March 30, 2009 - I am bemused about the press and the "American church" Catholics ridiculing those of us who think that the University of Notre Dame should not be granting the honor of a degree at their graduation to President Obama.

Most articles in the newspapers support Father Jenkin's invitation to President Obama, saying after all,Obama is a president and should be honored just as President Reagan and Bush were honored. These articles never mention that the Catholic bishops have asked Catholic colleges not to honor those promoting abortion or to give them forums to spread their ideas.

We Catholics face hostility from the press, the media, and hundreds of other sources promoting the proabortion and pro promiscuity agendas. If our universities don't counter the propaganda with the truth, who will inform these students that what is true is not the same as what is popular?

But instead, the media and modern "catholics" insist that Catholic Universities are supposed to allow all points of view, including the lie that inconvenient life is expendable.

Those who suggest that the duty of Catholic schools is to counter the propaganda of the world by teaching Catholicism (as taught by the Pope) are ridiculed. One writer jeered that teaching Catholic beliefs would result in turning the Catholic universities into Madrases, thereby insulting both Catholic Universities and Islamic scholarship in one sentence.

Another lie is that the opposition to honoring President Obama is purely political: you are a Republican, neoCons, or narrow minded bigot, and of course you don't represent the views of the majority of Catholics.

By dismissing 2000 years of Catholic teaching and deeply held religious faith as a superficial opinion, they can safely ignore the real argument against honoring the President.

The baby.

Father Jenkins of Notre Dame has never said: We oppose killing babies but we will honor a President who will use our taxes to pay for aborting them all over the world.

Father Jenkins will never say: We oppose killing babies but we will honor a president who will give tax payer money to organizations that can pressure Catholic countries to legalize abortion.

And Father Jenkins will never say: We oppose killing babies, but we will honor a president who will make it legal to fire someone who refuses to cooperate with abortions (and in two states, euthanasia).

The press always talks of "choice" but rarely mentions that most of the children who will be aborted because of lack of choice: because the boyfriend doesn't want to be burdened, because the grandparents don't want to be embarrassed at the country club, or because the mother is alone and unable to raise her child as a single mother.

One would expect a compassionate society to say: Things will work out okay, let me help you. But instead, we have a society that says: just a simple procedure and all your trouble will go away.

The child, hidden in the womb, can be easily forgotten in all of this. But the ghost of the life that was destroyed still lingers in the hearts of those who saw the baby as a punishment or an obstacle to the good things of life: schooling, career, success...

When given the opportunity to praise one who promises "hope" and "change", why bring up the silent cry of those tiny ghosts who will never be born?

Yet the amount of venom spilled against those who believe that life should be protected from conception to natural death makes one wonder: Do they have a ghost in their lives? Is this why they hate those who remind them of it?

The University of Notre Dame will get publicity and praise from the secular media because it choses to have the President speak and receive an honorary doctorate. Thei rich and powerful will see this as a sign of their "independence" from a medieval mindset, and will use the incident to prove that a "catholic" can believe in the culture of death and still call him or herself a "devout catholic".

Yet the girl whose name they proudly (?) carry might remind them that there is a God who tears down the powerful and who exults the lowly. The lowliest and most vulnerable cannot be ignore in this discussion, because there is God who cares about them.



Nancy Reyes is a retired doctor living in the Phillipines. Nancy is the author of a number of blogs including Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.

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