Obama commencement speech at Notre Dame stirs debate

In American Catholicism, it doesn't get much bigger than Notre Dame. So when the university known for its golden dome, "Touchdown Jesus" mural and rigorous academics invited President Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary degree in May, it stoked pride and anger on campus and nationwide.

By giving a platform to a politician whose record on abortion and stem-cell research clashes with core church teachings about human life, the private Catholic school in Indiana renewed a debate about what it means to be Catholic.

The Notre Dame administration knew it was entering a political minefield. But the intensity of the reaction in the week since Obama accepted demonstrates the depths to which Catholics are divided about how Catholic individuals and institutions should engage politics in a pluralistic society.

Early moves by the Obama White House — such as lifting restrictions on overseas family-planning groups that perform abortion and on stem-cell research that destroys embryos — prompted some U.S. bishops to challenge the new administration.

"This has sparked something beyond the usual right-left controversy," said David Gibson, a Catholic author of books on Pope Benedict XVI and the U.S. church. "Whether you're for or against the decision to invite him is morphing into kind of an X-ray of where everybody stands in the Catholic Church."

Notre Dame's overture to Obama is in keeping with the university's record of seeking newly elected presidents from both political parties as commencement speakers. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have spoken to Notre Dame graduates months after taking office.

Yet with Obama, the outcry was swift and fierce. Protests were launched by the Pro-Life Action League and the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic group that monitors Catholic universities and colleges for adherence to orthodoxy on abortion, especially.

The Notre Dame president, the Rev. John Jenkins, has said Obama will be honored as an "inspiring leader" facing challenges from the economy and two wars in addition to immigration and health-care overhauls.

Jenkins also singled out Obama, the first African-American president, as a healer of racial wounds.

The Obama invitation, Jenkins emphasized, does not condone or endorse Obama's positions on stem cells or abortion but the visit is "a basis for further positive engagement."

That argument has been assailed by Catholics for whom abortion is of paramount importance.

"Commencement is not an occasion for debate," said Catholic theologian George Weigel, a Pope John Paul II biographer. "Commencement is not an opportunity to set the foundations for a dialogue. Commencement and the award of an honorary degree is a statement on the part of the university this is a life worth emulating."

Most U.S. bishops have not spoken out on the matter, deferring to Bishop John D'Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who is boycotting the ceremony. Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix made public a letter to Jenkins labeling the invitation to Obama "a public act of disobedience" to U.S. bishops.

By inviting Obama, Notre Dame is thumbing its nose at the Catholic Church and "forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic university," Ralph McInerny, a professor of medieval studies and philosophy, wrote on the Web site The Catholic Thing.

R. Scott Appleby, a Notre Dame history professor, said it's important to note that Obama is not a Catholic and that most bishops have focused on dissenting views of Catholic politicians.

Past Notre Dame invitations have drawn protests, said Douglas Kmiec, a Catholic law professor and former Reagan administration lawyer.

Many on campus viewed Reagan as unsympathetic to the church's social-justice mission, he said. When Bush spoke in 2001, many graduates wore white arm bands to protest the selection.

Kmiec, who taught at Notre Dame for 20 years and supports the invitation to Obama, called it a sign of a mature university and further evidence that religion is firmly part of the public discourse.

Most students are excited Obama is coming, and some are embarrassed by "the idea that Notre Dame is a radical place and that everyone is up and arms, when it's not," said Gavin Payne, a senior from Seattle.

"Commencement addresses are supposed to be optimistic: 'Go out in to the world and do good,' " said David Wilbur, a senior accounting major from Washington, who opposes abortion but supports the university's invitation to Obama.

"He's not coming here to change us or try to make us be pro-choice."