President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address May 13 at Arizona State University.

But ASU, which is a secular university, will not be awarding Obama an honorary degree because it says he hasn’t done enough as president to earn that honor.

President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address May 17 at the University of Notre Dame.

But Notre Dame, which is a Catholic university, will be awarding Obama an honorary degree, even though in his political career Obama has undertaken a host of anti-life actions before and after being elected as president that should have disqualified him from ever receiving such an honor from a Catholic institution.

Another interesting contrast between events at ASU and Notre Dame is this: In the face of public criticism over its refusal to confer an honorary degree on Obama, ASU took remedial action. ASU still won’t confer an honorary degree on the president, but it has decided to name a new scholarship for him.

In the face of far more intense criticism from faithful Catholics over Notre Dame’s willingness to honor Obama by conferring an honorary degree and inviting him to serve as commencement speaker, Notre Dame has refused to budge in terms of remedying its error.

Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, the university’s president, has offered no apology for inviting Obama, and Obama remains scheduled to receive both honors on May 17.

The contrast with ASU reflects no honor on Notre Dame, that’s for sure. However, the Daily Blog is highlighting the contrast for another reason — to again call attention to Dr. Donald Condit’s intelligent proposal that Father Jenkins move forward from the fiasco by allowing Obama to appear but canceling the plan to award him an honorary doctorate of laws.

The Daily Blog reported here about the proposal made by Condit, a second-generation Notre Dame alumnus whose daughter will be among the Notre Dame graduates whose accomplishments will be celebrated at the May 17 commencement.

This solution would not be as good as never having issued the commencement invitation to Obama in the first place. Still, it would communicate tangibly that Notre Dame now realizes that its actions were in fundamental conflict with its Catholic identity and that the university is taking action to remove some of the dishonor caused to its good name by its earlier mistake.

Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., said in a statement last week that he recently had a “positive meeting” with Father Jenkins about the commencement scandal. Bishop D’Arcy, who announced in an earlier statement he won’t attending the ceremony in protest against the decision by Father Jenkins to invite Obama, did not disclose any specifics of that meeting.

But we think that an announcement by Father Jenkins that Obama will not be receiving an honorary degree would be a good way to follow up his positive meeting with Bishop D’Arcy with some positive action.