It seems Notre Dame University in northern Indiana has a big problem. The President of Notre Dame invited President Barack Obama to speak at their commencement ceremony and Obama accepted. Now the illustrious alumni and the Catholic Church are throwing temper tantrums. Evidently, many of the alums, church members, and clergy object vehemently to Obama’s positions on stem cell research and on abortion. They want Notre Dame to withdraw the invitation.
Frankly, I think such a withdrawl would put ole Notre Dame at the bottom of some list. If they did not want the President of the United States, they should not have issued an invitation. Now, they want to insult the highest office in this land. Obama’s positions on stem cell research and abortion have been no secret, so the only conclusion is that the University administration is not too swift….. or maybe they thought freedom of thought should prevail and that it would be an honor to host the President of the United States on their campus; agree with him on some issues or not. Maybe they thought their alumni were more mature than they have turned out to be. Maybe they have given the Roman Catholic patriarchs more credit than is due. One only has to take a look at 2000 years of history to know better.
So, now Notre Dame is in a Catch-22. On the one hand they don’t want to upset their alumni. After all, millions of dollars to support the school come in from them. On the other hand, I doubt they want to be seen as being disrespectful to the Presidency of the United States of American. I suspect they are on their kneeling rails praying for the President to withdraw his acceptance. This would get them off the hook. I, for one, don’t think it should be made this easy.