Obama to Speak at Notre Dame

It seems the President has been invited to give the commencement address at the home of the Fighting Irish. Those who lie in wait to attack anything that offends their sensibilities are already sounding the trumpet against the Golden Dome. Conservative Catholics, including William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal speaking on Fox News, would like to see this invitation rescinded. Isn't it wonderful that so many people are ready and willing to make sure we know what they consider inappropriate behavior the moment we might be tempted to make a decision for ourselves.

A Catholic University cannot invite someone to speak who supports any form of abortion rights. Why? Is it because the President has nothing of value to say on any issue since his position on abortion is wrong? Maybe it is the fear that he will say something in support of abortion rights at the commencement. Of course he could just be asked not to do so. Could it be that his presence at the University will cause millions of people to change their positions on abortion? Just what is the horror that aflicts certain groups about 'the enemy' having a platform at a Catholic University?

I believe the foreign policy debate from the presidential campaign may be instructive here. In this sphere the president seems to have had the appropriate attitude since early in his campaign. He promised to negotiate with our enemies including Iran. The late Prime Minister Rabin of Israel also had it right when he said "you don't make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies". John Kennedy was also on the mark when he said "we will never negotiate out of fear, but we will never fear to negotiate".

It seems the issue of abortion has been elevated by some to the level of a major foreign policy issue. Thus we may need to approach it on that same level. But the reality is, however we want to consider the issue, the idea of banning well known people from speaking at our Universities seems counter productive. Continuing with the theme of foreign policy we see how in the Bush administration the refusal to speak with those we disagreed with led to festering problems. It also made progress difficult when it was not possible to communicate with precisely those people we needed to talk to. Cultivating working and productive relationships with those around us seems a wise thing to do.

Interestingly, the decision not to invite the president does not isolate him, but rather isolates those who would withhold an invitation. Why would anyone want to do this? Why should an important Catholic University like Notre Dame be subjected to a few loud voices insisting on what they feel should be done? Do these poeople really believe that the president has nothing meaningful to say to graduates of this University. We are talking about the leader of the free world - a reasonably significant position. He is making decisions daily that affect all of us. As with every president we will like some of his decisions and not like others. The concept of cutting ourselves off from communication with such an individual makes little sense. It should also be noted that President Obama is not a Catholic, and there is no reason he should be expected to adhere to Catholic teaching. Without addressing the position that abortion can be seen to be wrong by natural law arguments, let it just be said that there are a lot of people in this country and throughout the world including the president who are not convinced by the natural law argument.


The bottom line for me is, do you really want to live in a world where the abortion issue is so important that one cannot respond in an effective way to all the other issues that need attention. If abortion always trumps poverty, crises in North Korea or Afghanistan, or floods in North Dakota then perhaps another reading of the Gospels might be useful. If a person's reaction to abortion is used to determine ones attitude toward everything else that person does, this is not a world that makes much sense to me.

I remember a nun in Chatechism class many years ago who used to say that being in mortal sin was like a blind author who was eagerly typing his manuscript only to find out the next day that there was no ribbon in the typewriter so all his work was in vain. The implication was that nothing you might do, even good works, would have any value if you were in the state of mortal sin. It always seemed to me that God would know what you were doing even if there was no ribbon in the typewriter.