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.