"It was only right that the bishop be with (the students), for they were on the side of truth, and their demonstration was disciplined, rooted in prayer and substantive. ...[T]hey chose to give public witness to the Catholic faith contrary to the example of a powerful, international university, against which they were respectfully but firmly in disagreement."
Bishop John M. D'Arcy (Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana) clarifies, in an Augusut 31 reflelction in America Magazine, his decision to support the students at Notre Dame. And he calls all Catholic universities to consider anew their relationship with their students and pastoral leaders and with the church in toto.
"Rather than honor this president and condone his life-denigrating policies, we Catholics should stand firmly in opposition and call him to task on his ethical transgressions."
Dear Father Jenkins,
Please rescind the invitation that has been accepted by President Obama to speak at commencement on May 17, and reverse the university's intent to confer on him the honorary doctor of laws degree.
Called the "abortion president" by pro-life activists, Mr. Obama’s appearance at the university would contradict the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ policy against honoring pro-abortion politicians. In 2004, the USCCB approved a policy statement regarding "Catholics in Political Life," which states, with reference to pro-abortion politicians, "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
It is an insult to all Catholics; and it would be a lasting disgrace for Notre Dame, as one of our country's leading Catholic universities, and an unwanted complicity for Catholics of conscience everywhere, to have a legacy of hosting and commiserating with this president, who in the first months of his term has done unprecedented moral damage to implicate all taxpayers in funding abortions at home and abroad.
Additionally, this president has supported abortionists’ leaving viable babies – survivors of botched abortion procedures -- to die, thereby compromising the life-protecting and preserving oaths of health care workers in our nation’s hospitals.
Now the Obama administration intends to rescind health service regulations that would result in health care workers being forced to provide such services as abortions in violation of their beliefs and consciences. USCCB President Cardinal Francis George states: "No government should come between an individual person and God—that’s what America is supposed to be about.” Indeed, Mr. Obama’s proposed rescission of these protective regulations amounts to government oppression and threatens the inalienable rights to freedom of religion and conscience and speech that are protected under the First Amendment.
Furthermore, Mr. Obama has promised to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which further would violate and suppress constitutional rights to exercise freedoms of religion, conscience, and speech, and would enforce the taxpayer-funded genocide of unborn infants in America. As a result, Catholic practitioners of conscience could lose their livelihoods, and Catholic health facilities would close. The light of our society’s strongest bastion of reason – the Catholic Church -- would be extinguished, and its voice would be strangulated, in a legalized culture of death in America.
Mr. Obama’s embryonic stem cell research policies, as well -- unnecessary in the light of advances made in adult stem cell research -- are contrary to a respect for the dignity of created life, and they fly in the face of every conscionable Catholic.
Catholic teachings state that “the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person” (USCCB “Themes of Catholic Social Teaching,” 2005). Mr. Obama’s policies regarding abortion, conscientious objection, and stem cell research threaten the life and dignity of the human person. Rather than honor this president and condone his life-denigrating policies, we Catholics should stand firmly in opposition and call him to task on his ethical transgressions.
Please don't support or honor this president and his problematic policies. He is not a model to raise up before your students, or before Catholics anywhere, to admire or to emulate. Only further harm to our nation’s damaged moral fabric, and to our historic Catholic values, ideals, and identity would come of it.
Please rescind the invitation. Please reverse the decision.
Many prayers for you, your students, and for our country,
Nancy E. Thoerig and Mary W. Thoerig Mount Savage, MD 21545
Life experiences combine, and we arrive at a place and a purpose. A Catholic and a writer, my plsce is gratitude and my purpose is to exclaim it. Nancy E. Thoerig holds a master's degree with honors in business administration and bachelor's degrees with honors in the earth sciences, geography and education. An award-winning news and features writer, she also has worked as an engineer's assistant, a non-profit community director and as a marketing and public relations writer and professional. She has taught English composition at the local state university and published a book on the history of her hometown Catholic church. She deeply treasures her Catholic faith and desires to learn more and understand it better every day. She welcomes and enjoys this opportunity to share it with you.
To gain and share a deeper understanding of the truths and beauties of our Catholic faith by researching and writing to: 1. Address misconceptions or misrepresentations of the Catholic Church and its teachings as they are expressed in the editorial pages of the local newspaper; 2. Respond from a Catholic perspective to a selected faith-related issue of the day; and
3. Publish original essays on thoughts of grace and gratitude. Permission is granted for unlimited use of my writings; but credit to my name is required, and mention of my blog or a link to it is appreciated.
The concept of the Trinity is:
a. Christ exists with God in loving union from the beginning of time.
b. God created Christ to redeem mankind.
c. Christ created the Holy Spirit.
d. God created the Holy Spirit for the pleasure of His Son.
"[F]or the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit." – From a letter by St. Athanasius
The answer is a: Christ exists with God in loving union from the beginning of time.
