Bishop to Boycott Obama Commencement Speech
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Bishop to Boycott Obama Commencement Speech at Notre Dame
Kaitlynn RielyPosted: Mar 25th 2009 12:30AM
Filed under: Politics, Small Campus, Big Story, Culture, Religion, News, Local, Media, Notre Dame
Bishop John M. D'Arcy, who presides over Indiana's Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, which includes Notre Dame, announced Tuesday he will not be attending Notre Dame's May 17 Commencement, since President Barack Obama will be speaking.
"Can I have the Bishop's ticket?" my friend posted on the Web site Twitter.com.
D'Arcy has clashed with Notre Dame in the past, most significantly when University President Fr. John Jenkins issued a statement in 2006 allowing The Vagina Monologues to be performed on campus. Now it's Obama's pro-choice stances and decisions, rather than vaginas, that have gotten D'Arcy's Irish up.
Notre Dame and the White House announced Friday that Obama would be speaking at Notre Dame's May 17 Commencement ceremony, with Jenkins following up Monday clarifying that asking Obama to speak, and awarding him with an honorary doctor of laws degree, does not signify support of his policies. Most students, from my observations on campus, seem to be supportive of and excited about hearing Obama speak. But a vocal student minority, as well as alumni and unaffiliated pro-life groups, have protested the decision vehemently.
In his statement Tuesday, D'Arcy said Jenkins informed him of Obama's acceptance shortly before the announcement was made. D'Arcy said it was the first time he'd been told about the invitation. This May is the 25th Notre Dame graduation since D'Arcy became bishop, and for the first time, he said, he will not attend.
"After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation," he said. "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 not only by his words -- but by his actions."
He added: "My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life."
I understand that D'Arcy has major disagreements with Obama over abortion and stem cell issues. But isn't he giving up a unique opportunity to pull the president aside for a moment and voice his concerns? It may not make a difference in Obama's stances, but when else will D'Arcy have the ear of the president?
I'm unimpressed with D'Arcy's leadership. The pro-life movement's sign-carrying, march-making approach hasn't worked so far, and I doubt the Bishop's boycott will make any difference in abortion policy in the United States. It just distances the Catholic Church from the decision-making process.
Too bad. I wish D'Arcy had been a bit braver and seen the opportunity, rather than ask whether Notre Dame has "chosen prestige over truth."
D'Arcy's ticket won't go to waste. Notre Dame seniors, who are only guaranteed 3 tickets each for graduation, have been posting on Facebook asking those who don't want Obama to speak at Notre Dame to give away their tickets.
Security itself on graduation day promises to be intense. But already, with two months to go, life in the Notre Dame bubble is becoming surreal. Leaving the gym this afternoon, I stopped by a television because a woman from a local television station was delivering a report from my campus.
When I got back to my room, a friend told me Notre Dame was on CNN.
Does this controversy have the momentum to last two months? Pro-life groups will certainly try their best. Everyone here has a viewpoint on the Obama drama.
My favorite opinion of the day came in a letter to the editor published in Notre Dame's student newspaper, The Observer. The author of the letter is a student at Saint Mary's, the all-women college across the street from Notre Dame, who asked whether the Notre Dame "administration considered the impact such an important political figurehead will have on the travel plans of the other schools graduating that weekend."
I imagine potential traffic congestion is the last thing Jenkins is thinking about this week.
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William J Quinn
11:13AM 11:13AM Mar 25th 2009
D'Arcy for Pope!
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Ron Ferreira
11:14PM 11:14PM Apr 4th 2009
D'arcy's a dope!
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SassyFrassy
11:23AM 11:23AM Mar 25th 2009
hERE, you have the DEMS throwing good money out of bad thru the stem cell research. as you all know, that science has proven only stem cells obtained 'safely' from q-tip swabbing live people nasal passages have been the ONLY kind of stem cell research that has produced results. it's cost effective and doesn't kill children and doesn't kill people.
however, the DEMS OPPOSE this and opted to choose the STEM CELL research that KILLS and destroys CHILDREN AND for whaaat??? So that they can clone HUMANS and use them for HUMAN RESEARCH AND THEN KILL THE HUMANS THAT THEY HAVE CREATED THRU THE CLONING AND STEM CELLS RESEARCH--which scientifically has produced ZERO results why??
IT'S no surprise that DEMS would careless and APPROVE of partial-birth abortions which inflicts inhumane harm on child whom can feel every second of it.
sO, HERE you have it DEMS would prefer to throw GOOD money out for bad on USELESS PROVEN TO BE INEFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE STEM CELL research rather than continue with the SAVING OF LIVES SAFE HARMLESS FORM OF GETTING STEM CELLS thru q-tipping adult nasal passages which is more cost effective too.
It should therefore be no surprise that DEMS have LIED TO CLAIM healthcare isn't solveable unless they SOCIALIZE healthcare and leave CHILDREN/ADULTS/VETS TO DIE without medication and treatment.
PEOPLE DO YOUR HOMEWORK---that stimulus has got to go. Leaving people to die isn't healthcare it's butchery. for whaat??so DEMS can continue to satisfy their wanton pork at the expense of publics lives and safety. This DEMS STIMULUS isn't about healthcare it's about taking away peoples freedoms and about giving the GOV RIGHT manipulating AND COERCE the public to vote a certain way and accept TERRORISM and socialism by DEPRIVING PEOPLE OF HEALTHCARE. IT doesn't attempt to make even a slight effort at addressing HEALTHCARE IN ALL 800 PAGES OF STIMULUS.
The SAME WAY that the DEMS refused (the correct word is refused) to tell the public about HR 219 AND HR236 for military and non military and VETS LOCKBOX LAW which SUCCESSFULLY will protect SOC SEC AND MEDICARE
1. WITHOUT raising taxes
2. WITHOUT cutting services
3. WITHOUT raising premiums
why?? because it protects and supports the publics freedoms and health and safety and DEMS DON'T WANT THAT. got it from the wash dc sources mouths people.
To the present it's only one of the 1 % group of people attempting to destroy our Nation's economic systems.
WHY??? It was said to a WASH DC VIP---that the reason the Socialists think they will win this time and are doing this is because ACLU and their DEMS SLUGS -- they don't think American's are " smart enough" to care to let their fingers do the walking to protect their lands, their CONSTITUTION or their freedoms. The DEMS and ACLU don't think the 99% of American's will be 'smart enough" to CARE about their country, their homes, their small business enough to kick the WASH DC SLUGS out and send them packing by way of Balagovich for NOT doing what is right to protect PUBLIC freedoms and the free enterprise system (ie meaning small business/med business) and rights.
Therefore, they want to make sure they take all freedoms away from the public and they want to make it impossible for FREE ENTERPRISE to exist for the small business and mid business and sole proprietorship thru gravytraining BIG BUSINESS bankrupting our Nation and MUSCLING OUT the small/med sole proprietorships, and creating a welfare state. A move straight out of the marxist handbook. and by attempting to eradicate free speech.
It's import for PUBLIC to seek LEGISLATIVE AND LEGAL channels whom work to protect our constitution and freedoms to make sure the public is protected.
however,Thomas Jefferson pretty well covered much about our situation today in two quotes made by him over 200 years ago. Our founders fathers feared what we are living today:
1. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
2. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
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Bea
3:24PM 3:24PM Mar 27th 2009
Do you really think thet 99% of the readers scanning these posts are going to take the time to read your long, long comments? Is it ego or density that you suffer from?
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beau
3:22PM 3:22PM Mar 27th 2009
I read all you wrote...excellent most articulate...guess the BHO crowd can't read things as long as you wrote. Thanks, appreciate your view.
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FireEagle
1:50AM 1:50AM Mar 28th 2009
Sassy,
I read and agree with most of what you said. Bea, needs to wake up and realize what Obama and Pelosi, Reed, Frank, and Dodd are doing to this country. Most of the people interviewed only know who Obama is of the list above. Thanks to these socialists, we have gone from a 1/2 trillion debt to over 11 trillion dollar debt. If we confiscate all of America's 'rich people' we could not pay off this debt. So where are we going to pay off this debt? FOR GENERATIONS AND GENERATIONS. Based on how we are killing the free market system we could be paying for it until the end of civilization.
Obama and the liberals have created a whirlpool sucking the life out of this country, and will drag us down into the cesspool of socialism, Marxist and fascism.
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.
Karl Marx
Jefferson was right! The education system has been dumbing down the students and now the students and illiterates are voting for people that are power-hungry, bent on turning the masses into slaves begging for handouts from the Government, by demonizing the rich in this country. More and more businesses will fail and thus create more dependents begging the government for handouts to feed their families. Like a whirlpool the people will get sucked down to the lowest level which is called slavery. It is the same thing that Hitler did. He murdered the people that he did not want and enslaved the rest, where no one was free to live their own lives.
"People that do not study history, are forced to re-live it".
"As the Statist (modern liberal) is building a culture of conformity and dependency, where the ideal citizen takes on a dronelike qualities in service to the state, the individual must be drained of uniqueness and self-worth, and deterred from independent thought and behavior. This is achieved through varying methods of economic punishment and political suppression. "
from 'Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto' by Mark Levin
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SassyFrassy
11:50AM 11:50AM Mar 25th 2009
You know i didn't post pro DEMS/OBAMA and these people won't even print what i wrote.i will file complaint with JUSTICE dept. but this isn't the first time.
Dems and notably are OBAMA are marxist leaning ad supported throughout lifetime
this is how their theologies believe about USA--"America, is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." ... Joseph Stalin
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Linda S
4:03PM 4:03PM Mar 25th 2009
Be sure you print that out and keep it, so when all your doomsdaying does not come to pass, you can tear it up and eat your own words.
Simply pathetic drivel.
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moderate
5:06PM 5:06PM Mar 25th 2009
honey you need help. you see aconspiracy outside of every church door. Calm down, really research issues with all sources. who ever is giving you this info is not helping only hurting you. Get help their are not conspiracies everywhere.
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Rose
11:58AM 11:58AM Mar 25th 2009
Finally. A catholic Bishop is taking a stand. Who is the bird brain that invited Pres. Obama. He/She must be anti Catholic and if he/she is on the staff, should be fired.
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moderate
12:08PM 12:08PM Mar 25th 2009
Since when has the catholic church been a true god fearing entity. Lets start with inquisitions, crusades, mysogony,pediphiles, holocast ignoring and denying. closing schools in poor neighborhoods and building new schools in wealthy ones. Building co-cathedrals in houston while closing schools. The list goes on. Not a lot of respect earned with that history.
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Scarol
5:20PM 5:20PM Mar 25th 2009
I'm glad the Bishop is standing up to Obama. Its about time somebody did. He's turning Gitmo terrorists loose in this country, hiring attorneys to get them off the hook for the killings at the World Trade. Obama supports aborting into the 7th month of pregnancy and letting those babies die in a bed pan? Obama is nothing but an arrogant self-serving yuppy who hides everything he does, including his birth certificate which in itself is a breach of the US Constitution. Good for the Bishop!
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moderate
5:55PM 5:55PM Mar 25th 2009
the terrorist who flew the planes are dead, some planners are detained and they will never be released. Gitmo is filled with Iraqies, who never flew a plane, did not have wmd. these people are being contained for possible info. This was said by colonel Wilkerson, he said cheney is a liar and a fear mongerer. The bush pres. lied. Now all you so called pro lifers are screaming for blood with gitmo detainee, HYPOCRISY.
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shirleyA
12:59PM 12:59PM Mar 25th 2009
God Bless You Bishop John M D'Arcy. God Bless You Bishop John M D'Arcy .
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shirleyA
1:04PM 1:04PM Mar 25th 2009
Hey Greg, Your a life long Catholic? You sound more like a casual Catholic.
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Bea
3:23PM 3:23PM Mar 27th 2009
I'm a lifelong Catholic and also a casual one.
Since the church mishandled the priest molestation I rely on my own conscience more and more.
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shirleyA
5:31AM 5:31AM Mar 26th 2009
Hey Bea, Your not a Catholic.
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Sparkles
8:05PM 8:05PM Mar 26th 2009
shirley: who are you to decide who is and isn't a Catholic?
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The Pope
1:58PM 1:58PM Mar 25th 2009
Oh, no, then who's going to tell Mr. Obama that condom's lead to increased AID's infections? What, does he have a little boy or girl lined up for that day? I'm Catholic, twelve years of Catholic scholls so let's make that an ex-Catholic, this is exactly the reason our Founding Fathers wanted seperation of Church and State, well the Catholic's and the "religious right", who, when it comes to points of view on religion, could not be more wrong. Let the Bishop eat Nun.
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Ed
10:24PM 10:24PM Mar 25th 2009
If you went to Catholic school you would know how to spell. You're not fooling anyone.
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