Free Republic

Spurred by a controversy over a highly restrictive religious exemption which as originally announced had the net effect of mandating Catholic employers to become facilitators of contraceptive practice, the topic of religious freedom continues to roil the early 2012 presidential race. The leadership of the Catholic bishops have called the skirmishing a “war.” Now, the golden-helmeted forces of the University of Notre Dame have come onto the field of battle, asking the judiciary to protect the religious freedom of Our Lady’s university from the President who – over great controversy – was awarded an honorary degree from the institution often...

President Obama and his wife, the health nanny in chief, obviously don't know when they've gone too far in their crusade to socialize and Obamatize America. They couldn't stop pushing for the Obamacare mandate that would force religious organizations to pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilization for their employees regardless of the institution's moral or religious objections. Now the Obamas are sorry. They've awakened the sleeping giant -- the Catholic Church. And they're going to pay the political price. Last week the University of Notre Dame and 42 other Catholic institutions sued the administration to overturn the...

In 2009, President Obama delivered the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame. Now, Notre Dame is suing his administration over its insistence that Catholic schools and other institutions provide insurance coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives, and other abortifacient drugs without any meaningful opt-out for conscientious objectors. Rev. John Jenkins, the university's president, was given much grief over his commencement invitation to President Obama in 2009. Today, he sent the following email to Notre Dame employees, announcing and explaining the lawsuit.

From Randal Caffery:Tom,   Raymond Soileau just informed me that Fr. Norman Weslin died yesterday, 5/16 about 7:30pm.  He had been suffering with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.  He was living in Traverse City, Michigan.  He was married before becoming a priest (was in the Army I think) and his wife is from Michigan so I'm sure he'll be buried with his wife.  She died from a drunk driver hitting their car.  He was arrested in the Notre Dame / Obama scandal which I think you may have seen it first hand.  Raymond tells me some of the America's Party leaders knew...

The battle for the survival of the Catholic Church in America is heating up and the faculty at the formerly Catholic University of Notre Dame has lined up on the side of those who would keep Roman Catholic Bishops from teaching Church doctrine. On April 14, Daniel Jenky the Catholic Bishop of Peoria Illinois delivered a homily that has stirred the resentment of Americans for Separation of Church and State, (ASCS) a rabidly leftist group who would extinguish 1st Amendment freedom of speech rights for Catholic priests. Not content to merely complain about Bishop Jenky’s comparison of Barack Obama Hitler...

NOTRE DAME, Indiana, March 30, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The University of Notre Dame has stood by its decision to publish a list of “internship opportunities” on its website that includes pro-abortion and leftist organizations, while one professor at the school has lashed out at members of the conservative group petitioning against the listing, calling them “monsters.” TFP Student Action, the conservative watchdog group that is leading a 10,000-strong petition against the school’s inclusion of pro-abortion groups on an internship web page, reported Friday that not only had Notre Dame kept the listings, but that the school was found to have...

NOTRE DAME, Indiana, March 21, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After a conservative student action group launched a petition against the University of Notre Dame for linking to pro-abortion and gay rights groups as “internship opportunities” on its website, the school claimed the situation was mischaracterized. TFP Student Action on Monday called supporters to oppose a page hosted under Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science. The famous gold dome of the University of Notre Dame. The page for “Summer Internship Opportunities” lists pro-abortion groups such as Emily’s List, Feminist Majority Foundation, institute for Women’s Policy Research, and National Women’s Law Center, the...

The University of Notre Dame may be Catholic but it is once again coming under fire from pro-life advocates. Last time it was because the university gave platform to pro-abortion President Barack Obama and bestowed upon him an honorary degree. This time, Notre Dame is upsetting pro-life groups for promoting internships for its students with pro-abortion organizations. According to Tradition Family Property Student Action Director John Ritchie, Notre Dame is offering students “summer internship opportunities” at several notorious pro-abortion organizations. “Our majors have interned at the following organizations,” states the university’s web site, which includes: •Center for American Progress •Emily’s...

This is based on a genealogy table I made. Had a bit more trouble than I should have tracking down the first round results, wth.

Rights: The House Minority Leader says self-insurance is no protection against the government's contraceptive mandate, while California's junior senator says people have a right to be insured but no right to practice their faith. Lost in the phony "compromise" on the Health and Human Services mandate on religious institutions being forced to pay for contraceptive services was the fact that many such institutions are self-insured. So making insurance companies pay instead is a distinction without a difference. Sometimes these religious institutions are their own insurance company. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who once complained that her fellow Catholics had this...

Twenty-five Notre Dame faculty members--led by the university’s top ethics expert, and including some of the school’s most eminent scholars--have signed a statement declaring that President Barack Obama’s latest version of his administration’s mandate that all health insurance plans in the United States must cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, is “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand." The statement—put out on the letterhead of the University of Notre Dame Law School--is also signed by leading scholars from other major American colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Yeshiva and...

Notre Dame football legend "Rudy" charged in alleged pump-and-dump stock schemeUpdated: Friday, December 16, 2011, 4:36 PM Daniel Ruettiger, the former walk-on football player at the University of Notre Dame who inspired the 1993 film “Rudy,” agreed to pay $382,000 to resolve U.S. regulatory claims he defrauded investors in his sports-drink company by touting fake taste tests and sales. Ruettiger and 12 others generated more than $11 million in illicit profits by artificially pumping up the stock of Rudy Nutrition, the firm Ruettiger founded, the SEC said in a complaint filed today at U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul should be changed so that religious schools such as the University of Notre Dame aren't required to go against their beliefs and provide birth control to students and employees, the school president says. The Rev. John Jenkins wrote a letter Wednesday to Kathleen Sebelius asking the Obama administration to broaden the definition of religious employer currently under consideration to ensure the school can continue its provide health care without going against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He said the change in definition of religious employer is far narrower...

In 2009 Father John Jenkins the president of Notre Dame decided to invite Barack Obama a man with abortion support blood dripping from his hands to speak at the school’s annual commencement ceremony. At the time genuine Catholics around the country including Catholic bishops pleaded with the “stiff necked” Jenkins not to honor a man who is the very embodiment of opposition to Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life. Jenkins was not only unmoved but elected to award Obama an honorary J.D. which was hardly necessary. Moreover when 88 Catholic protestors including at least two priests knelt on the...

GRANGER, Ind. — A SWAT team has responded to the Northbrook Shores subdivision in Granger after shots were reportedly fired inside a home at 10135 Glynwater Court. The St. Joseph County assessor confirmed to WSBT the home is owned by Corwin Brown, a former Notre Dame football defensive coach. A neighbor said Brown's wife and children safely made it out of the home.

More Cracks in the Golden DomeThe University of Notre Dame's ongoing confusions In 2001, the University of Notre Dame hired George O’Leary as its football coach: a position regarded by some alums, boosters, and board members as only slightly less significant than that held by the university’s president, and by others as of undoubtedly greater importance. Shortly after the hire, the Manchester Union Leader disclosed that O’Leary had engaged in some serious résumé padding, including claims for a master’s degree he had not earned from a university that did not exist. O’Leary’s tenure as head coach of the Fighting Irish...

BREAKING: Controversial pro-abortion funding Notre Dame board member steps down by Kathleen Gilbert NOTRE DAME, Indiana, June 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After the school’s failed attempt at containing the scandal, the newest member of the University of Notre Dame’s board of trustees has resigned following the revelation that she contributed thousands of dollars to a prominent pro-abortion political group. Investment magnate Roxanne Martino, an alumna of the school, complained of the negative attention drawn to her contributions. “I dearly love my alma mater and remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching and to the mission of Notre Dame,”...

During the firestorm that followed the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama two commencements ago, the university’s president, Father John Jenkins, wrote a letter to the Class of 2009 explaining his position. He stated his sadness that the honors bestowed on Obama had been taken as “ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching.” Notre Dame, he asserted, “was unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.” Remember those words: “unequivocally committed” with no “ambiguity in our position.” How are these words reconciled with the university’s...

Talk about digging a hole for yourself. This is what the office of the President at Notre Dame is sending in response to people asking about why Roxanne Martino was invited to sit on their board: Ms. Martino (along with her husband, Rocco) is a Notre Dame graduate, and she is fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.She has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position.This is not her personal position,...

Notre Dame Fellows elect a new Trustee who gave thousands to pro-abortion groups, including Emily's List with its focus on "electing pro-choice Democratic women to office." The Cardinal Newman Society last week reported the stunning news that the Chicago businesswoman just elected to the Notre Dame Board of Trustees, Roxanne M. Martino, has in recent years contributed sizable sums to pro-abortion groups. The largest contributions, totaling $16,150.00 between 2005 and 2008, went to Emily’s List. There is no ambiguity about the purpose of that organization. It declares: The mission is simple, really: Emily’s List is dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic...