THE NOTRE DAME FIASCO! HAS NOTHING CHANGED SINCE THE POPE’S VISIT?
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OUR CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN AMERICA IS STILL NOT FIGHTING BACK HARD ENOUGH! POLITICAL CORRECTNESS STILL RULES
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1. How Could The Notre Dame Invitation Have Happened?
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Despite Pope Benedict XVI’s strong engagement with U.S. Bishops and representatives of Catholic Universities during his visit last April about recultivating the Catholic moral identity of the Catholic Church in America and placing the responsibility for that task on our bishops and University administraters in very clear language, somehow Notre Dame’s standing invitation to newly elected presidents of the U.S. was either overlooked or ignored. Is it possible that the autonomous nature of their authority diluted their desire to obey the Pope’s instructions and very little reform took place since last spring, including leaving the standing invitation in place? Of course, we don’t know for sure if the University actually sent an invitation to Obama or whether he simply was told by his staff that it exists, he told them to accept it, and to notify the University that he was coming. However, the March 24th statement from Bishop D’Arcy, Bishop of the Fort Wayne/South Bend Diocese, says that: “…Father John Jenkins, CSC (President of Notre Dame), phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class…” That sounds like a fresh invitation was sent before acceptance and without checking with the Bishop first.
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In his statement, after revealing his decision not to attend the graduation, Bishop D’Arcy makes an excellent observation about Obama having “…now placed in public policy his long stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.”
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2. Should the Church Rescind the Invitation & the Law Degree?
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It’s hard to believe Bishop D’Arcy doesn’t even address this in his statement. Doesn’t this situation give the Catholic Church a perfect opportunity to follow the Pope’s lead to show the world that we are fighting back against the evil forces of the devil instead of quietly acquiesing into the sin of political correctness when it comes to the issue of life? It requires our leadership to exhibit the courage needed to tell President Obama that the University must rescind our invitation because of his extreme anti-life policies. Our two bishops here in Dallas and Fort Worth, Bishops Farrell and Vann, have already set the tone for this with their now famous Joint Statement before the election which reminded us all of the Church’s moral teaching and our responsibility when voting in elections:
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“To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or ‘abortion rights’ when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil–and, therefore, [be] morally impermissible.”
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This could be the most politically INCORRECT public statement on voting by a Catholic Bishop since Roe v Wade. They could have added that such an act is a mortal sin requiring reconciliation before receiving communion, a factor that Nancy Pelozi, Joe Biden, and a large number of the so called “declared Catholic” politicians in Congress ignore at their peril when their time comes to stand before the Lamb of God at His Throne.
FYI: A “declared Catholic” is one who continues to publically represent themselves as a Catholic after they have automatically excommunicated themselves from the Catholic Church community by commiting grave sin and receiving the Holy Eucharist without reconciling that sin with the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (confession of sins to a priest). See Paragraphs #1422, #1423, #1424, and #1463 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
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3. Letter to Bishop Farrell to Ask His Support For Rescindment.
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Dear Bishop Farrell, March 26, 2009
We imagine you are as outraged as we are about the Notre Dame president’s invitation to Obama to speak and receive an honorary degree at commencement in May. Please, your Excellency, tell us all how on earth this happens less than a year since our Pope was here and instructed American bishops that; “It falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of Life;” immediately after stating the obvious that “…one of the great challenges facing the Church in this country is that of cultivating a Catholic identity…”?
It’s less than five months since your and Bishop Vann’s extremely strong Joint Statement, and the most vocal chorus of American bishops speaking out about educating Catholics before an election that any of us have seen since the Roe v Wade decision. Unfortunately, it was too late to do any good and, as a matter of fact, the 54% of Catholic voters who voted for Obama was the highest percentage and the highest number to vote for the anti-life candidate since Roe v Wade.
Here are some of the questions I have and that I’m hearing from some of our parishioners:
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1) Why did Bishop D’Arcy not know about this invitation before it was made, given time to consider the ramifications and invoke the 2004 statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops that Bishop D’Arcy refers to in his letter forbidding this exact kind of activity in our universities?
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2) Why was Father Jenkins and his Board of Directors even considering this without the Bishop’s knowledge?
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3) Why wasn’t the 2004 statement especially honored because of the Pope’s visit and, if not then, certainly after all of the flack over Nancy Pelosi‘s and Joe Biden’s remarks and the election of Obama?
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4) Is Cardinal George putting in motion the necessary process to rescind this invitation recognizing the uprising for this among our faithful nationwide who are signing internet petitions in droves and on the behalf of the parents and students at Notre Dame?
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5) Do Cardinal George and all of our Church leaders realize the future damage that will be done if this invitation is not rescinded?
Barrack Obama has shown in just over two months that he will do everything he said he would about taking to the offensive when it comes to his definition of “women,s rights” and satisfying the anti-life agenda of Planned Parenthood and their cabal. If the Catholic Church allows Obama to make that speech, your Excellency, he will consider it as a signal and even a message that he’s going to get little or no meaningful resistance to his plans, including the gradual passage of every clause in the FOCA bill. All senators and congressmen who received those postcards from the Church’s FOCA mailing will totally disregard them if they are anti-life or feel they have no support if they are pro-life. And, you can bet that Obama relishes this outcome, that he couldn’t wait to accept that invitation, and that he sees this as an opportunity to use this bone-head mistake by Father Jenkins and the ND Board of Directors against the Catholic Church just as Catholics For Obama did with Faithful Citizenship. It’s the typical destructive tactics of a Saul Alinsky trained community organizer on the south side of Chicago. He uses our misplaced adulation to get our acceptance to do exactly what we oppose with minimal resistance.
Shouldn’t Bishop D’Arcy do much more than just not attend the commencement if Obama is the speaker? Shouldn’t he and Cardinal George find a way to rescind this invitation, first through the ND Board of Directors based on the clamor from the Catholic community, the letter written by Mr. Anthony Lauinger on behalf of his eight children, who have attended Notre Dame, and the 2004 statement from the U.S.Bishops. Secondly, if that doesn’t work, ask the Vatican to intervene, and lastly ask Obama to withdraw his acceptance as a gesture of respect for the Church’s respect life values.
In addition, Your Excellency, Cardinal George can expect more of these blows to our Church’s moral standing with the public for as long as over 50% of Catholic voters continue to support liberal politicians in elections for whatever reason. For one thing, this means that probably 50% or alot more of our clergy, including bishops, do as well. Is it not now obvious that if you are a Catholic, you can’t be a democrat. Essentially, every Catholic politician, based on Archbishop Raymond Burke’s remarks during the election, who supported Obama have automatically excommunicated themselves. Shouldn’t a press release from the USCCB announce this to the world.
I sincerely pray for all of our authentic Catholic laity and clergy who support this president for anything he wants to do, because he has absolutely no moral integrity to be trusted with any issue after displaying loud and clear his DNA on the subject of life. Like Bishop D’Arcy, I will also pray for Obama because he is one of God’s creatures, but unlike the Bishop, I do not respect him, only the office. Mr. Obama is America’s mortal enemy. He’s more dangerous to the practice of our faith and to our country than Osama bin Laden because he’s looking and acting more and more like the anti-christ of the Book of Revelation.
Thanks for doing what you can to help our Church in this matter. I know you’re busy, so maybe you can answer those questions for us when I see you at the Banquet and also give us your feedback on my January email about more pray-ers at the abortion clinics.
God bless you.
Charles Suter
TRANSFORManagement
2306 Creekside Cir. S.
Irving, TX 75063
972-401-0471
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