Notre Dame's stand against Catholic fundamentalism

[dtotire]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/05/17/carroll/


Notre Dame's stand against Catholic fundamentalism

Ironically, those opposing Obama's appearance at the university are not going to be backed up by the Vatican.

May 17, 2009 | President Obama goes to the University of Notre Dame this Sunday to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree, the ninth U.S. president to be so honored. The event has stirred up a hornet's nest of conservative Catholics, with more than 40 bishops objecting, and hundreds of thousands of Catholics signing petitions in protest. In the words of South Bend's Bishop John M. D'Arcy, the complaint boils down to President Obama's "long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred." Notre Dame, the bishop charged, has chosen "prestige over truth."

Not even most Catholics agree with such criticism. A recent Pew poll, for instance, shows that 50 percent of Catholics support Notre Dame's decision to honor Obama; little more than one-quarter oppose. It is, after all, possible to acknowledge the subtle complexities of "life" questions -- When actually does human life begin? How is stem cell research to be ethically carried out? -- and even to suggest that they are more complex than most Catholic bishops think, without thereby "refusing to hold human life as sacred."

For many outside the ranks of conservative religious belief, this dispute may seem arcane indeed. Since it's more than likely that the anti-Obama complainers were once John McCain supporters, many observers see the Notre Dame flap as little more than mischief by Republicans who still deplore the Democratic victory in November. Given the ways in which the dispute can be reduced to the merely parochial, why should Americans care?

more at link.

[burning rain]

1. Certainly, it's an interesting dialectic.

On one hand, the Catholic Church is not a democracy, and conservatives can hold to the traditional line whatever other Catholics would prefer. On the other, if they push the more moderate Catholics too hard, they may lose them and access to their money, and they sure don't want that. The last thing a world-class university like Notre Dame wants is to be downgraded to a sectarian, parochial backwater.