Posted on 04/17/2009 8:40:07 PM PDT by smoothsailing
Friday, April 17, 2009
By Edwin Mora
(CNSNews.com)- Notre Dame expects President Obama to wear the school’s traditional doctoral robe--which is emblazoned with a cross and a prayer to the Virgin Mary--when the president receives an honorary law degree from the university at its May 17 commencement ceremony.
“Yes,” replied Notre Dame Spokesman Dennis Brown, when CNSNews.com asked him if Obama would wear the robe that has been worn by previous graduation speakers at Notre Dame.
Another Notre Dame official confirmed that “everybody” wears Notre Dame’s traditional doctoral robe when they receive an honorary law degree from Notre Dame.
In 2001, when President Bush received an honorary law degree from Notre Dame, he wore the school’s traditional doctoral robe inscribed with the prayer to the Virgin Mary. In 2008, when actor Martin Sheen received the Laetare Award from Notre Dame at its commencement ceremony, he wore the same traditional Notre Dame robe.
CNSNews.com asked White House Spokesman Shin Inouye whether Obama will wear the same robe worn by Bush and Sheen. Inouye said: “I’ve looked around, but I don’t have an answer for you.”
The Notre Dame doctoral robe bears two images of the school's coat of arms, one on both the right and left chest areas.
The coat of arms and its symbolic meaning are described in “The Spirit of Notre Dame: Its History, Legends and Lore” by Dorothy V. Corson, a publication that is posted on Notre Dame’s official website.
The publication includes a detailed illustration of the coat of arms and a quote from the February 1931 issue of The Notre Dame Alumnus magazine, explaining it.
The emblem features a cross and a book with a prayer inscribed in it, a star in the upper left-hand corner and two wavy lines at the bottom.
The official title of the university is “Universitas Dominae Nostrae a Lacu”—the University of Our Lady by the Lake--and thus the star is presented because it is “reminiscent of the beautiful epithet Star of the Sea” and “was chosen as Mary’s symbol in the new shield of arms.”
The two wavy lines are “poetically expressive of the dedication of the University to the Star of the Sea.”
Members of the Congregation of Holy Cross who founded Notre Dame are represented by the cross.
“The open book is always emblematic of an institution of learning,” says the publication on the Notre Dame website. “The phrase ‘Vita, Dulcedo, Spes,’ taken from the ancient prayer to the Virgin, the ‘Salve Regina,’ means ‘our life, our sweetness, our hope’ the combination of these phrases with the symbol for the university indicates the dedication of all Notre Dame’s activities, intellectual, spiritual, athletic, and so on, to Our Lady.”
When President Obama spoke at Georgetown University on Tuesday, the school covered over a cross and the monogram “IHS”—which is a symbol for the name of Jesus—where it was inscribed on a pediment embedded in the wall directly above and behind where Obama stood on a stage to speak.
In a written statement, Georgetown told CNSNews.com on Wednesday: “In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage. The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches. Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”
On Thursday, both Georgetown and the White House made statements indicating that covering over the “IHS” and cross behind the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was the unintended consequence of an effort to provide a backdrop for the flags that the White House wanted displayed behind the president.
Well Georgetown covered up the Christian symbols for him. So we will see.
Obam puts it on....”IT BURNS! IN BURNS!”
The Resident muslim is not going to want to display Christian symbols and Stella Maris inscriptions.
Not good enough.
He should be allowed to take a campus tour with a guide, if he so desires, like any other American citizen.
Nothing more.
He might burst into flames.
maybe after that he will pray the rosary and possibly a novena or 2.
I wonder if he’ll start smoking and burst into flames?
WHOA!
“Taqiyya is the Islamic doctrine that Muslims are permitted to lie in order to fend off and neutralising any criticism of Islam or Muslims.
“Lying and cheating in the Arab world is not really a moral matter but a method of safeguarding honor and status, avoiding shame, and at all times exploiting possibilities, for those with the wits for it, deftly and expeditiously to convert shame into honor on their own account and vice versa for their opponents.
“If honor so demands, lies and cheating may become absolute imperatives.”
—[David Pryce-Jones, New York: Harper & Row, 1989, “The Closed Circle” An Interpretation of the Arabs, pg. 4].
“No dishonor attaches to such primary transactions as selling short weight, deceiving anyone about quality, quantity or kind of goods, cheating at gambling, and bearing false witness.
“The doer of these things is merely quicker off the mark than the next fellow; owing him nothing, he is not to be blamed for taking what he can.” [pg. 38].
Hey a&&hole, wanna make a bet?
That said, it's simply appalling that these allegedly Christian schools are honoring the abortionists like this.
Are they gonna take back the ‘prize’ if he refuses?
I will be no problem for him
Notre Dame and Georgetown can go to h*ll. Pope Benedict needs to smack down the liberal & pro-abortion American Catholic Church.
Please add Islam to his list. Thanks.
David Pryce-Jones is awesome. I heard him on a discussion with some scholarly conservatives and the guy was off the charts. He knows his stuff and says Islam is really more about Arab conquest than religion.
The President of the United States is not just another American citizen. I can see objecting to an honorary degree, but it’s perfectly appropriate to invite him to give the commencement address.
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