But he is right. What is the use of a blog that sits unused? What is the use of a blog with a strange lower-case 'c' and an asterisk beside the word catholic, with no explanation? I'll deal with that later, too.
Right now, though, I want to take a little trip to South Bend, Indiana, to the lovely campus of the most significant Catholic university in America: Notre Dame. I arrive here with delight at the beauty of the institution, and awe of the comprehensive Catholic teaching about the sanctity of life, only to find that the President has sullied both.
Or has he?
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On Sunday, President Obama delivered his controversial and much-awaited commencement speech at Notre Dame.
I found little surprising about the speech itself. Not that I agreed with it—far from it. What I mean is that the speech was what I and anyone who has followed the president’s political career should have expected: he has repeatedly affirmed the position that a woman’s right to an abortion takes precedence over the unborn child’s right to life.
Nothing he said contradicted this. The closest he came to saying something “new” was his frank acknowledgement that while we should be working together to reduce abortions, at the root level, the pro-life and pro-choice positions are, in his words, “irreconcilable.” How true.
While I should be neither surprised nor disappointed, it's difficult not to be. For example, the president made comments about faith, doubt, and humility, saying that faith admits to doubt, and that that doubt should lead us to humility. Give the newest honorary doctorate of law holder an "F" for his “impersonation” of St. Augustine. You are wrong, Mr. President. Augustine noted that it is "faith that invites humility", not doubt.
Between his comments and the position Obama took on the sanctity of human life, I can’t help but wonder if the president really understands Christian teaching.
In any case, my issue was not with the speech itself, it was the appalling sight of the field house filled with faculty, students and parents wildly cheering. Now of course they should be respectful of the president and applaud appropriately. But no applause or chanting was warranted when he took positions that flatly contradict Catholic teaching and the Gospel.
Notre Dame, after all, is the most prominent Catholic university in America. Its mission statement speaks of the “Catholic vision” in Notre Dame’s scholarship, research and service. It speaks of “God’s grace prompting human activity to assist the world in creating justice grounded in love.”
As Pope John Paul II and others have made clear, an important part of “creating justice grounded in love,” is working to end abortion. Catholics pray for this every Sunday. For Catholics abortion is an “intrinsic evil” that “must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned . . .” The sanctity of life, in fact, in Catholic teaching, is part of the Gospel itself.
So while the president was being consistent with himself, the wildly cheering crowd was not. Obama never claimed to belong to a church that calls abortion an “intrinsic evil.” But they do.
Now the real problem this creates for all of us is that the average observer will conclude that Catholics were wildly cheering a pro-abortion president. So, we pro-lifers must be the lunatic fringe. The whole church is weakened. This is why we have been warned, and should be reminded, that there is no such thing as liberal Christianity. There is Christianity and then there is liberalism.
What we saw Sunday was, for the most part, a crowd of what should be called cheering liberals; that is, people who claim to be Catholic but deny the essential teachings of Holy Mother Church. The true Catholics were on the outside, protesting.
Be sure your friends and family know the difference.
*Several dozen people were arrested outside while the president spoke, including Norma Jane McCorvey, aka Jane Roe.
