ND, Obama, & "What about abortion?"

In my senior year as a student at the University of Notre Dame, I was involved in a little act of civil protest.  Needless to say, the reaction was mixed.  I was glad to have made a friend that day, however, in Cappy Gagnon, the head of Notre Dame's Security Police.  Had I to do it all over again, I would do it exactly the same, except that maybe the protest would have been a little less reactive and more planned.  My problem with the event was not with, as Cappy says in his article, Liberman's right to say what he thinks.  Rather, my problem was with the fact that he was campaigning for office and using the University of Notre Dame as a platform for this campaign.  All in all, despite the reaction, I'm glad I did it.

Now, 9 years later, Notre Dame will be visited by another pro-abortion politician.  This time that politician is not campaigning, and he is not using Notre Dame as a platform (he has a bigger platform than Notre Dame already).  This time the politician is the President of the United States of America.  For some reason, and certainly not because I support this politician (I don't, for the record), I'm not opposed to his speaking at Notre Dame.  It seems fitting to me that the President would accept this invitation (as G.W. Bush did in 2001) and that the university would issue it.

I'm not convinced that this invitation is a rejection of Notre Dame's Catholic identity.  Nor am I convinced that this somehow gives scandal by some sort of tacit accpetance of abortion, somatic stem cell research, or gay marriage.  Nay, I think the University can invite him, invite the dialogue surrounding his invitation, and still call itself Catholic in support of those aspects of her own agenda that are in direct contradiction with some of his.

I just don't see a problem with it.

Mind you, I still think it would be cool if a student (or thousands) exercised their own conscience and protested it in some way.  I like revolution.

Comments

[Freder1ck]

The invitation doesn't bother me, but the honorary doctorate of law does...

[Suzanne]

Thanks for this. I agree with you, and I've been bewildered by the outrage over this.

[Brian]

Any time I see Lieberman on TV I think of this - and how I gave you the ticket. Well done.