Saturday, May 02, 2009

Notre Dame’s Obama invite riles Catholic bishops

There is good news here and bad news. The bad news is that the liberal wienies that have been dominating academia in Catholic Universities for decades are still thumbing their nose at their own church's teachings. The good news is that an increasing number of Catholics are not suffering this in silence any longer. And the "we are not putting up with this anymore..." attitude seems to be spreading into the ranks of the Roman Catholic hierarchy here in the United States.

Sad and embarrassing as this is for our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, I see it as cause for cautious optimism on the direction their church is moving in. There was a time not too long ago when this kind of insanity would not even have raised an eyebrow.

From MSNBC:

This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God.

The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's "clueless" decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17.

The nation's flagship Catholic university's honoring of a politician whose abortion rights record clashes with a fundamental church teaching has triggered a reaction among the nation's Catholic bishops that is remarkable in scope and tone, church observers say.

At least 55 bishops have publicly denounced or questioned Notre Dame in recent weeks, employing an arsenal of terms ranging from "travesty" and "debacle" to "extreme embarrassment."

Read the rest here
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1 comment:

Joseph said...

I wonder what it must be like for the graduates there. Exciting or annoying in having your special day become a controversial circus.

Kudos to Mary Ann Glendon, though.