Posted by
Roxanna M. on Sunday, May 03, 2009 10:08:14 AM
Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard law professor and prominent Catholic conservative intellectual, announced that she would not accept a prestigious award1 from Notre Dame because doing so would mean appearing on the same stage as Barack Obama.
In a letter to Notre Dame's president she said: "A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame's decision, in disregard of the settled position of the US bishops, to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the church's position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice".
Notre Dame has been taking fierce criticism from American bishops, as well as hundreds of thousands of conservative Catholics (including alumni and donors), who have expressed their outrage that a Catholic university would honor a man who supports abortion rights up to and including infanticide, regardless of that man's elected position. A bishop in Illinois suggested that Notre Dame change its name to "Northwestern Indiana Humanist University".
Rev. Kenneth Himes, chairman of theology at Boston College, had this to say about the situation: "There are some well-meaning people who think Notre Dame has given away its Catholic identity, because they have been caught up in the gamesmanship of American higher education, bringing in a star commencement speaker even if that means sacrificing their values, and that accounts for some of this. But one also has to say that there is a political game going on here, and part of that is that you demonize the people who disagree with you, you question their integrity, you challenge their character, and you brand these people as moral poison. Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation".
Mr. Himes, however, was singing a different tune in 2006 when he wrote a letter, which he circulated for the signatures of others, objecting to Boston College giving an honorary degree to Condoleezza Rice. He said, "On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent wit the humanistic values that inspire the university's work".
So, there it is. It's gamesmanship to object to someone who believes in abortion, but it's quite acceptable, on the other hand, to object when someone supports a war you don't. The unbridled, and unrecognized by them, hypocrisy of the Left on display yet again.
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1 Ms. Glendon, who was the US Ambassador to the Vatican in 2008, was scheduled to receive the Laetare Medal, which honors a Catholc layperson who exemplifies the ideals of the church.