A Letter to the President of Notre Dame,
To Father John Jenkins, CSC (Email - president@nd.edu)
Purpose of Letter: To request the removal of President Obama as the speaker at Commencement. There is no reason to give President Obama an honorary law degree when he does not defend the most defenseless being in society, the child in the mother's womb. To have human rights, you need to be alive first.
Question: Who decided to invite President Obama? Why was President Obama invited?
President Obama does not represent Catholic values or beliefs. As Catholic, we either stand for something or we will fall for nothing. A ship of fools leads no where, it will sink due to its own weight. Wisdom is not perceived by those whose hearts do not follow the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Proverbs 1:7 says that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Are you a Catholic University? Are you lacking wisdom? If we allow academia to overtakes common sense, we are no longer Catholics, we have lost our identity and are like a broken wooden stick drifing in the torrents of the river of life.
What choice does a child have in the mother's womb?
Child from the moment of conception. The choice is made before conception, and at the moment of conception there is a Child, a life to be protected and respected.
President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. May 17 (Sunday) in the Joyce Center on campus.
Mr. Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University and the sixth to be the Commencement speaker.
Father John Jenkins where is your alliance to the Catholic Church You wrote in the webpage of Faith and Service the following statement about the university:
"We have a much more challenging mission than most universities. Most universities strive simply to be excellent educational institutions by the accepted standards of the profession. We do this at Notre Dame, and we have had great success. But we also foster and celebrate a distinctive mission to be a Catholic university, inspired and guided by a great spiritual tradition." Reverend John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President
In the Statement by the Catholic Bishops on Catholics in Political Life (http://www.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml), it is clearly stated that:
"The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation.
President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.
This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith “in season and out of season,” and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions.
My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.
I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.
I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.
Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.
Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.
United we stand, divided we fall. Do not confuse the Catholic faithful by honoring someone who represents values that are not Catholics. What example can President Obama give the graduating students about what it means to be Catholic?
I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ may speak to your heart and that you may reconsider your decision.
Marta Alves
LEAP OF FAITH
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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