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Catholic Magazine Publishes Reflections On the Obama-Notre Dame Controversy

By Howard M. Friedman

The new issue of America magazine carries two articles reflecting on the controversy earlier this year surrounding Notre Dame's awarding of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama. (See prior posting.) One article is by John M. D?Arcy, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where Notre Dame is located. He writes in part:

The diocesan bishop must ask whether a Catholic institution compromises its obligation to give public witness by placing prestige over truth. The bishop must be concerned that Catholic institutions do not succumb to the secular culture, making decisions that appear to many, including ordinary Catholics, as a surrender to a culture opposed to the truth about life and love.

The second article, from John R. Quinn, archbishop emeritus of San Francisco, takes a different tack. He argues that a strategy of refusing to award an honorary degree to the President "undermines the church's transcendent role in the American political order." He continues:

[T]he Obama controversy, in concert with a series of candidate-related condemnations during the 2008 election, has communicated several false and unintended messages to much of American society..... 1. The message that the Catholic bishops of the United States function as partisan political actors in American life. ...2. The message that the bishops are ratifying the "culture war mentality," which corrodes debate both in American politics and in the internal life of the church.... 3. The message that the bishops are effectively indifferent to all grave evils other than abortion.... 4. The message that the bishops are insensitive to the heritage and the continuing existence of racism in America.

[Thanks to Mirror of Justice for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on August 26, 2009 (boomark / email).