Caps and frowns

Ralph McInerny isn't happy about the final weeks of his 54-year career at the University of Notre Dame. The philosophy professor at the famed Roman Catholic school in Indiana had long planned to retire, but McInerny wasn't prepared for the university's choice for speaker at his final commencement ceremony in May: President Barack Obama.

White House officials announced on March 20 that the president would speak at Notre Dame's graduation on May 17 and receive an honorary law degree. (Obama will also speak at commencement ceremonies at Arizona State University and the U.S. Naval Academy.)

McInerny and other Catholics don't think the president is a fitting choice to speak at the 167-year-old school for one reason: his unequivocal support for legalized abortion, a position that's anathema to traditional Catholic teaching and legions of pro-life Catholics.

McInerny's ire runs so deep the professor says he won't attend graduation: "By inviting Barack Obama as commencement speaker, Notre Dame is telling the nation that the teaching of the Catholic Church on this fundamental matter [abortion] can be ignored." McInerny goes further, writing on his blog: "Notre Dame has forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic university."

John Jenkins, a Catholic priest and president of Notre Dame, defended the school's choice, saying the invitation to Obama "should not be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life, including abortion and embryonic stem cell research." He added: "Yet we see his visit as a basis for further positive engagement." School spokesman Dennis Brown said the university had encountered criticism, but no more than they expected.

One person who didn't expect the invitation to Obama: John M. D'Arcy, bishop of the diocese where Notre Dame is located. D'Arcy said Jenkins notified him about the invitation for the first time shortly before the White House announced the president would speak at the school.

The bishop said the president's life-related policy decisions so far demonstrated "his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred." D'Arcy said he would miss commencement for the first time in his 25 years as bishop of the diocese. "I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well," the bishop wrote on the diocese website. "But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith 'in season and out of season,' and he teaches not only by his words-but by his actions."

It's certainly not the first time a pro-abortion figure has addressed a Catholic university. The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS)-a Virginia-based Catholic college watchdog group-tracks controversial events and speakers at Catholic schools across the country. The group cited 12 questionable speakers or honorees at commencement ceremonies in 2007 (the last list available on its website). That list included NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, a longtime pro-abortion supporter and the 2007 commencement speaker at Loyola University in New Orleans, and U.S. Rep John Tierney, a pro-abortion Democrat from Massachusetts and the 2007 commencement speaker at Marian Court College in Swampscott, Mass.

The group tracks other controversial events on Catholic colleges: CNS listed 19 Catholic schools hosting the sexually explicit play The Vagina Monologues in 2008. That list includes Notre Dame.

CNS raises awareness of liberal and anti-Catholic trends on college campuses, and posted an online petition (notredamescandal.com) to ask Notre Dame to rescind its invitation to the president. By early Thursday morning, the petition reported over 150,000 signatures.

A coalition of at least 11 student groups at Notre Dame started their own website (ndresponse.com) to oppose Obama's visit. Emily Toates, a senior with Notre Dame Right to Life, said the groups weren't attacking the president but opposing his stance on abortion: "This is not a partisan issue; rather, it's an issue of respect of human life, and our Catholic character."

For now, Notre Dame isn't backing down. Two days ago, spokesman Dennis Brown said, "I don't foresee a circumstance in which we would rescind the invitation."