Click here for more scientific evidence that the Holy Father is right about monogamy vs. condoms.
…In a Solemn High Mass according to the pre-Vatican II Missal, the deacon kisses the hand of the priest some twenty times…
Should Notre Dame University have invited President Obama to address this year’s graduates?
Two springs ago, President Bush spoke at graduation at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. There were some protests. These protests seemed to me to be discourteous.
Two springs ago, the peaceniks of southwest Pennsylvania howled because the evil warmonger was being honored on campus. St. Vincent President Jim Towey, formerly of the Bush administration, said that colleges need to welcome diverse viewpoints for the sake of dialogue.
Now pro-lifers are up-in-arms that America’s flagship Catholic university will honor history’s most pro-abortion U.S. President. And the University President says: “We hope for this to be the basis of an engagement with him.”
Give us a break, please. “Dialogue” obviously had nothing to do with the invitation in either of these cases.
What did have something to do with it is: The speaker in question is the President of the United States.
We live in a stable body politic; our leaders occupy stable offices. The offices are bigger than the individuals who occupy them. President Obama is wrong about legal abortion. But he is not the President of the “pro-choicers.” He is the duly elected President of the entire country.
The office of the Presidency of the United States carries genuine prestige by its own right. If the President is willing to address your graduates, don’t indulge in an uppity lie and say, “We intend to engage him in dialogue.” Just admit it: “We will be glad to have the President of our country speak to our graduates. It is an honor for us.” This is a perfectly reasonable thing for the president of any university to say.
What the President says in his speech may or may not be true, or memorable, or genuinely inspiring. But the President of the United States deserves our courteous attention, whether or not we agree with him. If he says things that are misleading or untrue, we have the freedom to point that out after he is finished. But if I disrespect my President, I am actually disrespecting myself.
P.S. Five minutes into the second half, Mizzou is beating up on the “unbeatable” Memphis Tigers! Yeah, buddy!! I’ve got Missouri picked to go all the way!
Father Mark White Blog 