OK everyone, call off the dogs. We were getting ourselves all worked up about this Notre Dame/Obama scandal. But I think we should all feel a little foolish now.
It turns out that Notre Dame is perfectly right to honor Obama. Just ask Fr. Thomas Reese of The On Faith blog.
Fr. Thomas Reese offered five reasons why Notre Dame was right to invite and honor Barack Obama. Let’s go over them, shall we?
1. “In his personal life, Obama has never acted in defiance of the fundamental moral principle that abortion is wrong.”
Perfectly true. Except if you count his voting for abortion every chance he gets including voting against legislation to restrict partial birth abortions, battling Jill Stanek for the right to murder infants born alive during an abortion, funding overseas abortions, voting against prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion, and declaring it open season on embryos by funding embryonic stem cell research. But other than that, he’s been great.
2.”Publicly, Obama has never spoken out against the fundamental moral principle that abortion is wrong.”
Obama is the guy who said, “I don’t want them punished with a baby” or did Fr. Reese never hear that one. You see, in that statement Obama is clearly making abortion a good that stands above the inconvenience of a crisis pregnancy. In his construction, it it at least a lesser evil if not a good.
3. “He supports legal restrictions on third trimester abortions with a health-of-the-mother exemption.”
What part of the “Freedom of Choice Act” does Fr. Reese not understand?
4. “Although he does not believe that other abortions can be made illegal, he supports programs to reduce the number of abortions.”
No. He supports handing out condoms like breath mints and thinks that saying they will reduce abortions makes it an easy sell. Although nobody has ever found that more condoms leads to less abortion. Nobody.
5. “Notre Dame is not honoring Obama because of his views on abortion but because he is President of the United States, as has been made clear by the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president.”
Fr. Jenkin’s intentions of honoring President Obama are unclear. I don’t think many people believe he’s honoring him because of Obama’s stance on abortion. But what many Catholics are concerned with is that Fr. Jenkins is ignoring Obama’s radical history of supporting abortion.
Much like Fr. Reese.
March 25, 2009 at 2:21 am
Ah, Fr. Reese, S.J. Just another lying pro-abort.
March 25, 2009 at 2:34 am
I would call him a useful idiot, but I don’t want to insult useful idiot.
March 25, 2009 at 2:40 am
I tried really really hard to muster even a smidgen of surprise, but was completely unable to. I’m just getting way to jaded (or realistic) when it comes to the likes of Reese.
March 25, 2009 at 2:48 am
Maybe Reese is writing about Obama’s telepromtper….
March 25, 2009 at 3:08 am
“He supports legal restrictions on third trimester abortions”
Maybe. But fourth trimester abortions are ok.
March 25, 2009 at 4:23 am
Paul and Jeff,
Remember, dear brothers, that Fr. Reese, however grave may be his scandal or the error under which he labors, is still just that: Father Reese. Mind the way in which you speak of him.
“He who honors a Priest, honors Christ, while he who insults a Priest, insults Christ.” – Saint John Chrysostom
~cmpt
March 25, 2009 at 5:12 am
Mind the way in which you speak of him.
One Note Wonder Boy to the rescue again!!!
March 25, 2009 at 6:19 am
Pray.
March 25, 2009 at 10:08 am
There are two schools of thought about venerating priests. Perhaps John Chrysostom was speaking about good priests only.
What about a pedophile priest who rapes a 9 year old girl or sodomizes a mentally challenged boy or a priest who steals millions from the church to party with his boyfriend in a love shack in FL? I can give you names, times and places. How about a priest who misleads people and causes them to sin?
There are websites tracking these but you find them if you like – one has a database called Bishop’s accountability.
March 25, 2009 at 10:18 am
The website is :
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/
It can help check up on the clergy running the youth programs in your parishes or summer camps because it lists accusations and complaints as well. It is a sad reality, but we need to care for our children’s safety.
March 25, 2009 at 12:33 pm
1. “In his personal life, Obama has never acted in defiance of the fundamental moral principle that abortion is wrong.”
How does the good Father know this is or is not true?
March 25, 2009 at 12:45 pm
How can we see Him in criminal priests? Tell John that is disgusting.
March 25, 2009 at 12:56 pm
The outraged townspeople brought St. Francis to their renegade priest, in the hopes of Francis setting his straight. When the priest came to the door, St. Francis dropped to his knees, took his hands and kissed them, saying, “These hands bring me Jesus.”
March 25, 2009 at 1:05 pm
We can find something objectionable about anyone. It is pretty sad when one of the main spokespeople for the “church” comes up with such a lame statement.
Pat
March 25, 2009 at 1:45 pm
1. “In his personal life, Obama has never acted in defiance of the fundamental moral principle that abortion is wrong.”
Not to reduce this to a reductio ad hitlerum – obviously Obama is not another Hitler – but it’s tremendously easy to point out the fallacy this represents: “In his personal life, Hitler (as far as we know) never beat or killed any Jews.”
This just isn’t a convincing reason.
March 25, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I do know a lot of good priests. So, even if there are hundreds in the database who erred, there are thousands who are serving God faithfully.
The key is to be involved in the youth activities ourselves so we can provide additional supervision and asssistance to everyone.
Re: Obama, how can anyone not question his support for abortion? Then again, it takes a genius to see the obvious.
March 25, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I don’t think Fr. Reese is lying, I think he genuinely believes what he says, but just happens to be dead and scandalously wrong.
Except if you count his voting for abortion every chance he gets… etc.
And his appointing pro-“choice” Catholics to major positions in his administration every chance he gets. If I was paranoid, I’d say he was deliberately antagonizing faithful Catholics with these slap-in-the-face appointments.
2. Publicly, Obama has never spoken out against the fundamental moral principle that abortion is wrong.
Yes, it’s called a conspicuous silence. Also note that Fr. Reese, in his recent spinning webs of confusion on embryonic stem cells, never got around to reminding us that it was intrinsicly wrong. He was just asking “how can the decision be made less ethically repugnant to those who find their use objectionable?” In other words, it’s wrongness is just some people’s opinion.
3. “He supports legal restrictions on third trimester abortions with a health-of-the-mother exemption.”
Incremental solutions are acceptable as long as the goal is the illegalization of direct abortion. That’s explicit in Humanae Vitae. Obama is the opposite, he’s expanding legal abortion. Of course Obama doesn’t give a fig about HV, but a priest of the Catholic Church ought to know better. Respectfully Father– big, fat fail.
4. “Although he does not believe that other abortions can be made illegal, he supports programs to reduce the number of abortions.”
Bullocks as you said–he’s not reducing abortions, he’s expanding contraception. And there is Jeff Miller’s elephant-in-the-living-room question that NO ONE to my knowledge has ever answered: if abortions are at worst morally neutral (only being wrong by subjective intent or circumstances) why bother reducing them?
His point 5 is such nonsense on stilts it speaks for itself.
March 25, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Thomas J. Reese, SJ, is a Jesuit author and the former editor in chief of America, a weekly Catholic magazine.
Fr. Reese resigned after seven years as the editor of America due to pressure from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Over a period of five years, the congregation objected to various editorial decisions made by Reese concerning certain issues addressed in the magazine, notably priestly celibacy and the ordination of women. Following his resignation, Reese spent a year-long sabbatical at Santa Clara University before being named a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, D.C.
March 25, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I think Fr. Reese’s second point is perhaps the most disingenuous. Obama was speaking about what he would do if his own daughters became pregnant. He is perfectly willing to obtain (or allow his daughters to obtain) an abortion, thereby implicating the future of Point #1. Also, regarding #5: when Obama’s actions as President (for which he is being honored) fly in the face of Catholic teaching, the argument that you honor the office and not the person is rather weak. If he were alive, would we honor Hitler because he was a head of state?
March 25, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Anonymous,
How ironic and courageous of you to come post your “bishop accountability” website while remaining anonymous yourself. That clearly shows the character we’re dealing with here. Siobhan was gracious enough to give the proper response to your nonsense.
~cmpt