A VOICE FOR NOTRE DAME

A great debate has raged these past few weeks at the University of Notre Dame. President Obama was slated to be the commencement speaker. The controversy arose when the University decided to grant an honorary degree to the President. For the general public, the controversy may have seemed a non-issue but for American Catholics it was a huge issue. At the heart of the debate was President Obama's clear position as an advocate for abortion rights and recent actions taken by his administration to strengthen that position. His position, however struck at the heart of Catholic core values about the sanctity of human life. The Church has clearly stood by the position that life begins at conception and that what we often call "the fetus" is a human life worthy of being valued and defended. The American Bishops have taken the stance that Catholic institutions should not given platforms to and bestow honors on those persons whose values go against the core values the church holds and teaches.

The reason is simple. Such honoring sends a contradictory message to a world that is often morally confused. How can you say human life is sacred and then honor someone who says only
some human life is sacred or that human life is sacred provided certain conditions are met.

In the middle of this debate has been the local bishop, John D'Arcy. I first met this man more than 15 years ago while serving as a pastor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. One morning at ministerium, this blue-eyed, affable man sat down next me and humbly introduced himself, "Hello, I'm John D'Arcy." His Massachusetts accent gave him away as a "foriegner" to the midwest. I soon learned that he was the newly appointed bishop to the Archdiocese of Fort Wayne and South Bend (the latter, the home of Notre Dame). He had already established himself as a man of integrity for his leadership in the child abuse scandals that had rocked the Catholic Church in Boston in the 80's and early 90's. I never knew him as a leader to "throw his weight around." Instead, he worked with great humility and integrity to see that the Church under his care operated with consistency and a clear moral compass.

Bishop D'Arcy boycotted the commencement at Notre Dame, not out of disrespect for the President because of the position that Notre Dame itself was violating the integrity of its Catholic heritage and using its prestige (a prestige gained in part by the generous support of American Catholics) to treat with contempt the core value of the the sanctity of human life. Bishop Darcy wrote several public letters to the University's President, Father Jenkins, one of which I quote here in part: "President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life is sacred. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the office of the presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith 'in season and out of season,' and he teaches no only by his words but by his actions. My decision is not an attack on anyone, but it is in defense of the truth about human life."

The Bishop later wrote, "It would be one thing to bring the president here for a discussion on healthcare or immigration, and no person of good will could rightly oppose this. We have here, however, the granting on an honorary degree of law to someone whose acitivities, both as president and previously, have been altogether supportive of laws against the dignity of the human person yet to be born ..."

The media has made much of this debate, often at the expense of the Catholic Church and its core values. Perhaps John Darcy's words will shed a little different light.