The White House and Notre Dame announced last Friday that President Barack Obama would be the main speaker at the May 17 Commencement ceremony and would be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree, a decision that has caused controversy among many in the Catholic community.

Though many students and alums of the University are pleased to have the president speak at Commencement, those opposed to the decision have been far more vocal, as students, alumni and people not affiliated with Notre Dame voiced their protestations loudly throughout the Internet and in Notre Dame's student newspaper.

Fr. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, gave an interview to The Observer, the student newspaper, Sunday in which he responded to the criticism and said he did not "foresee" circumstances in which Notre Dame would rescind the invitation to the president. (Full disclosure: I work for The Observer.)

"We have invited the president and he's honored us by accepting," he told The Observer.

There's been an uproar about the decision, judging by letters to the editor, blog posts and petitions, due to Obama's pro-abortion stances. Jenkins defended his choice, saying the invitation to Obama does not signify an endorsement.

"The invitation of President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of life, such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research," Jenkins told The Observer.

The protestations against the choice of Obama have been very loud, especially in the opinion section of The Observer, but it should be noted that in a mock election held by Notre Dame's student government last October, Obama won 52.6 percent of the vote compared to McCain's 41.1 percent.

Not everyone is protesting Obama coming to campus; many are thrilled. A Facebook group titled "We Will Be Honored To Have President Obama at Notre Dame" has 1,389 members. Several Facebook groups, however, have been created to protest Obama as Commencement speaker.

All I wanted was a nice, quiet, peaceful graduation day, a time to celebrate with my family and friends, without posters of aborted fetuses. Such a simple request. But it won't be so.

Already, pro-life activists are making plans to come to South Bend to protest.

A Web site called notredamescandal.com has set up an online petition to ask Jenkins to rescind the invitation, saying it is in violation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2004 document called "Catholics in Political Life," which states that "those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions" by Catholic institutions.

The Web site, launched by the Cardinal Newman Society, claims it has nearly 48,000 signatures. The Cardinal Newman Society, established in 1993, is "dedicated to renewing and strengthening Catholic identity at America's 224 Catholic colleges and universities," according to its Web site.

National Review Online, the Web site of the conservative magazine, asked various commentators to give their views on Notre Dame's speaker choice.

It's become popular in American discourse to invoke Hitler when making a point about something one views as egregious. On National Review's Web site, Fr. George W. Rutler, a Catholic priest in New York, skipped that tiresome cliche and brought back an oldie:

"If a Midwestern school seeks attention by granting Obama an honorary doctorate in law, the next logical step would be to grant Judas Iscariot posthumously an honorary doctorate in business administration," he wrote.

This is only day three of the Great Obama Debate; there is no end in sight. Outside the Notre Dame bubble, I'm sure, no one is talking about the Obama Commencement speaker choice. But it's hard to see reality beyond the bubble while on campus. Here, it is the primary topic of conversation.

Anecdotally, I'd say most seniors I've talked to are excited about Obama coming to speak at graduation. But those who are against Obama speaking are making a lot more noise in the student paper and on the Internet.

My advice to Fr. Jenkins is to fire Charlie Weis and re-hire Ty Willingham. There's nothing like breaking football news to change the topic of conversation at Notre Dame.