Notre Dame Alumni Call on University to Rescind Honorary Degree to Accused Abuser McCarrick

LifeSite News ^ | 10/4/18 | Lisa Bourne

[marshmallow]

October 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Notre Dame alumni are calling on the prominent Catholic university to rescind an honorary degree awarded in 2008 to accused abuser now ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. They are also calling for the university to support an investigation into how McCarrick was able to rise to prominence in the Catholic Church while simultaneously preying upon young men.

“We, the undersigned alumni, members of the Notre Dame community, friends of Notre Dame, and concerned Catholics, urge you to rescind the honorary degree the University awarded in 2008 to then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and to announce the University’s support for a wide-ranging and unconstrained investigation into what McCarrick did, who knew, and what they did or didn’t do about it,” states a petition addressed to Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins.

“Former Cardinal McCarrick is at the epicenter of the most serious crisis faced by the Catholic Church in the United States in a very long time. He has become the face of clerical sexual abuse,” the petition, created by the alumni group Sycamore Trust, adds.

The alumni group’s petition comes in the wake of the credible allegations that McCarrick abused a minor decades ago. These were followed by subsequent charges that McCarrick was a serial predator of seminarians and young priests – and further that this was a well-known “secret’ in the Church and some media.

Sycamore Trust notes how Notre Dame pulled Bill Cosby’s honorary degree the day a jury found him guilty of abusing a woman, and says the school’s reputation as a Catholic institution is at risk since six other prominent Catholic colleges and universities have rescinded the degrees they’d given McCarrick.

At the same time, Holy Cross Father Bill Miscamble, longtime Notre Dame history professor and the University’s prior History Department chair, has......

[dp0622]

I’m a Catholic who has Always been horrified from this kind of thing and have always spoken out against it.

But you’ll see if one looks for the info that cases are way down and what we are seeing is the aftermath of decades of turning a blind eye before really doing anything about it.

The worst is behind us.

No pun intended.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The worst is behind us."

Wishful thinking, I'm afraid. Until the lavender mafia is identified and delaicized, the problem will remain.

[dp0622]

I just read stats.

I cannot confirm that the stats weren’t biased.

Seems like lately no stats nor polls can be trusted.

You may well be right.

The gay mafia in the church HAS TO GO.

I saw a 1970 documentary that was horrifying, about sex parties at the Vatican up until BEFORE mass.

Bishops and male strippers.

That was over 40 years ago!!! WTH?!?!

[faithhopecharity]

Afaiac, ND should rescind the honorary degree they gave obammy, too. Especially since the only political proposal he ever made them was to legalize the murder of babies after they’re born ( if the parents didn’t want , or tried to abort them).

[Saltmeat]

I just wonder what it must feel like to sit in a confessional booth and spill your sins to a priest time and time again, and then later learn that the priest was a habitual child molester. I am not a Catholic. I confess my sins directly to Jesus when and wherever I choose. He died on the cross so that I would not need any intermediary.

Jesus had no place of his own to lay his head. The pomp, the pagentary and the splendor of the Vatican confuses me. The layers of bureaucracy seem to be exceeded only by the various governments of this world.