Aborting Truth
He fakes right and goes left leaving everyone wondering how he can be so nimble. Whoa Nelly!!!
If this was only an announcer’s call at a Notre Dame football game maybe the Fighting Irish would be in line for the Orange Bowl or the Rose Bowl instead of fighting for a spot in the Idaho Massed Potato Bowl. But alas, while the above mentioned fake out does involve Notre Dame it is not about their football prowess but instead about Cardinal Francis George and his staunch rebuke of the university’s choice for commencement speaker. At least what was once his staunch rebuke.
You see, after making public his displeasure with Notre Dame for inviting Barack Obama to speak at this year’s graduation festivities the Cardinal is now claiming his words were taken out of context.
While it is an honor to have the President of the United States speak at your college it brings into question the very core of your catechism when that president is an unwavering supporter of abortion on demand and your college is Roman Catholic.
While the Cardinal is looking to mince words regarding his stance Barack Obama is not, having made it clear in the first 60 days of his presidency that he will use his office to further availability of abortion on demand in this country and around the world. He is simply now living up to the reputation he developed as a member of the Illinois Senate where Obama voted three times in favor of a bill to legally allow doctors to kill babies born alive during an attempted abortion.
For his part, while speaking at conference on human dignity and infertility last week Cardinal George urged those attending “to call, to e mail, to write letters” to Notre Dame regarding the “extreme embarrassment” the university has caused by inviting Obama. He said it was unlikely that the university would cancel the invitation regardless of the outcry but went on to say that “Whatever else is clear, it’s clear Notre Dame didn’t understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued the invitation and didn’t anticipate the kind of uproar that would be consequent to the decision, at least not to the extent that it has happened.” That seems pretty clear to me having come straight from the horse’s mouth, or in this case beak.
But never let it be said that this Cardinal can’t find some way to vacillate on the important issues. Cardinal George is now stating that he had hoped to have his discussions with Notre Dame in private. “Now unfortunately those discussions are complicated because of the publicity given” he said.
Complicated because of the publicity? Perhaps Cardinal George may want to consider that it was complicated by the Notre Dame invitation. Bishop John D’Arcy of the Dioceses of Fort Wayne- South Bend, whose jurisdiction includes Notre Dame, had no problem un-complicating the situation by clearly stating he will, for the first time, boycott the ceremony.
It is clear that Cardinal George, the leader of 2 million Chicago Roman Catholics and the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has learned absolutely nothing from the recent turmoil of the priest sex scandals and the misguided management of the Catholic Church. It is exactly due to issues like this and the inability of church leaders to keep their own house in order that has made the Roman Catholic Church a nonissue in the daily lives of millions of current and ex-Catholics.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Barack Obama or the office he holds. Obama is the president regardless of his views on abortion and deserves all the respect that the office dictates. This is entirely about the South Bend cash cow known as Notre Dame and the Cardinal’s fear of disturbing that very profitable apple cart.
Barack Obama should not be banished from Notre Dame, but he should have never been invited. The fact that he was shows the profound lack of respect that the Notre Dame board has for the basic moral tenants of Christianity. As Notre Dame is where the pope would go for a cash advance they obviously consider themselves above those moral tenants.
So did Sodom and Gomorrah.
God disagreed.
