Obamamos

Well, it finally made the front page of CNN (and Fox News, too).

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/obama.bishop/index.html

Father Jenkins invited President Obama to give the commencement address at Notre Dame this May. President Obama accepted. On top of speaking, he will also be receiving an honorary law degree. Now people are both protesting and praising the decision. The Bishop of South Bend is not attending the graduation ceremony, but Father Jenkins is defending his decision saying that it honors the President's leadership in extremely difficult times and doesn't praise Obama's stance on abortion.

Personally, I would love to hear Obama speak. But I'm torn on the role of a Catholic university in general. It seems like ideally Catholic universities are great ideas. The challenge comes in balancing the "Catholic" and "university" parts. If you emphasize the "Catholic" part, you must uphold that everything that the university does promotes or endorses Catholic ideals. Clearly, Notre Dame does not do this in all respects. Sure, there are protests over "The Vagina Monologues," but no one seemed to care at all when Cake and Akon (two not-exactly-Catholic music groups) performed on campus. If the university wants to promote and endorse only Catholic ideals, great. But it seems hypocritical to just pick and choose the popular hot topics of the moment. On the other hand, maybe the Catholic university wants to emphasize the "university" aspect more. This means that it will work on exposing students to many different view points and opinions, with the purpose of developing skills to critically analyze and discuss ideas. I think this is a worthwhile goal, but it is not something that can be done if the university has to only promote or endorse Catholic ideals.

I understand that there may be objection over honoring President Obama with an honorary degree when his conflicting moral stance on abortion. However, it has been Notre Dame's tradition to honor Presidents of the United States this way. In fact, five of the six last presidents have received the honor. I don't believe that any of these former presidents completely endorsed or promoted Catholic ideals. The fact that George W. Bush, for example, had such a history of supporting the death penalty should have garnered the same protests, but I'm not sure that it did. I'm not about to make a scale putting the past presidents in order from "closest to Catholic teachings" to "farthest from Catholic teachings." But it begs the question, where do you draw the line? Or do you simply exclude all those who are not in complete agreement?

This is a complex issue. It's one that deserves intelligent conversation and not quick, brash disagreements. I pray that it leaves Notre Dame for the better, in the end.