Notre Dame "Honors" Fr. Hesburgh on Facebook

Check out the photo that Notre Dame chose to highlight on its Facebook page to "honor" former Notre Dame president Fr. Theodore Hesburgh on his birthday:

Highlighting perhaps the most prominent pro-abortion politician on Capitol Hill. Could you imagine Notre Dame posting a picture of Fr. Hesburgh with a segregationist? For that matter, could you imagine Fr. Hesburgh appearing at an event - even one in his own honor - if a prominent segregationist were in attendance?

The thing is that Notre Dame had plenty of other photos to choose from (see here), and decided to use this one.

Shameful.

Virginia Governor McDonnell Signs "Student Group Protection Act"

Bob McDonnell has done some bone-headed things over the last year-and-a-half to cost him FOREVER my once very outspoken devotion and support, but this outstanding action in support of religious liberty is NOT among them:

Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed legislation that prohibits public colleges from requiring student groups to adhere to so-called “all-comers” policies.

The Student Group Protection Act is designed to ensure freedom of association on campuses, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg.

The new law gives religious or political student organizations at public institutions the right to define their doctrines. To the extent allowed by law, they also can limit membership to students committed to their missions.

The ACLU of Virginia and some student leaders had urged McDonnell to veto the bill, saying they feared it would allow groups to discriminate based on religion or sexual orientation.

However, the Family Foundation of Virginia praised McDonnell for signing what it called a common-sense measure that protects religious liberties.

The ACLU said the legislation was an effort to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a university’s right to require student organizations to abide by nondiscrimination policies. The ruling came in a challenge by a conservative Christian group in California that excluded gay and lesbian students.

This would mean that my alma mater, the University of Virginia, itself once a litigant in one of the most important Supreme Court cases in the area of student organizations and the First Amendment freedoms of speech, association, and religion, will be unable to, for example, deny official status to campus organizations who limit their membership to those who follow a set of religious tenets.

Writing at The American Catholic, The Motley Monk contrasts this approach with that taken by certain Jesuit institutions of higher learning such as Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Fordham:

Wouldn’t it be ironic if secular universities officially recognize Knights of Columbus councils as student clubs while Catholic universities—like Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Fordham—don’t because administrators have determined that the organization is discriminatory and noninclusive?

Georgetown Law Student: Georgetown Should Pay for Us to Have Sex Because We're Going Broke Buying Birth Control

Unreal:

At a hearing of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee yesterday, a single witness — Georgetown law student and “reproductive rights activist” Sandra Fluke — told sympathetic policy-makers that the administration’s so-called contraception mandate should stand … because her peers are going broke buying birth control.

“Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy (Georgetown student insurance not covering contraception),” Fluke reported.

It costs a female student $3,000 to have protected sex over the course of her three-year stint in law school, according to her calculations.

“Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” Fluke told the hearing.

Craig Bannister at CNSNews.com did the math — and discovered that these co-eds, assuming they’re using the cheapest possible contraception, must be having unprotected sex about three times a day every day to incur that kind of expense. What Fluke is arguing, then, is that her fellow law students have a right to consequence-free sex whenever, wherever. Why, exactly, especially if it costs other people something? When I can’t pay for something, I do without it. Fortunately, in the case of contraception, women can make lifestyle choices that render it unnecessary...

[More]

Lady, if you want to be promiscuous to the tune of $3000 during your time at Georgetown Law School, that's your business. Knock yourself out. No one is going to stop you. Y'know, free will and all.

But to demand that the Catholic Church violate its teachings by providing you with the means for you to engage in your promiscuity is beyond arrogant. It's perverse.

This witness was called by "ardent, practicing Catholic", San Fran Nan the Theologian. Does she REALLY think testimony like this bolster's the Obama Administration's position on the HHS mandate? As one commenter at Hot Air put it:

Yes, PLEASE, trot out more privileged poster children like this. This is like an ad for our side.

Exactly.

Obama Culture of Death Update™: The Obama Administration's Anti-Life Attack on Franciscan University

Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State and 2007 GOP gubernatorial nominee, asks "Will Obama Destroy Franciscan University of Steubenville?":

... [The Obama Administration] is attempting to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Mr. Obama’s HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is trying to force Steubenville to dispense abortion-producing drugs and pay for sterilizations. This is a Roman Catholic institution. Such things are strictly proscribed by the Catholic faith.

Sec. Sebelius may be aware that Catholic institutions are required by faith and fidelity to their mission to uphold these principles. It is an indispensable part of their mission and their reason for being. To force a Catholic institution to violate the consciences of its faculty, students and alumni in this fashion is like forcing a Yeshiva to serve pork to Orthodox Jewish students.

This attempt to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville is, tragically, not an isolated example. From the first days of the Obama administration, there has been a kulturkampf (culture clash) against Catholic institutions not seen since the days of the Iron Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck. It was Bismarck who attempted to put all churches and universities in Prussia under his hobnailed boot.

Writer Charlotte Allen wrote of the “Persecution of Belmont Abbey” by the Obama administration in 2009. There, too, liberal zealots were demanding that the Catholic school, founded in 1876, provide contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations or face federal sanctions. This, according to the institution’s president, could lead to closing down the historic little college.

Chai Feldblum is a tenured professor at Georgetown University Law School. This is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Ironically, Feldblum, is also a homosexual legal activist. She was Barack Obama’s choice for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She told a panel at Family Research Council that if it came to a clash between what she calls gay rights and religious liberty, religious liberty must give way...

[Read the whole thing]

My Comments:
What the Democrat Party can't control, they will attempt to destroy. Whether it's violating the conscience rights of Catholic organizations by forcing them to cooperate in the Democrats' worship of Moloch or the coming persecution of the Church over recognition of so-called same-sex "marriage", expect more of this ... MUCH more of this ... in the future.

And, just as with Sebelius, it will be the dissident Catholics and other left-wing "Christians" who voted for this anti-life administration that will provide them cover and help to usher in a new era in persecution of those who hold fast to traditional Christian faith.


(Hat tip: Creative Minority Report)




This Obama Culture of Death Update™ has been brought to you by Douglas Kmiec, all the fine folks at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good / Catholics United / Catholic Democrats, and countless other Catholics for whom "Hope" and "Change" trumped LIFE.











Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Obama Culture of Death Update™: A Compilation of President Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record

Is Fr. Jenkins a Liar?

Pat Archbold thinks so, and it's difficult to argue with his conclusion when one goes over to National Catholic Register to read William McGurn's piece on the latest shenanigans at Our Lady's University:

During the firestorm that followed the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama two commencements ago, the university’s president, Father John Jenkins, wrote a letter to the Class of 2009 explaining his position. He stated his sadness that the honors bestowed on Obama had been taken as “ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching.” Notre Dame, he asserted, “was unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.”

Remember those words: “unequivocally committed” with no “ambiguity in our position.” How are these words reconciled with the university’s announcement that Roxanne Martino has been elected to the board of trustees? For it turns out that Martino, an accomplished businesswoman and ND alumna, has given more than $25,000 over the years to Emily’s List.

Emily’s List is not just any group. The New York Times recently called it a “fundraising powerhouse.” Arguably, it is one of America’s best known and most prominent political organizations in the country. And it is dedicated to abortion rights.

What was Notre Dame’s response? The chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Richard Notebaert, sent out an email to fellow trustees, saying that Martino is “fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.”

Notebaert went on to say that Martino “has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position.”

He’s not the only one putting that line out there. Now Father Jenkins has chimed in, sending some concerned alumni an email from “the Office of the President” that is almost word for word the same as Notebaert’s. One forwarded to me reads as follows:

“Ms. Martino (along with her husband, Rocco) is a Notre Dame graduate, and she is fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.”

“She has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position. This is not her personal position, and she will now review all of her contributions to ensure that she does not again inadvertently support these kinds of activities in the future.”

Father Jenkins has two big problems here. The first is his declaration that Martino was unaware that the organizations she donated thousands of dollars to “also” take a pro-choice view, in addition to providing a wide range of “important services and support to women.” When asked to provide backup for that statement — e.g., an example of a service that Emily’s List provides in addition to its agitation for abortion— Notre Dame’s communications office forwarded me an answer from Notebaert. In it, he reasserted that Martino supports Church policy, that she was “unaware of the specific objective of Emily’s List,” and that his and Father Jenkins’ statements about other “important services” for women applied to a group, and did not apply to Emily’s List. That admission, of course, suggests that his and Father Jenkins’ earlier notes were highly misleading — and deserving of a similar clarification.

For as Notebaert’s message confirms, Emily’s List exists for one reason and one reason only. Click the home page of its website, and it asks you in big capital letters — some in red — to “HELP US ELECT PRO-CHOICE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN.”

[Read the whole thing]

Author of Anti-Boehner Letter Exposed as DemoCath Hack

As if we didn't know it already:

Washington D.C., May 27, 2011 / 06:08 am (CNA).- The lead author of a letter criticizing House Speaker John Boehner on “matters of faith and morals” says the letter was a bid for dialogue, not a political stunt. But Dr. Stephen Schneck's own critics say he promotes a distorted version of Catholic social teaching.

Professor Schneck, who directs the Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies, was the top signer of a letter protesting Boehner's May 14 commencement speech at the institution where Schneck works as a political scientist.

[...]

The signers charged the House Speaker, himself a Roman Catholic, with ignoring “the teachings of your Church on matters of faith and morals as they relate to governance.” They said the speaker's voting record was “at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” regarding the obligations of “those in power” toward the poor and vulnerable.

But this form of faith-based protest has opened up Schneck to criticism over his own approach to the Church's social teaching.

[...]

Professor Schneck is a member of the board of directors at Democrats for Life, an organization he describes as “fundamentally and wholly concerned with trying to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

He is also a board member of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. That organization has received funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute, which promotes abortion as a “reproductive right.”

Catholics in Alliance typically backs Democratic policies, presenting abortion as an issue that should be addressed by ending poverty. In 2009, Schneck joined a “Catholics for Sebelius” initiative, supporting an Obama nominee whose bishop told her not to receive Communion over her abortion record...

[More]

My Comments:
So, let me get this straight. Differences over matters of budgetary and fiscal policy at the federal level make Speaker Boehner persona non grata. But Kathleen Sebelius, whose abortion advocacy and history of cozying up to late-term abortionists is so extreme that her Bihsop has admonished her against receiving Communion, merits this hack's going to bat for her as a member of "Catholics for Sebelius".

That, alone, exposes the guy as a political hack, a two-bit liar, and a hypocrite, and his views on Catholic Social Teaching can be summarily ignored as far as I'm concerned.

JUST REMEMBER this rule of thumb: Allegedly "pro-life" Catholic Democrats are ALWAYS committed Democrats first and foremost. Their party and its political agenda trump their faith and their allegedly "pro-life" views EVERY TIME it is put to the test.

Notre Dame vs. Texas A & M

No, I'm not talking about tonight's NCAA women's basketball final.

At which institution does your kid have a better chance of retaining and growing in his or her Catholic faith and identity?

I'm not asking that rhetorically; I'd really be interested in knowing. Both schools are in my top 3 "wish list" of colleges to encourage my children to attend (the other being the University of Virginia, with it's strong Dominican presence; Providence is also under consideration).

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

New Cardinal Newman Society Blog: Campus Notes

Check out the new blog of the Cardinal Newman Society, Campus Notes.

Especially pay attention over the next several days to the blog's coverage of the Society's official pilgrimage to England for the Pope's beatification of Cardinal Newman: "Official U.S. Pilgrimage to Newman’s Beatification Kicks Off in 2 Days".

Did Notre Dame Retaliate Against Administrator Who Supported NDResponse During Dust-Up Over Obama Commencement Invite? [UPDATED]

It sure looks that way to me:

The decision by Father Tom Doyle, Notre Dame’s new Vice-President for Student Affairs to fire Bill Kirk from his position as Associate Vice-President for Residence Life has left many of us with an empty feeling. It has also put another dent in Notre Dame’s reputation as a family-friendly and compassionate employer. The decision was both unfair and imprudent. It was unfair, because, as a loyal employee of Notre Dame for almost 22 years—and one who had been placed repeatedly in positions where he took the brunt of public criticism for enforcing policies adopted by his superiors—he deserved better from those superiors than to be removed from office with no notice and with no public explanation for his removal. It was imprudent, because administrators of Bill Kirk’s talent, compassion and principled commitment to the good are rare. He loved Notre Dame and he loved and respected the students whose welfare he vigorously pursued.

In addition, his removal from office took place against the background of other events at Notre Dame that inevitably raised questions about its real motivation...

[...]

The larger role played by Bill Kirk and his family at Notre Dame and in the local community also raises questions about the wisdom—indeed, the fairness—of severing him from this community. Bill’s wife, Elizabeth, has played a very visible role on campus in recent years as the Associate Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. She has also figured prominently in campus affairs as the faculty advisor for the Right to Life Club and the Identity Project. She has been one of a very few articulate and confident pro-life women on campus prepared to mentor young women seeking to take on the tricky balancing act of wife, mother and career. She has increasingly played a role nationally and internationally as a leading pro-life spokesperson and, together with her husband, has forged important links between Notre Dame and other organizations in the community. As official faculty advisor to the Right to Life Club, Elizabeth served as primary advisor to the student coalition formed in the spring of 2009 as “NDResponse” and served as a conduit for many, including junior, untenured faculty members, who were unwilling to get involved directly for fear of reprisal. Without compromising his administrative duties, Bill stood with the students of NDResponse at their rally on the South Quad on Commencement day. He was the only senior administrator at Notre Dame willing to do so. With the firing of Bill Kirk, Notre Dame will almost certainly also be deprived of Elizabeth’s talents.

At the time Bill took part in the NDResponse rally, many people commented on the courage it took for him to stand with his wife and other witnesses to this protest of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary degree. I personally discounted these worries, believing that the Notre Dame administration would admire him for his principled stand on a matter so close to the Catholic heart of Notre Dame, even if they disagreed with his particular action. The administration welcomed President Obama’s sharp dissent from and attack on central Catholic teaching on life. It seemed only reasonable that they would equally welcome dissent from university policy by such a loyal Catholic and member of the Notre Dame family as Bill Kirk—especially when his dissent was made in the name of the Catholic principles at Notre Dame’s heart and in the company of his bishop.

Perhaps, alas, there was reason for Bill Kirk to be worried about his participation in NDResponse after all. There is no doubt that the treatment of Bill Kirk this summer will have a chilling effect on the participation of other administrators, unprotected by the safety net of tenure, in the great debates about public policy and moral principle into which Notre Dame will be inevitably drawn. A number of other administrators have told me that in light of Bill Kirk’s treatment, they will in the future keep their heads down rather than dissent from the policies of the central administration...

[Read the whole thing]

My Comments:
Disgusting. Jeer, jeer for old Notre Shame.


UPDATE
The Corner at NRO gets in on the story: "Obama at Notre Dame: Golden Dome Bosses Serve a Cold Dish of Revenge"

... Kirk and his wife Elizabeth are prominent campus abortion foes (she was assistant director of one of the few institutes on campus that is avowedly pro-life and orthodox). Now their voices have been silenced, and by the same people who gnash their teeth and pluck their beards about living wages, unionization, fair treatment of employees, and the rest of the Catholic Left’s lobbying agenda. One can hear the college brass channeling Henry II: Will no one rid us of this troublesome pro-life Associate Vice-President for Residence Life?

Others commenting:

Prof. Francis Beckwith: "That's a cross, but it's not very holy: the dismissal of Notre Dame's Bill Kirk"

Carl Olson: "Ignominy at Notre Dame"

Twentieth Anniversary of Ex corde Ecclesiae

From the Cardinal Newman Society:

On the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 2010, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex corde Ecclesiae. CNS has written an extensive Timeline and Background of Ex corde Ecclesiae to mark the anniversary and shed light on the importance of this historic Church constitution.

“The requirements of Ex corde Ecclesiae are of continuing importance for Catholic colleges and universities in 2010,” said CNS President Patrick J. Reilly. “We are still in the midst of the educational crisis to which Ex corde responded 20 years ago, and we await full implementation of the constitution’s ‘norms’ in the U.S. In order to rediscover the Catholic identity of their colleges and universities, presidents and board members must revisit the vital message of this landmark document.”

Reilly continued, “A new generation of Catholic administrators, professors and students are already reaping the fruit of strong Catholic identity brought about by adherence to Ex corde. Catholic colleges and universities included in our Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College have worked to integrate the principles of Ex corde into every aspect of their institutions.”

“On this anniversary, CNS and its more than 20,000 members continue to pray that more Catholic university leaders will embrace Ex corde Ecclesiae and courageously stand up for Catholic teaching in a world that is so desperately searching for the Truth.”

On August 15, 1990, Pope John Paul II responded to the decades-long crisis in Catholic higher education by issuing the apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae. The document, which has the binding effect of Church law, was the first official Catholic Church document defining the essential relationship between Catholic institutions of higher education and the Church.

Inspired by the message of Ex corde Ecclesiae, Patrick J. Reilly and other recent Catholic college graduates founded The Cardinal Newman Society in 1993 to seek the faithful implementation of the apostolic constitution in the United States.Ex corde Ecclesiae’s guidelines include:

· the requirement for any official action of a Catholic university to be in harmony with its Catholic identity;

· the responsibility of all Catholic university professors and administrators to promote, or at least to respect, the institution’s Catholic identity;

· the need of all professors of Catholic theology to have a “mandate” from the local bishop to teach; and

· the requirement that Catholic professors should be in the majority at a Catholic university.

In 1999, the U.S. bishops approved clear guidelines to implement Ex corde. Since then, it is evident that most of Catholic higher education is still undergoing the crisis that Ex corde was issued to address.

CNS continues to report on the abuses of Catholic identity that take place across the United States every year. Recent examples such as Notre Dame’s bestowal of an honorary doctorate of law upon pro-abortion President Barack Obama, the increasing support for abortion and gay “marriage” among Catholic students, and the fact that nearly one in eight Catholics leave the Church by their graduation from Catholic colleges demonstrate that the “educational emergency,” in Pope Benedict XVI’s words, is still prevalent.

Two years ago, during his visit to the United States of America, Pope Benedict XVI convened a meeting of Catholic college and university presidents in Washington, D.C., where he echoed key themes of Ex corde on the importance of Catholic identity. The Holy Father told the Catholic presidents that the current “crisis of truth” is rooted in a “crisis of faith.”

In 2011, the U.S. bishops are scheduled to conduct a review of the implementation of Ex corde Ecclesiae over the past 10 years since their particular guidelines for American institutions went into effect. Details for this review have not yet been made public.

CNS narrates the story of Ex corde Ecclesiae and its implementation in the Timeline and Background of Ex corde Ecclesiae.

Does Catholic University's Choice for New President Represent a Step Backwards for Orthodoxy and Authentic Catholic Identity?

Catholic Culture has a profile of Catholic University's newly appointed President, John H. Garvey, current dean of Boston College Law School:

... Commenting on academic freedom and Catholic identity in a 2002 letter, Mr. Garvey wrote:

On several occasions I have heard people express concern that the Catholic identity of Boston College and the Law School will require a certain orthodoxy, or suppress unorthodox opinions, among its faculty and students. No school that regulates ideas can justly call itself a university. Indeed, it is precisely because we are committed to the search for truth in an atmosphere of academic freedom that the Law School can render a useful service to the Church and the cause of justice. It is natural that we should have a particular interest in the intersection of law and religion. (Though this is not our only focus.) But when people address that subject here they do not speak for (or against) the church hierarchy. They follow where their inquiries lead them.

In 2007, Mr. Garvey was criticized by the Cardinal Newman Society when the law school awarded an honorary degree to Rep. Edward J. Markey, an abortion proponent with a 100% 'pro-choice' voting record. “Congressman Ed Markey is one of the most distinguished graduates of Boston College Law School, whose career of public service reflects the very best values and traditions of the School,” said Mr. Garvey. “I don't believe Boston College has ever had a better friend in the United States Congress than Ed Markey.”

In awarding an honorary degree to Rep. Markey, Boston College Law School failed to heed the 2004 US bishops’ document “Catholics in Political Life,” which stated, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

[...]

According to federal election records, Mr. Garvey made three donations to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whose support for abortion led 14 bishops to state during the 2004 presidential campaign that they would deny him Holy Communion. In June 2002, Mr. Garvey donated $250 to the Kerry Committee; in March 2003, he donated $1,000 to John Kerry for President, Inc.; and in April 2004, he donated $500 to John Kerry for President, Inc...

[More]

Whatever Mr. Garvey's past inclinations at BC might have been, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit, who chairs Catholic University's board of trustees and led the nine-month search, has made clear where he thinks the priorities of the university's new president should lie:

... Vigneron said the university board expects Garvey to continue [former president and newly appointed Bishop of Trenton, N.J., David M.] O'Connell's work to reclaim a Catholic identity for the Northeast Washington campus. O'Connell raised the share of students and faculty who self-identified as Catholics and hosted Pope Benedict XVI in a 2008 visit...

My Comments:
I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how that works out.

Sycamore Trust Reports More Troubling News from Our Lady's University [UPDATED]

Sycamore Trust - a group of Notre Dame alumni working to preserve the university's Catholic identity - reports that America's flagship Catholic university is working overtime to undermine those efforts:

SOUTH BEND, IN - Notre Dame absolves pro-gay and anti-military trespassers but supports prosecution of pro-life demonstrators; Father Hesburgh accedes to Speaker Pelosi’s request to call key Congressman about health care bill.

We have learned that a few years ago the University dropped trespass charges against pro-gay and anti-military demonstrators. This contrasts sharply with the University’s ongoing support of the trespass prosecutions of the pro-life Commencement Day demonstrators (“the ND88”).

[...]

The name of Father Hesburgh suddenly surfaced in the accounts of Speaker Pelosi’s successful management of the health care bill. A McClatchy report, which mirrored other accounts and spread rapidly, led off with this:

In the tense hours Sunday leading up to the House vote on a historic health care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took time to call the former president of Notre Dame, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh....What she wanted was Hesburgh to help lock up the vote of Rep. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat from South Bend, Ind., who was wavering over the abortion issue. Donnelly ultimately pressed the yes button late Sunday night.

Representative Donnelly’s press secretary then confirmed that Father Hesburgh had in fact made the call. She added that he “did not tell Donnelly how to vote” – as if anyone would think otherwise – but rather advised, “Vote your conscience.”

Father Hesburgh made the call at Pelosi’s request. Clearly, the call was made within the context of the strong opposition of the nation’s bishops to the bill. The call has been characterized in the media as designed “to convince [Donnelly]t o vote for the final bill at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s request.”

[Read the whole thing]

(Hat tip: PewSitter.com)


UPDATED (22 June)
I received a very nice note in the comments from Mr. Bill Dempsey, President of Sycamore Trust:

We appreciate your reproducing our bulletin because we believe that information touching upon the Catholic character of Notre Dame should be of general concern. And while we would not use terms like "perfidy," we have no standing to object to your characterization of the facts we report. However, your statement that "Sycamore Trust . . . reports that [Notre Dame] is working overtime to earn the moniker 'Notre Shame'" might be read to mean that we used the phrase "Notre Shame." I realize you did not mean to imply that we did, but I want to make perfectly clear to readers that we did not and would not. While there is much to criticize about Notre Dame, there is also much to praise. Our hope is that accurate and respectful criticism will assist in arresting and then reversing the secularization that has been for decades eroding Notre Dame's Catholic identity. Again, we thank you for your coverage of matters important to Catholics and to the Church.

Bill Dempsey, President, Sycamore Trust

In light of his comments, I have updated this post to change the terms that might be deemed objectionable.

Ralph McInerny and the Tragedy of Notre Dame

George Weigel eulogizes Ralph McInerny (and the Notre Dame that no longer exists):

... Ralph McInerny was arguably the most distinguished scholar ever to work at Notre Dame. His scholarly publications outstrip those of other Notre Dame philosophers by orders of magnitude—and that’s before we get to his popular fiction, his magazine work, and his encouraging of generations of younger Catholic academics. Yet a university that does not hesitate to boast of its accomplishments as measured by the U.S. News and World Report ratings seemed curiously reticent about celebrating the life and accomplishments of Ralph McInerny. The university Web site posted a nicely written obituary three days after his death, but there was little sense in the university’s official recognition of its loss that a gigantic figure had left the scene.

One cannot help suspect that this has something to do with the fact that Ralph thought Notre Dame had gone off the rails in its dogged and relentlessly self-promoting attempts to measure itself against what it likes to term “peer schools,” such as Dartmouth and Yale. What Ralph understood, and what the man who brought him to Notre Dame, the legendary Father Theodore Hesburgh, has never seemed to understand, is that that’s the wrong plumb-line by which to measure a Catholic university’s accomplishment. Or indeed any university’s accomplishment, given the intellectual chaos, political correctness, decadence, and madcap trendiness that has afflicted those “peer schools” since the late Sixties.

Ralph McInerny knew, and could demonstrate with acute philosophical rigor, that there are truths built into the world and into us: truths we can know by exercising the arts of reason; truths that, known, lay certain moral obligations on us, personally and in our civic lives. With the rarest of exceptions, they don’t know that, and in fact they deny that, at the “peer schools” to which Notre Dame is addicted to comparing itself. And therein lay the tragedy of Notre Dame and Catholic institutions of higher education of a similar cast of mind, as Ralph saw it: they had sold their intellectual and moral birthright—the true excellence that comes from an immersion in the Great Tradition of western higher learning—for a mess of pottage.

I’ve long thought that all of this had something to do with the misreading of a 1955 essay by Father John Tracy Ellis, “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life,” which justifiably criticized the shabby condition of too much of Catholic higher education in the United States in those days. Father Hesburgh and others influenced by one reading of Ellis’s critique decided that the thing to do was for Notre Dame to become Harvard, so to speak. Ralph McInerny thought that this didn’t make much sense at a time when those “peer schools” were awash in pragmatism and utilitarianism. Rather, he believed (and I think this was the more accurate reading of Ellis) that Notre Dame and other premier Catholic universities should play to strength, emphasizing a demanding liberal arts education while bringing the best of the mid-20th century Catholic philosophical, theological and literary renaissance to bear in the U.S. Doing that, Catholic universities would model a form of higher learning that was truth-centered, character-building, and life-inspiring...

(Hat tip: Don McClarey)


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Notre Shame Fails the "Catholic" Test Yet Again

Ralph McInerny (1929-2010) [UPDATED]

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 2: Why the Catholic Faithful WERE Scandalized

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 1: "Why I Was Not Scandalized"

What Happened to Notre Dame?

Notre Shame Fails the "Catholic" Test Yet Again

Preeminent Catholic legal scholar, Prof. Charles Rice, who writes a regular column that appears in the Notre Dame student newspaper, submits a column on the Church's teaching regarding homosexuality, and the editor of the student newspaper rejects it because it isn't in a "point-counterpoint format" that offers "an opposing or differing viewpoint":

That way, each “side,” [so] to speak, would have the opportunity to present relevant facts, evidence and analysis to define its position.

So, at America's flagship "Catholic" university, the Church's timeless Magisterial teachings represent merely one viewpoint that needs to be "balanced" by what? The secularist viewpoint? As The Curt Jester points out:

America Magazine tried that both sides format until their editor supposedly got sacked for it... This is just not an area where Catholics can have differing viewpoints and still be faithful to the Church.

But is anyone REALLY surprised by the fact that the Notre Dame student newspaper is taking such an approach? I mean, when the Church's timeless Magisterial teachings regarding abortion are treated by the University administration as something open for "dialogue", and the advocates of abortion on demand are honored with prominent speaking positions and honorary law degrees all in the name of "the exchange of ideas", it is no wonder that the students under their charge are left with the impression that the teachings of the Catholic Church are up for debate.

Do read The Curt Jester's entire piece on the exchange of letters between the still-wet-behind-the-ears editor-in-chief of a frickin' student newspaper and one of the world's preeminent scholars of the Natural Law and the Catholic legal tradition (to whom the clueless upstart refers as "Mr. Rice", as opposed to "Dr. Rice" or "Prof. Rice").

Also, be sure to read Prof. Rice's column, which The Curt Jester has reprinted in full, to see if you can spot the "certain language" with which the editor "was a bit concerned" and feared did not "len[d] itself to creating a productive discussion".


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
An Open Letter from Prof. Rice to Fr. Jenkins

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 2: Why the Catholic Faithful WERE Scandalized

Prof. Freddoso's Introduction to What Happened to Notre Dame? - Part 1: "Why I Was Not Scandalized"

What Happened to Notre Dame?

Notre Dame's Frs. Hesburgh, Jenkins, and Scully urge Democrats not to kill school choice

Prof. Rick Garnett reports at Mirror of Justice:

Dear Senator Durbin and Secretary Duncan,

... We write today because we are all deeply disappointed by the turn of events that has led to the imminent demise of the Washington DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), and we are gravely concerned about the effects that the unprecedented gestures that have jeopardized this program will have on some of the most at-risk children in our nation’s capital.

[...]

Three decades of research tell us that Catholic schools are often the best providers of educational opportunity to poor and minority children. Students who attend Catholic schools are 42 percent more likely to graduate from high school and are two and a half times more likely to graduate from college than their peers in public schools. Recent scholarship on high school graduation rates in Milwaukee confirms that programs like the OSP can, over time, create remarkable opportunities for at-risk children. And after only three years, the research commissioned by the Department of Education is clear and strong with regard to the success of the OSP, as you both well know. This program empowers parents to become more involved in their children’s education. Parents of OSP students argue that their children are doing better in school, and they report that these scholarships have given their families an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. If this program ends, these parents will be forced to send their children back to a school system that is ranked among the worst in the nation, into schools they fought desperately to leave just a few years ago.

At Notre Dame, we have recently witnessed the painful but logical outcomes of your failure to save the OSP. For the past three years, the University of Notre Dame has worked in close partnership with Holy Redeemer School, a preK-8 Catholic school community located just a few blocks from Senator Durbin’s office on the Hill. In fact, Senator Durbin visited the school and expressed his deeply favorable impression. We too have witnessed the transformative capacity of Holy Redeemer, a place where parents report feeling a sincere sense of ownership in their children’s education for the first time in their lives. Indeed, over the past three years strong leadership, excellent academics, low teacher turnover, and committed parents have all contributed to truly outstanding gains in student achievement. The children at Holy Redeemer were, unlike so many of their peers, on the path to college.

So we were deeply saddened to learn that the impending termination of the OSP has put the school in an untenable situation, leading the pastor to conclude that the school must be closed. Families are presently being notified that their children will have to find a new school next year. The end of the OSP represents more than the demise of a relatively small federal program; it spells the end of more than a half-century of quality Catholic education for some of the most at-risk African American children in the District. That this program is being allowed to end is both unnecessary and unjust...

[Read the whole thing]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"A Deep Resonance With Catholic Social Teaching"?

Yet Another "Non-Negotiable" Item ...

Obama Continues to Act Like a Typical Left-Liberal Democrat Politician Re: Education

Catholic Schools Week 2010: "Dividends for Life"

The video above in which Toledo's Bishop Leonard Blair discusses the state of Catholic schools was played at this past weekend's Masses in parishes throughout the Diocese of Toledo.

Bishop Blair will be presiding over the Catholic Schools Week Mass this Friday at Norwalk Catholic School.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Mass and Lunch with Bishop Blair

Catholic Schools Week, January 25-31, 2009: "Catholic Schools Celebrate Service"

Catholic Chronicle: "Schools Initiative Spotlights Catholic Identity"

Norwalk Catholic School Offers Marine Biology Courses

May Crownings Yesterday ...

Norwalk Catholic School's Mrs. Cindy McLaughlin Announced as a Golden Apple Award Recipient by Diocese of Toledo

Catholic Schools Week 2008 - "Catholic Schools Light the Way"

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebrated at Norwalk Catholic School

Norwalk Catholic School on The Golden Compass

Two Toledo Diocesan High Schools Ranked Among Nation’s Best (Only 2 Schools in Ohio to Make List)

Yesterday: Norwalk Catholic School's "Spirit Day"

Back to School - 1st Day of Kindergarten

The Good News and Bad News of Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week

Photo of the Bishop and Jamie

More Bishop Blair (and Jamie, Too)

Ralph McInerny (1929-2010) [UPDATED]

Joseph Bottum writes at First Thoughts:

Our friend, Ralph McInerny, has slipped away, dying at 7:45 this morning. I have no voice or words to speak our loss. Not yet. Not today.

An autobiographical essay of Ralph’s appeared here, and severval fine poems ...

[Read the rest]

Requiescat in pace.


UPDATE
More tributes:
Francis Beckwith at Southern Appeal

Kathryn Lopez at The Corner

(Hat tip: Opinionated Catholic)


UPDATE #2
Thomas S. Hibbs at On the Square


UPDATE #3 (1 February)
Dominican Province of St. Joseph:

Ralph McInerny, a Third Order Dominican and eminent Thomist, published over 100 books over the course of his illustrious career. Most of his work was in the field of philosophy, where he made a lasting contribution to the study of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. He also published several mystery stories, including the popular Father Dowling Mysteries, and a volume of poetry. His last work, Dante and the Blessed Virgin, was published late last year.

McInerny taught at the University of Notre Dame for over 50 years. Not only was he a sharp mind, but he was possessed a lively sense of humor that endeared him to students and collegues alike. He was a wonderful teacher of St. Thomas who gave his life to the service of the Church. He has had a personal and profound impact on many members of our Dominican community.

To honor the memory of Dr. McInerny and to pray for the repose of his soul, the Dominican House of Studies will celebrate a Memorial Mass for him at 5:00 PM on Monday, February 1.

Digest of St. Paul State Championship Posts

Community Celebrates St. Paul's State Title

Storybook Ending

Champs!

Norwalk St. Paul Flyers are State Football Champs!

Community Celebrates St. Paul's State Title

From today's Norwalk Reflector:

MASSILLON - Saturday’s Division VI state championship for the St. Paul Flyers culminated with a wild celebration at Whitney Field.

The Flyers, 24-21 winners over Delphos St. John’s, were greeted by hundreds of well-wishers as the team buses pulled into the Whitney Field parking lot.

Whitney Field’s lights were turned on and the scoreboard read “24-21” and the time said “20:09.”

The bleachers were packed and the St. Paul High School band pumped out the fight song.

Head coach John Livengood, who is often very serious, smiled as he carried the state championship trophy on to the field.

The players and coaches took the trophy on a victory lap.

Livengood said in Saturday’s post-game press conference the victory “hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Livengood, in 19 years as head coach, has posted an overall record of 181-49.

His teams have captured 13 Firelands Conference titles, been to the playoffs 13 times, advanced to the state semifinals six times and finished as runners-up three times.

Now, add to that the 2009 Division VI state championship. Norwalk Mayor Sue Lesch has proclaimed Tuesday as “State Champion Flyer Football Day.”

The Flyer football team will be honored with a “Night of Champions” at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the St. Paul Convocation Center.

Norwalk city council has moved the time of its work session from 7:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday so council members and city officials can attend the celebration.

Saturday’s St. Paul win was special in several ways.

First, the Flyers upended the undefeated defending champs.

Second, Delphos St. John’s had never lost a Division VI title game (5-0) and had only lost one time as a Division VI playoff team.

That’s right.

Marion Local’s 24-20 over St. John’s in the 2000 state semifinals was the only time before Saturday the Blue Jays had lost in Division VI.

The Blue Jays were Division V from 2001 to 2004.

St. John had won titles in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2008.

The 1997 and 1999 wins were both over St. Paul.

Storybook Ending

From The Morning Journal:

MASSILLON — Wow. It is hard to come up for a better word describing a game will be told in hallowed terms for the rest of time in the city of Norwalk and wherever St. Paul graduates scatter across the world. With a magical ending envied by Hollywood, St. Paul won the OHSAA Division VI State Championship over defending state champion Delphos St. John's 24-21 at historic Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

With only enough time on the clock for one more play, St. Paul had the ball on the one-yard line. On the previous two plays, the Blue Jay defense had stopped quarterback Eric Schwieterman inches short of the goal line. St. Paul coach John Livengood used his last timeout and changed the play slightly.

"We took it out one gap wider," Livengood said. "We thought we would have a better chance of a double team. We talked to the kids and said it was the state championship with five seconds or whatever it was remaining, it comes down to this one play."

Schwieterman made it through the gap and the Flyers finally had their state title in their fourth state title game and seven state final four appearances.

"It was a great high school football with two great programs representing their schools," Livengood said. "It couldn’t be much better coming down the wire like that."

But the Hollywood ending began much earlier. The Flyers trailed 21-10 to start the fourth quarter and trailed 21-17 with 10:11 remaining. St. John’s then went to work on the clock. 10 plays and nearly seven minutes later, the Blue Jays had the ball on the one-yard line. A false start pushed St. John’s back to the six. The Flyer defense held on second and third down forcing the Blue Jays to a fourth and four. St. John’s head coach Todd Schulte elected to go for the sure win rather than kick a field goal to go up seven points. He said there was no thought to kick the field goal.

[...]

Senior Justin Wilde forced Jordan Leininger wide and out of bounds. St. Paul took over on the two-yard line with 3:22 remaining.

[...]

The meaning of the phrase "The Drive" is now forever changed in Huron County. The two-word phrase will bring smiles instead of tears. Schwieterman kept his composure and his teammates followed. Facing a 2nd down at the four-yard line, he found Wilde for a 36-yard gain. Three plays later it was 4th-and-3 with 1:25 remaining. Again Schwieterman turned to Wilde this time for 38 yards. Two plays later on third and five, Schwieterman called his own number and was tackled just outside the goal line setting up the winning play.

"We all knew what we had to do," Schwieterman said. "We just took the momentum we had and just tried to take plays that worked and work our way down the field. Luckily we got it all the way down."

"It was an impressive drive," Schulte said. "They stayed pretty calm and poised out there. They weren’t in a huge hurry. It worked."

Livengood credited his senior class for the victory.

"I am very proud of these kids," he said. "It really hasn’t sunk in as a state championship. It is our ultimate goal. We talked since the beginning of two a days about being a team and being a leader and everyone taking their turn being the leader. Not just one individual guy. You never know when that play is going to happen but you have to step up and make the play. You saw it tonight, every kid played a part in it. Every kid stepped up. I would like to think that is what our program is about. I am so proud of these kids because they are so determined. When it came down to being 97 yards away and I just felt with the determination of our kids we had a shot. It is their personality. It is the personality of our senior class. I couldn’t be prouder."

Schwieterman completed eight passes for 187 yards and ran it 30 times for 180 yards and three touchdowns.

"Eric had a great game," Livengood said. "Not just throwing the ball but running the ball. One of the things we felt going into the game was we needed to have Eric running the ball for us and trying to have Delphos spread out a little. Eric has good size and speed. We felt we needed to use Eric in both the running and passing game."

Schwieterman made great reads running with the ball all game.

[...]

The St. Paul defense was outstanding. The Blue Jays had only 17 plays in the first half and only 10 first downs for the game. The Blue Jays came into the game averaging 292 rushing yards a game. St. Paul held them to just 153 on 33 rushes.

[More]