Obama, Notre Dame and the Intra-Catholic Struggle

[AlBrattOnline]

More on the abortion issue.

As you probably know by now, President Obama is due to deliver the commencement address and pick up an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame on Sunday. And protests over the appearance--and much earlier, over the invitation--have become a big cause celebre for conservative Catholics, including a sizable chunk of the Church hierarchy.

The issue, of course, is whether a Catholic university should be honoring or even listening to a pro-choice president, given the Church's position on abortion, and more to the point, given the conviction of anti-abortion activists that Obama is presiding over a twenty-first century version of the Holocaust.

read more: http://www.democraticstrategist.org/strategist/2009/05/notre_dame_and_the_intracathol.php

[MineralMan]

1. The thing about Americans is that they're

unwilling to take orders from anyone at all. So, Catholic Americans who disagree with an old man in a dress simply do as they please.

We don't do well with authority here. It's not our tradition. It's enough to piss off the Pope.

[hlthe2b]

3. Hell, the Italians don't even listen to him...

The Vatican has tried hard to exert influence on Italian governmental policy and Italian society... their response has been a resounding yawn and a turning of their back.

[anonymous171]

4. Yep. American Catholics are a special breed.

Hell, we even have our own heresy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanism_(heresy)

[pnwmom]

2. What thinking Catholics understand is that if the goal is to reduce the

number of abortions, then Bush failed miserably. Policies to increase the availability of birth control and to help mothers and children will do much more to lower the numbers of women who feel they have no choice but to abort.

(Catholics, by the way, are as likely as anyone else to use birth control, no matter what the hierarchy says.)

[monmouth]

5. Rarely do you see Catholic families these days with 8-10 children...n/t