NEW YORK - A campaign by outraged Roman Catholics to keep President Barack Obama from delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame shows that the gulf between the church and backers of abortion rights remains deep.
Yet the effort to get the school to rescind its invitation to Obama also highlights a political disconnect between the conservative Catholic hierarchy and millions of U.S. Catholic voters.
Since the White House announced in March that Obama had accepted Notre Dame's invitation to speak May 17, more than 358,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that the university take back the offer.
The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for Catholic colleges that circulated the position, said the invitation violated a 2004 bishops' mandate that stated, "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."
Notre Dame students are generally enthusiastic about Obama's impending visit to their northern Indiana campus. He won about 57 percent of the students' vote in a mock election in October, compared with 41 percent for Republican John McCain, an abortion rights opponent.
What do you think?
__________________
"nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful"
Obama won 57% of the vote in the mock election because they "wanted change"(they definitely got it...).
Most people who vote put aside their views about abortion. Because it's such a touchy subject, the two candidates worked hard to keep Abortion out of the campaign.
I don't think he's gonna say anything about his views on abortion at the graduation...and most of their students want him there...so i think they should just let him speak. Like jason said, he's not attending an abortion debate, he's attending a graduation ceremony.
__________________
"nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful"
The speech (about graduating!!) is going to be addressed to the students, not anyone else. And it seems to me that it's only the parents and other Catholic organizations who are the ones who are protesting, not the students. So if the students are ok with it, everyone else should be too because President Obama (whose going to talk about graduating from college) is going to be talking to the students.
__________________
monica vellanoweth v(o_o)v
"First you take the grahm. You put the chocolate on the grahm. Then you roast a mallow. When the mallows' flammin', you stick it on the chocolate. Then you top with the other side."