Former Vatican Ambassador: Notre Dame Scandal Will "Wake Catholics Up"

LifeSiteNews ^ | 4/9/09 | Kathleen Gilbert

[wagglebee]

NOTRE DAME, Indiana, April 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A former ambassador to the Vatican has criticized the University of Notre Dame's decision to honor President Obama by inviting him to deliver the school's commencement address and to receive an honorary law degree. The former ambassador noted, however, that the scandal will likely serve to "wake Catholics up" to the impact of pro-abortion celebrities on Catholic culture. At the same time, the founder of the Acton Institute, the influential Rev. Robert Sirico, a prominent Catholic priest and writer, has expressed his "shame and sorrow" over the invitation by sending back a statue of Mary given to him by the University.

On FOX News' "Hannity" show April 3, Jim Nicholson, former secretary of Veterans Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, told host Sean Hannity that while he considered University president Fr. John Jenkins "a fine man," he agreed with U.S. bishops who concluded Notre Dame "made a grievous error, and it's an embarrassment to themselves and the Church."

"I mean nothing, nothing is more fundamentally important to Catholic doctrine today than the sanctity of life, and this president who has a lot of attributes and has created a lot of excitement being the first African-American president and so forth has just had an assault, an onslaught on life the two months he's been in office," said Nicholson.

"I think that may be one of the redeeming results of this is that it's going to kind of wake Catholics up," he added.

Nicholson also conjectured that the honor might have been a political move on the part of Obama to ingratiate himself with the Catholic community in the wake of his anti-life agenda. "You know, there's 70 million Catholics in this country, and 55 percent of those that have voted for President Obama, and he's done nothing since he's been president but to stick it right into their eye, and I think frankly that he may have asked Notre Dame for this venue to speak to this commencement," he said, adding that he doesn't "know that for sure."

"If he did, I think it was a miscalculation. I think he wanted to go there to salve what some have felt is offensive behavior to Catholics, but there's a great outrage," said Nicholson. "I think they [Notre Dame] are getting a lot more pushback from this than they anticipated, and I think it's aroused sort of the Catholic nation."

Rev. Robert Sirico, a prominent Catholic priest, writer, and founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, posted on the Acton Institute's blog March 27 his letter beseeching University President Fr. John Jenkins to reverse the decision.

"I feel compelled to write to you as a brother priest to express my own dismay at this decision which I see as dangerous for Notre Dame, for the Church, for this country, and frankly Father, for your own soul," wrote Sirico.

Sirico said he would to return a statue of the Lladro Blessed Mother he had been offered as a gift after his latest speech at Notre Dame, in protest of the decision.

"I am returning this statue to your office because what once evoked a pleasant memory of a venerable Catholic institution now evokes shame and sorrow," he wrote, adding the statue "is simply too painful a reminder of the damage and scandal Notre Dame has brought to the Church and the cause of human life in this decision."

"This is not a matter of abortion (I presume we agree on how evil it is); nor is it about free speech (you could have invited the president to a discussion for that)," wrote Sirico. "This is about coherence. You no longer know who you are as a Catholic institution.

"I ask that you go before the Blessed Sacrament and look into your soul - the soul of priest - and reverse this decision before more scandal is brought to the Church," he concluded.

[wagglebee]

"I think that may be one of the redeeming results of this is that it's going to kind of wake Catholics up," he added.

Please let this be true.

[wagglebee]

Pro-Life Ping

[wagglebee]

Ping

[wagglebee]

Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]

[Da Coyote]

Perhaps if the Catholic clergy started acting like Catholics, the church attendance wouldn’t be down there with the protestant sects that have suffered the same liberal cancer.

I’ll rejoin the church of my youth when it ditches the libidiots and gets back to some logic and morality.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Notre Dame a CINO college...Catholic In Name Only.

[reefdiver]

I wonder why University President Fr. John Jenkins is so intent on going thru with this ? Who’s telling Him that this was or is a good idea ?

[Sig Sauer P220]

As an ex-Catholic, I was hoping salvation by grace and not by works would have woken them up.

[irish guard]

<<<>>>

Having attended, father, brother and two sons also attended....I can tell you that's not true. Sure the guy that leads the place made a terrible decision, but you are lumping all of us in that camp. Don't.

[don-o]

wrong thread.

[don-o]

best way is to mash the report abuse and nicely ask the nice mods to take it down for you

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Nicholson also conjectured that the honor might have been a political move on the part of Obama to ingratiate himself with the Catholic community in the wake of his anti-life agenda. "You know, there's 70 million Catholics in this country, and 55 percent of those that have voted for President Obama, and he's done nothing since he's been president but to stick it right into their eye, and I think frankly that he may have asked Notre Dame for this venue to speak to this commencement," he said""

Maybe ND's president could lead a few rounds of "We have no king but Caesar!"

[RobbyS]

I’d better his family is well into ‘they-can’t-push-us-around mode.” I think they would even welcome a “decoupling” with Catholicism so they can join the “big leagues” with Harvard , Yale, and Berkeley.

[cotton]

No we don’t put you in the same camp. Stand up and give the University ‘WHAT FOR’ as alums.

[Loud Mime]

Notre Dame Scandal Will "Wake Catholics Up"

Only the real Catholics

[gorilla_warrior]

It’s becoming very murky what Catholicism means anymore. There is a deep vein of mush-minded liberalism and pop-psychology as a result of decades of accepting mediocre intelligence in seminarians. Add in rampant homosexuality and it’s a disaster. I won’t associate with socialists so I stopped going to church a long time ago. They have re-defined “love your neighbor” to “love the government, and let it worry about your neighbor”. Cafeteria-style Catholicism even condones the horror of abortion. The rot is pervasive and deep.

[Salvation]

Sadly, it has not awoken too many bishops!

 

1.    Francis Cardinal George
2.    Bishop John D'Arcy 
3.     Bishop Robert Lynch
4.    Archbishop John Nienstedt

5.    Archbishop Timothy Dolan

6.    Bishop Thomas Olmsted

7.    Bishop Gregory Aymond

8.    Daniel Cardinal DiNardo

9.    Archbishop John J. Myers

10.    Bishop Edward J. Slattery

11.    Bishop Kevin Rhoades

12.    Bishop R. Walker Nickless

13.    Bishop Robert Charles Morlino

14.    Bishop Thomas Doran

15.    Archbishop Eusebius Beltran

16.    Bishop Alfred Hughes

17.     Bishop Joseph Martino

18.    Bishop Oscar Cantú
19.    Bishop John Dougherty

20.    Bishop William Higi

21.    Archbishop José Gomez

22.    Bishop Jerome Listecki

24.    Bishop William E. Lori

25.    Bishop George Murry

26.    Bishop Anthony Taylor

27.    Archbishop Daniel Buechlein

28.    Bishops Alexander Sample

29.    Archbishop Edwin O'Brien

30.    Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz

 

 

Twenty-nine Bishops have spoken out against Notre Dame.  Who will be next?

 

BTW, I truly believe that Pope Benedict is watching this fiasco at Notre Dame and taking notes!

 

[MSF BU]

No word from the shepherds in Boston or New Hampshire; I wonder why that is?