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Cardinal Archbishop of Galveston-Houston Daniel DiNardo became the first Catholic prelate to come out publicly against Notre Dame University inviting President Barack Obama to speak at their commencement. In a pastoral letter to his congregation, DiNardo wrote: I find the invitation very disappointing. Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation,...

In the highest-ranking response yet to Notre Dame's choice of President Obama as its commencement speaker, the junior American cardinal -- in a rare public call-out -- "venture[d] a comment" on the dispute with a statement released this afternoon in which he termed the invite "very disappointing." In his bi-weekly "Shepherd's Message" -- most of it dedicated to Pope Benedict's recent letter on the SSPX de-excommunications and the importance of charity in ecclesial disputes -- Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston published the following at the column's close: In light of what I wrote above, I want to venture a...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The tributes to Cardinal-designate Daniel N. DiNardo have been effusive since he was among 21 archbishops and two priests named cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 17. The archbishop of Galveston-Houston is hailed as a brilliant, pastoral, congenial priest and bishop, well-suited by education and temperament to the role of a cardinal, who serves as an adviser to the pope and elector of a new pope. What is less clear is why someone who was a parish priest just 10 years ago, and currently head of the country's newest archdiocese, was chosen to become the first new...