It doesn’t receive money from the Catholic Church. Notre Dame is awash in money from football, the government, and from the success of Catholics in entering the mainstream of business and society after World War II.
The only thing ND receives from the Church is the permission to call itself a Catholic university.
Taking that away is the “nuclear option” belonging to the bishop of South Bend-Fort Wayne. But if he takes it away, then he becomes the focus of the story and Obama gets a free ride.
And Notre Dame would defy the bishop, start calling itself a “university in the Catholic tradition,” and, in PR and marketing terms, would be none the worse for doing so. The Church would have lost the last remaining control it had over the university and the rest of the world, which hates the Church anyway, would side with Notre Dame. Obama would win, Notre Dame would win, the Church would lose.
But that’s probably what now does need to be done—lose the battle in the name of winning the war for Truth: declare Notre Dame an UnCatholic University.
Those who think, however, that if the bishop would only declare ND uncatholic all would be well are deluding themselves. All would get a lot worse. The bishop and the Church would be portrayed as inquisitors who destroy freedom of inquiry and motherhood and apple pie and justice and peace and goodness and sweetness and light.
But then, they already are accused of that by many.
And at least the Truth would have been told.
If ND doesn't depend on money from the church, then the church has no control over the school now--as the current insult amply illustrates. Better for the Church to stand up for principle and let the world side with the Obamanites and laugh. In the end the Lord makes fools of the "wise."