By CHRISTOPHER MANION
Twelve years ago this May, the University of Notre Dame welcomed to its campus the newly elected Barack Obama as an honored guest, speaker, and recipient of an honorary degree. For Notre Dame, it was a great coup: Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, now cardinal archbishop of Washington, had already hailed Obama’s election as “a great step for humanity, a sign that in the United States the issue of race and the problem of discrimination have been overcome.”
Fr. John Jenkins, CSC, university president, wanted Notre Dame to play a part in that historic journey. He extended an invitation to Obama, telling the class of 2009 that “as the first African-American holder of this office, [Obama] has accelerated our country’s progress in overcoming the painful legacy of slavery and segregation. He is a remarkable figure in American history, and I look forward to welcoming him to Notre Dame.”
Of course, Notre Dame had made other historic welcomes. For one, President Ronald Reagan honored Notre Dame with his first public appearance after recovering from the attempt on his life at the Washington Hilton in May 1981. This writer attended those commencement exercises, and they were historic indeed. Thousands of left-wing protesters crowded the campus, many having camped out for days on its various peripheries. In speaking with several of them, I found that most were affiliated with radical political groups that opposed Reagan’s Central American policies. I met none who had any connection with Notre Dame.
Eighteen years later, the ground rules had changed. By the time Air Force One landed near South Bend in May 2009, 83 American bishops had expressed their disapproval of Fr. Jenkins’ invitation. Over 350,000 people had signed a petition objecting to the honors conferred on the most pro-abortion president in history by “America’s premiere Catholic University.”
Fr. Jenkins was not pleased.
So he doubled down. Defying Notre Dame’s own bishop, the Most Rev. John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Fr. Jenkins arranged to have Obama’s motorcade sneak through back roads east of campus to spare Obama the unpleasant sight of thousands of pro-life demonstrators lining the streets leading to Notre Dame Avenue. Fr. Jenkins forbade pro-life demonstrations on campus, and when 88 pro-lifers defied the ban, Jenkins ordered the campus police to arrest them. (Obama supporters demonstrated without incident, however).
When asked about Obama’s pro-abortion views during the visit, White House deputy press secretary Jen Psaki said that, “While he [Obama] is honored to have the support of millions of people of all faiths, including Catholics with their rich tradition of recognizing the dignity of people, he does not govern with the expectation that everyone sees eye to eye with him on every position and the spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues is part of what he loves about this country.” (Ms. Psaki is now Joe Biden’s press secretary.)
Notre Dame Law Professor Charles Rice wasn’t impressed. In What Happened to Notre Dame, reviewed in these pages some ten years ago, he chronicled the mileposts on my alma mater’s downhill slide. Notre Dame, receiving a generous federal grant later in 2009, pretended not to notice. And while in 2018 the school rescinded the honorary degree it had conferred on Theodore McCarrick ten years before, Fr. Jenkins has not yet rescinded Obama’s honorary Doctorate of Laws.
Oh Please, Not That Again!
Then came Donald Trump, the most pro-life president in history. He reversed every Obama pro-abortion, anti-religious freedom initiative that he could. He expanded even further pro-life federal policies like Reagan’s Mexico City Policy, aimed at ending U.S. taxpayer funding of abortion abroad.
Last month, on his first day in office, Joe Biden eviscerated all of Trump’s pro-life efforts. He ordered new protections and funding for abortion, and supported the radical agenda advocated by our country’s champions of the Culture of Death.
In spite of Biden’s strident radicalism, Fr. Jenkins took the opportunity to praise him in a recent interview with Crux. Biden had already surpassed Obama as America’s most pro-abortion president in history, but Jenkins was firm in his support. “I believe Joe Biden wants to bring our fractured nation together,” he said. “He is a politician, to be sure; he is and will be partisan, no doubt; but he is a patriot. He sees that we must overcome the divisiveness, the undermining of our institutions and the disregard for the common good — all of which are tearing apart our nation.”
How did Joe’s flagship issue of abortion on demand serve the common good? The fawning interlocutor didn’t ask. Instead, he allowed Jenkins to continue unchallenged as he criticized Trump for “the divisiveness he fomented, the mistrust of institutions he encouraged, the resentment he stoked. . . .”
Yes, the greatest resentment “stoked” by Donald Trump arose among the world’s powerful pro-abortion, population-controlling monolith comprising the entire cast of elitists who consider him the New World Order’s Public Enemy Number One. They are the successors of the same elites whom Notre Dame has shamelessly romanced for sixty years and more, motivated by what Philosophy Professor Ralph McInerny once identified as the university’s “vulgar lust” for prestige.
So far as we know, Fr. Jenkins has not yet invited Joe Biden to Notre Dame’s 2021 Commencement. A distinguished group of the school’s alumni and friends is praying that he won’t. In their open letter at SycamoreTrust.org, members of the group, “dismayed by [Biden’s] pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty agenda,” urge Fr. Jenkins not to extend the invitation.
A Challenge That Clarifies
Even though Jenkins has made clear his personal support of Biden, things have changed since 2009. Back then, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick and Archbishop Gregory had been running the bishops’ conference for a good ten years. Fr. Jenkins knew he could rely on their support for his Obama overture. Yet, a strain of strong affection for Obama still abides in the conference.
Even after five years of Obama’s tenure in the White House, USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan resonated the bishops’ support, lamenting his betrayal of the bishops on abortion in Obamacare. “Mr. President, please, you’re really kind of pushing aside some of your greatest supporters here,” he said. “We want to be with you, we want to be strong. And if you keep doing this, we’re not going to be able to be one of your cheerleaders” (Meet the Press, December 1, 2013).
Well, the USCCB isn’t cheering anymore. The Sycamore letter points to the decidedly different approach taken by USCCB President José Gomez on the day of Biden’s inauguration: “Our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences,” Archbishop Gomez wrote.
Will Fr. Jenkins heed Gomez’s admonition? The Sycamore Trust, warning that a Biden invitation would “scream scandal,” cites Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, chairman of the USCCB’s Pro-Life Committee:
“The fact that President Biden identifies himself as a devout Catholic, while working to preserve and expand legalized abortion, even using tax dollars to fund abortion, presents a unique challenge to the Bishops of the United States. . . . [T]he President’s actions are confusing Catholics and non-Catholics regarding the Church’s teaching on the evil of abortion,” Naumann wrote.
Notre Dame identifies itself as “devoutly Catholic” as well. Would a commencement invitation to Biden be the proper response to the “unique challenge” he presents to American Catholics? Or would it “shake down the thunder” from already troubled skies?
Stay tuned.
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