Father Jenkins: Where Is Your Signature?

It is truly an amazing thing.  A letter objecting to the HHS mandate and the absurd “accommodation” put out on Friday has already received such wide support.

The letter amazingly enough is on Notre Dame letterhead and was promulgated by O. Carter Snead Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame.  It is signed by scholars, professors, University presidents, and more.  Men and women of many religions, at Catholic schools, and non-Catholic schools, Rabbis and journalists.

It is truly an amazing thing and I am quite sure that support for it will only grow.

But I must note one glaring absence from the current list of signatories.  The list contains the signatures of dozen of Notre Dame professors across disciplines.  That is a wonderful thing.  It is also signed by the presidents of some of the most prominent Catholic University presidents including,

Stephen D. Minnis—President, Benedictine College
Robert Bryan Sloan Jr—President, Houston Baptist University
Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, O.P.—President, Aquinas College (TN)
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.—President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Daniel Akin—President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Timothy O’Donnell—President, Christendom College
David Dockery—President, Union University
Dr. William K. Thierfelder—President, Belmont Abbey College
Carl E. Zylstra—President, Dordt College
Michael F. McLean—President, Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver, Ph.D.—President, East Texas Baptist University
H. James Towey—President, Ave Maria University
Bernard F. O’Connor—President, DeSales Unviersity
Father Terence Henry, TOR—President, Franciscan University of Steubenville
William Edmund Fahey—President, The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (NH)
Marianne Evans Mount—President, Catholic Distance University
Brian Kelly—Dean, Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
Thomas Hibbs—Honors College Dean and Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture, Baylor University
Donna Bethell—Chairman of the Board, Christendom College

All that support from Notre Dame and from University Presidents, but not from the President of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins.

Fr. Jenkins, infamous for his invitation to honor the virulently anti-life and anti-Catholic President Obama, has not yet signed the letter.  Fr. Jenkins, who applauded President Obama’s promises for a robust conscience clause now revealed as lies, has not signed the letter.

Perhaps worse, while Professor Snead of Notre Dame was writing and gathering support for this wonderful letter, Fr. Jenkins rushed to release this fawning signal of imminent capitulation.

“The widespread concerns expressed by Catholics and people from other faiths have led today to a welcome step toward recognizing the freedom of religious institutions to abide by the principles that define their respective missions,” he said in a statement Friday. “We applaud the willingness of the administration to work with religious organizations to find a solution acceptable to all parties.”

Father Jenkins, as dozens of your faculty, thousands of your students, and hundreds of thousands of Catholics told you in 2009 you were wrong then (and we are now proven right,) and you are wrong now.

Fr. Jenkins, this is not good first step, it is a bad last step.  President Obama’s chief of staff this weekend said flat out, negotiating time is over,  the rule stands.

Fr. Jenkins, allow me to help you with some advice about an easy 2-step program.

Step one, before God and before your fellow man say the following words “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa.”  That is step one.

Step two.  Sign the damn letter.