Even though the "pope's newspaper" accentuated the positive when it finally responded to the dust-up over Pres. Obama speaking at Notre Dame, Archbishop Chaput of Denver continues on his fundamentalist path by slamming Notre Dame's president, Fr. John Jenkins, in an article posted on the Archdiocese's website on Sunday.
In doing so (inviting Obama), Notre Dame ignored the U.S. bishops’ guidance in their 2004 statement, Catholics in Political Life. It ignored the concerns of Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Notre Dame’s 2009 Laetare Medal honoree – who, unlike the president, certainly did deserve her award, but finally declined it in frustration with the university’s action. It ignored appeals from the university’s local bishop, the president of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference, more than 70 other bishops, many thousands of Notre Dame alumni and hundreds of thousands of other American Catholics. Even here in Colorado, I’ve heard from too many to count.
Chaput is playing some fancy footwork here. He tries to make it sound like the protest against Obama speaking at Notre Dame was considerably bigger than it really was. Only about 300 people showed up for their big protest, while, meanwhile, the Notre Dame study body was giving Pres. Obama an enthusiastic welcome. Chaput cites the 70 bishops who protested, but does not mention the 230 bishops who didn't, nor the public opinion polls indicating that a strong majority of Catholics backed Notre Dame.
Not one to stop there, Chaput goes on to accuse Fr. Jenkins of "intellectual vanity" and Notre Dame of a "real disservice" to the church. Now, he says, Notre Dame is now trying to "ride out the criticism by treating it as an expression of fringe anger." What else would you call it? Thousands support Notre Dame, while meanwhile, the local bishop, John D'arcy, was reduced to caucusing with a rump group of 300 protesters.
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