That all sounds very nice, but why would we invite someone who is directly and deliberately attacking the religious freedom of Catholics to come and speak at all? I say, he’s not welcome until he stops harassing the Church. When someone is directly attacking the Church, as he is with the HHS mandate, he loses his welcome.

Would you invite Henry VIII to come speak while St Thomas More is in prison in the tower? It’s not exactly the same thing, but the principal is similar. I realize he is the President, but he should not be invited. He should only be tolerated when some situation requiring his presence occurs (and I can’t imagine what that would be).

I think sometimes the phrase “engaging the culture” is an excuse to keep going along in a nice, socially acceptable manner when we are in fact in an emergency situation that requires a different approach.

Peole like Obama do not become “engaged” by this approach. They interpret our welcome as meaning that they can continue to attack and harass us and still be treated like nothing has happened. No offense to Joe Scheidler, whom I admire…but I think it’s bunk. When the gov’t is fining me or destroying my business, will he still be welcome? When they start jailing resisters for “tax evasion,” will he still be welcome? See what I mean?

    I couldn’t agree more…if resisters are being jailed, if people are being forced out of business and losses to those needing help is forced by the HHS mandate to close.  Will Obama be welcome?  If we provide a venue featuring evil, how can we expect evil not to be considered, if not embraced.  I have heard very convincing arguements for infanticide (Earths population growth) and providing a death with dignity arguement for the elderly.  Put them out of their pain. Both of these major headline arguements remove God from the equasion.  Where is there room for HOPE and for humility in relationship to God.  We are all creation and none of us can create without the creator.  I may not agree with one’s right to choose death, murder, abortion or any other offence against God.  Neither will God agree.  But God will not interfer with that choice and neither should we.  But we should not be force to facilitate that sin or be complicent in it, much less pay for it directly or indirectly.
    Obama and ALL of his supporters need to be removed from positions of influence if God’s will is to not be impeded.  Freedom of choice should not be abandoned, but they should be mandatorily required to have ALL the choices, like adoption and support for raising that child.  Because a child is a produce of Rape does not lay the groundwork for failure of that child to contribute to society as they grow.  It may be a great format for adoption and those laws making that a less attractive option so often.
    Obama must GO not come.

Mr. Scheidler is, of course, completely wrong.

This president is an enemy of the Church and the enemy of the unborn.  Yet Fr. Jenkins and the rest of the liberals at ND simply can’t get enough of him.

Inviting him to speak at the nation’s allegedly premier Catholic university (it is not) is in itself an honor and also gives him the illusion of being supported by the Church.

ND strikes again.

It is a scandal. This is not a “normal” presidential election; President Obama is a an enemy of God’s Church. Over half (maybe more) of all American Catholics reject the Church’s positions on abortion, marriage, contraception and religious freedom, which places their souls in danger of eternal damnation. The President is trying to exploit this “divide” every single day. He has aligned himself with “Catholic” enablers who lead people away from the Church’s true teaching.  See, e.g. Biden, Sebelius, Sister Simone, and others.  He has said to our Bishops, “Look, over half your flock is with me, not with you. You lose.” An invitation from ND, whether for an honor or otherwise, just sows confusion and lends aid to our mortal enemy.

Wrong!
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Notre Dame has no credibility with Catholics than I know and some are alumni.  If Notre Dame was not already instrumental in getting Obama into office for the last 4 years and leading millions of American Catholics astray in voting for the evil anti-life policies of Obama, they might have some credibility.
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Notre Dame has sinned and they need to stay OUT of the public light until they have completed a penance for their sin.  This is not the time to run out into the public light as if they are not already an affront to Christ and his church.

If Notre Dame and other “Catholic” schools had done their jobs to teach the Catholic Faith in the first place, we would not be having these discussions. As it stands now, it would appear that the majority of “Catholic” University students do not have either “eyes to see or ears to hear” the truth. These students have not been taught the difference between intrinsic evil and prudential judgment issues. Without a proper foundation in Objective Truth, these students will weigh those two, distinctly different, issues on the same scales. The result will be predictably castastrophic. It will be the “Catholic” vote that will propell Obama into the Presidency for another four years. That will be all the time Obama needs to destroy the American experiment in individual liberty.

Considering that the great majority of catholics, including priests, in St. Joseph county are die hard democrats and that most of those attending and working at Notre Dame are extremely liberal and thus democrats, it makes sense that Jenkins and the ND students would want Obama to come to ND. And, just to put it in context, who started this “tradition” 60 years ago? Yeah, that great stalwart of academic freedom, mister “I don’t need no Church to tell me how to run a Catholic school,” Fr. Hesburgh.

When Obama starts jailing people for going to mass on Sundays, is Notre Dame going to allow him to speak to engage in dialogue? How far is this “let’s be nice to the enemy” going to go on before anyone realizes faithful Catholics are at war? This reminds me of the wining and dining of Gorbachev by the pope and religious leaders whilen fellow Catholic priests were being tortured in gulags.

This should have been a non-starter for the rabid pro-lifers as was the Cdl Dolan Al Smith invitation. They were out of line.  The ND 2009 degree and honour was absolutely way out of line for every reason from ignoring the local bishop, to Obama’s hypocrisy at offering a compromise. Ted Hesburgh was honoured since he marched with MLK- imagine those who offering a “compromise” on slavery or making human rights 5/7 for blacks!

One-third of me yes the man is running for office, it is usual to give him a platform to express his views. The other two-thirds says, his views are already widley known and I don’t like his leadership of moral degeneration in our country. What good would this offer serve?

It pains me to see pro-life and the Sycamore Trust rationalize this issue.  I can think of no more inappropriate politician to grace the podium of any Catholic college than a politician who is totally and radically committed to the legalizing of abortion and euthanasia on demand and gay marriage.  This is not about intellectual discussions in ivory towers; real people are being terminated every day.  Would/could this same intellectual rationalizing have taken place in the late 30’s about Hitler?  Real actions have real consequences.  Under no circumstances should this be happening at Notre Dame and philosophical rationalizing by Catholics is nauseating.

When will the dumb bells stop ringing at Notre Dame?  Although the journalism plays with the context… I still see, EXCUSES, EXCUSES!  With the ‘not like this and not like that and this is entirely different’ defense, Project Sycamore is not deciding to invite Obama “with prudence,” as William Dempsey says, but with RELATIVISM.  How could they claim they are guarding “patterns of secularization” by inviting to Notre Dame—again—the most outstanding public figure in our nation who clearly acts and speaks against Catholic Morality, then naively claim that it doesn’t give a platform opposing church teaching?  Pro-lifer Eric Schneider is also engaging in small-box thinking to say that this invitation merely draws a first hand impression of the contenders.  It does MORE than that in the case of Obama who already set a precedent at Notre Dame with the first contentious invitation, then went on with its blessing to add the HHS Mandate and other Non-Negotiables to the Democratic platform.  Obama himself spear-headed these stances.  Whether this “looks like an endorsement or not” is not the point.  The point is whether we have a clear Catholic Moral Conscience.  What Notre Dame dismisses is that their student body is at a very young and blossoming stage.  Yes, inviting Obama does look like an endorsement to the most impressionable.  Common sense dictates that not all, but MOST college students are low info voters caught up in a work in progress of the ALREADY EXISTING DECEIT of their elders (and perhaps supported erroneously by some of their Project Sycamore Alumni) with the HHS LAW.  The invitation of Obama imposes on their students one of the most IMMORAL PLATFORMS in history.  Yes again, inviting Obama does look like an endorsement.  Aside from the fact that he is a master of emotional persuasion, by his mere presence in this forum young minds can easily misconstrue that his positions against Catholic Morality are fine and vote with that political sway.  Like Sandra Fluke, why not act in disregard for church teaching?  Obama does; and he’s cool.  We already have a crisis in Catechizes due to unclear stances on moral issues—much of it from the poison to logic and uninformed consciences—Relativism.  Obama is taking advantage of that; and this invitation by Project Sycamore only adds to it.

Some-one said that we need to be on a mission of spreading the good words.

But when the listener does not want to hear the good words we must respectfully
kick the dust off our feet and move on.

We must not be judgmental of any person.  We must pray for their immortal soul
and like-wise for our soul as we continue with the mission with the gifts and
skills that some-one gave us.

Thanks and Keep the Faith.

If Pres. Obama is re-elected, most people will be dumb-struck at how quickly things get really bad.  Gov. Romney, if elected, may be able to head off the really bad stuff (like the worst provisions of the Affordable Care Act domestically and how to handle Iran among other international issues), or not.  But Romney and Ryan are at least discussing the difficult issues realistically and maturely.  Pres. Obama continues to make the charge that everything is going to be OK if we tax the rich.  Immature insanity.

What a wonderful idea to support someone who supports killing little humans. At least we’re not honoring him. Interesting that today’s Gospel reading talks about those that mislead the children ( same sex marriage, abortion). What their prospects are aren’t good. But why should such a progressive university listen to old antiquated things like that?

Mose and John Brock, I would say that the invitation to Notre Dame, which is NOT under the guise of conferring an honorary degree, is an opportunity:  the president should be allowed to speak.  Besides, what would you suggest in lieu of that, seeing as how we’re d*mned if we do, and d*mned if we don’t?

An opportunity such as this should mean that those in the audience, if there’s a Q&A period, should be prepared to put him on the hot seat.  Anyone engaging with this sort of thing should also be prepared to guard their hearts:  what is he really on about?  And yes, theology does matter.  Simply because somebody mentions the word “God” does not necessarily mean that they mean the same thing as what we Catholics understand by “God.”

Oh, and make sure that Crucifix is plainly visible, so that nobody can miss it.  It reminds us all of who’s really in charge.

Inviting Obama to speak at Notre Dame is acceptable in BOTH cases. He is the President of our country, and contrary to the idea that “Conferring an honorary degree was ‘totally outrageous and scandalous from a Catholic perspective,’” Obama is pro-life in many ways. I believe that you cannot vote based on “one-issue” and so therefore cannot reject or accept a speaker based on one issue. I am not excusing any of Obama’s policy, but rather, highlighting the fact that people who are attacking Notre Dame for its choice need to gain a little perspective.

More of the same from Notre Dame.  Obama is an abortion monger - ‘nuff said!  If they still have him come, will they agree to cover the crucifix in the room?  My guess is, they will.  As I said, more of the same.

This could go either way and with the Obama crew and their lies and spin ...

Would Notre Dame invite say Hitler or Stalin to discuss political issues?

I am with the existence of a University, a place where People exchange ideas and actually dia-logue as in Greek two way conversations. Not easy to do when propaganda is a major tool, but people with integrity and articulate and tuned to the Truth are in the audience and we hope are feeding both sides directly and in cross-talk that Truth.

As to Mr Obama’s honorary degree at ND, would a Jewish University offer a degree to Hitler, even if he made the trains run on time and developed the efficiency of the oven?

May I add that since the tsunami that hit the Church fifty years ago, and unleashed both genuine spiritual and some very bad stuff, we need to pause. Many Catholic teachers did not know how to communicate the Faith and neither did all of them know it-straw and chaff were confused. We also know that Church attendance was never 100 percent and dropped off in general with the turmoil of the South East Asia war zone,and the ensuing rejection of authority and confusion in the whole culture. Abortion was raised to the national level only after the 1973 January 22 decision. It was only slowly and very tentatively that the Consistent Ethic of Life was taught and practiced. Today thanks to the Pope and bishops’ Conference leadership Catholics are more opposed to war and the death penalty, while the polls show a majority oppose abortion, among younger voters the opposing no numbers are increasing, thank God. Most people are AGAINST this topic and define marriage as M and W but favour choice, understandable from the “against government”  culture. All these factors are more worthy of our reflection and prayer, rather than just blasting Mr Obama and extolling Mr Romney and Mr Ryan, or presuming that all Catholics sing from the same page of the Song Book, that ND and other Catholic Universities are not really “Catholic.”  Life is not all black and white and neither are all Blue State or Red State citizens marching to the same drum majors. Give us time to absorb the First Amendment defense now underway and see how Evangelicals are saying on this topic “we are all Catholics.” The Holy Spirit is breathing as always and will not run out of breath if we let His Breath/Wind Spirit to waft over, in and through us. No teleprompter can out-talk, argue or drown out that powerful social force in our democratic republic. God Bless America and all of His People everywhere and those international forces who are under our influence for good or ill.

looks as if my AM posts are not here yet. ND would be a UNIVERSITY if they had a discussion such as between POTUS BHO and Mr Romney on equal terms as debaters. Not Hitler and Stalin what could those two contribute to a UNIVERSITY where TRUTH is sought and rational ideas are shared? Neither POTUS nor Mr Obama or their Party platforms are about ABORTION and MARRIAGE. A sixteen trillion cliff-hanger is definitely in there for CONSISTENT LIFE ETHIC believers.