Text of Obama's Notre Dame speech
Sunday May 17, 2009
Via the HuffPo: Below is the text of President Obama's Notre Dame commencement speech, as prepared for delivery. Thank you, Father Jenkins for that generous introduction. You are doing an outstanding job as president of this fine institution, and your...
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About Pontifications
This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Catholicism in our Catholic forums.
David Gibson is an award-winning religion writer who specializes in writing about the Catholic Church, which he joined as a convert at the age of 30. He is the author The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. He also wrote The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism. He has written about Catholicism for leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Boston magazine, Fortune, Commonweal, and America. Gibson worked in Rome for Vatican Radio for several years and traveled frequently with Pope John Paul II. He later covered religion for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey. He has co-written several recent documentaries on Christianity for CNN. For further information check out his website at dgibson.com.Search This Blog
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A very good speech as usual. It should appeal to young people who have not experienced much of life yet and those who consider themselves Globalists, etc. Still, as always, I cannot condone abortion! And government paid abortion and gov. paid stem cell research either. I give the government no permission to use my tax monies for either purpose!
There is much that is good in the speech and many half-truths, enough to entise many to think Obama means things that he really doesn't.
No matter how the president tried to make his talk sound reasonable - He is wrong and SHAME ON NOTRE DAME.
This ranks right in there with Mario Cuomo's 1984 Notre Dame address. It was masterful. Henceforth, even devout Catholics will be afraid to criticize the abortion-related decisions of the Obama administration for fear of being regarded as narrow-minded ideologues far outside the mainstream. The Gallup numbers might tell a different story, but today was a triumph for "abortion rights." I expect NARAL to throw quite a celebration for the Commonweal/CommonGround Catholics. Maybe we can read about it on this very blog.
There will always be plenty of people with poison pens. Too bad so many come here to post.
I thought the speech was terrific. I think the students at Notre Dame showed themselves to be filled with love and tolerance. I wish them all well.
I'm glad it's over.
Can we work on Health Care now?
The pseudo-Catholics will be rejoicing tonight. Obama didn't indicate that he was willing to compromise on anything substantive having to do with abortion. He is now, and has been since he entered public life, in the pockets of the pro-abortion groups - such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and NOW. He'll never compromise with the Pro-Life (Catholic) position. As far as the invitation to Obama goes, shame on Father Hesburgh and Father Jenkins and the Board of Trustees. As far as I'm concerned, they're all pseudo-Catholics, just like the rest of the cafeteria-Catholics who think they know better than the Popes. In the meantime, millions of innocents in their mothers' wombs will be slaughtered every year.
Luke - you are simply wrong to use the term 'pseudo-Catholic' to describe anyone other than yourself.
Once a person is baptized Catholic they remain, always, a Catholic.
You may or may not like the way the practice their faith or live their life...but they are not "pseudo-Catholic."
Your name calling and judgment of fellow Catholics doesn't get anyone anywhere.
You do not have to like or support the President. He is not Catholic, and cannot be expected to have Catholic leanings, a Catholic understanding or a Catholic heart.
You, if you claim to be a Catholic, do. And as such you know that Baptism is a lifelong Sacrament. So stop ridiculing and judging your fellow Catholics and reach out. Try to teach. Use your time to learn as well.
Grow up.
Objection to the use of the term 'pseudo' and restrcting the definition of a Catholic without any negative qualification as to their deportment is tantamount to allowing that falsle, spurious and counterfeit deceptions are not relevant nor acceptable. If that is the case, how is it ever possible to criticize aberrant behaviour among the laity?
In addition, no one expects the President to have Catholic meanings nor sentiments. The ojection was that it was inappropriate for such an individual to be honored at a Catholic institution.
A pseduo-Catholic is as a pseudo-Catholic does. Yes, this blog is run by one.
Interesting to me that I just went through a 9 month RCIA process to be called a pseudo Catholic. Just because I support the president, doesn't make me less a child of God. I believe fair minded words will get us further to realizing that all are precious and deserve a helping hand from our fellow man. I will not agree with all his decisions, but I didn’t vote a Catholic into office; I voted for the best man on the ballot to lead fairly and provide direction for a country torn apart by a steady stream or “for us or against us” mentality.
As for where my tax dollars go; I, for one, am glad my money is no longer supporting torture. I don’t believe I got in a say in that decision. And it certainly doesn’t hold with the Catholic teachings I’ve learned in my local parish.
And I wonder: where were the protesters when President Bush spoke at Notre Dame? He isn’t Catholic and presided over the great state of Texas killing more on death row than any other state in the union. Did those lives not matter? I thought that the Catholic Social Teaching held that ALL life was sacred.
Personally, I think that passing a law giving 2.5 million children healthcare is a step in the right direction. Let’s work to reduce abortions and provide for the mothers and infants that do make up the “least of these”. Signing a law giving them access to medical care is more than GWB could manage in his 8 years in office and one of the first things that President Obama did after he was elected.
How is it possible that ANYONE can hear/read this speech without being deeply touched by our president’s humaneness, intelligence, compassion, and wisdom, and especially by his willingness to respect the gray, complex nature of reality? He clearly challenges all of us to put aside ideological absolutes, transform diatribe into dialogue, and have faith that power can be placed in the service of love.
Thank you for the article. It is people like you who can restore my faith in the Church. I was away for a long time and became interested again when the birth of my son opened me to the miraculous. But in looking back into my Church I found it to be dishearteningly aligned with Rovian demagoguery and selfish satisfaction. The good are quiet and the bullies hold sway. What happened? This isn't how I remembered it, and I grew up during Viet Nam! (Yes, I'm an older dad.)
The prior comment was intended for Gibson's article, not the president's.
Many are, seemingly, completely are unaware of the real issue, as to why the US Bishops and other Catholics took a string stance aginst Jenkins' decision.
Here is a thorugh and thoughtful article on the matter.
http://assentingcatholic.blogspot.com/2009/05/regarding-nature-of-catholic-truth.html
Rachel:
You are inaccurate on Catholic teaching.
The Catholic Church: the death penalty and abortion are very different topics, morally and theologically.
Dudley Sharp
Catholics in good standing can support the death penalty and even an increase in executions, if their own prudential judgement calls for it.
The Catholic teaching is that abortion is always an intrinsic evil.
1) Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger)
"stated succinctly, emphatically and unambiguously as follows": "Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia." (1)
2) "Catholics in Political Life", Statement of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
It is the teaching of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, founded on her understanding of her Lord’s own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified. If those who perform an abortion and those who cooperate willingly in the action are fully aware of the objective evil of what they do, they are guilty of grave sin and thereby separate themselves from God’s grace. This is the constant and received teaching of the Church. It is, as well, the conviction of many other people of good will.
To make such intrinsically evil actions legal is itself wrong. This is the point most recently highlighted in official Catholic teaching. The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law. In the United States of America, abortion on demand has been made a constitutional right by a decision of the Supreme Court. Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice. Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.
3) Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ
"Pope John Paul II spoke for the whole Catholic tradition when he proclaimed, in Evangelium Vitae, that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral (EV 57). But he wisely included in that statement the word innocent. He has never said that every criminal has a right to live nor has he denied that the State has the right in some cases to execute the guilty. " "No passage in the New Testament disapproves of the death penalty." (3)
4) Fr. John De Celles, "What Ardent Practicing Catholics Do" (4)
"Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is … a grave and clear obligation to oppose them … [I]t is therefore never licit to … "take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it." "In other words: it is always a grave or mortal sin for a politician to support abortion."
"Now, some will want to say that these bishops-and I- are crossing the line from Religion into to politics. But it was the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) who started this. The bishops, and I, are not crossing into politics; she, and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians, regularly cross over into teaching theology and doctrine, And it's our job to try clean up their mess."
"Some would say, well Father, what about those people who support the war in Iraq, or the death penalty, or oppose undocumented aliens? Aren’t those just as important, and aren’t Catholic politicians who support those “bad Catholics” too?
"Simple answer: no. Not one of those issues, or any other similar issues, except for the attack on traditional marriage is a matter of absolute intrinsic evil in itself. Not all wars are unjust — and good Catholics can disagree on facts and judgments. Same thing with the other issues: facts are debatable, as are solutions to problems."
"Imagine if someone came in here and said "I'm a mafia hit man and I'm proud of it." Or "I deal drugs to little children." Or "I think black people are animals and it's okay to make them slaves, or at least keep them out of my children's school."
"Are these 'ardent practicing Catholics'? No, they are not."
"And neither is a person who ardently supports and votes to fund killing 1 to 1.5 million unborn babies every single year. Especially if that person is in a position of great power trying to get others to follow her. Someone, for example, like a Catholic Speaker of the House, or a Catholic candidate for Vice President of the United States, or a Catholic senior Senator who is stands as the leading icon his political party. Like the proud and unrepentant murderer or drug dealer, they are not ardent Catholics. They are, in very plain terms, very bad Catholics."
"But the reason I say all this is not because I want to embarrass them or even correct them — they’re not even here. It’s because of you. Because back in the 1850’s when Catholic bishops, priests, and politicians were either silent or on the wrong side of the slavery debate, they risked not only their souls, but the souls of every other Catholic they influenced. I cannot do that, and I won’t do that."
(1) "More Concerned with 'Comfort' than Christ?", Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick: Catholic Online, 7/11/2004 http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php NOTE: Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II and delivered this with guidance to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
(2) "Catholics in Political Life", United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, http://www.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml
to review the Bishops comments since 1974 http://www.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/index.shtml#A
(3) "The Death Penalty: A Right to Life Issue?" at http://pewforum.org/deathpenalty/resources/reader/17.php3
(4) "What Ardent Practicing Catholics Do: Correcting Pelosi", National Review Online, 9/1/2008 6:00AM
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTY1MzAwOTc5MmViMzUyYzM5YmY3OWFkYzdkMzY0YzM=
ALSO:
Cardinals, Bishops and Congressmen Slam Pelosi on Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082601.html
New York Cardinal - Pelosi Not Worthy of "Providing Leadership in a Civilized Democracy"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082605.html
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