bishops will just look like desperate fools trying to gain some sense of relevance.