Archbishop is ‘disappointed,’ ‘bewildered’ by honor to Obama

By George P. Matysek Jr.

The university announced March 20 that the president would be the commencement speaker at its May 17 graduation.

Bishop D’Arcy pledged not to attend this year’s graduation and cited a 2004 statement by the U.S. Catholic bishops that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

“(I) regret that (Bishop D’Arcy) must bear this personal affront from a university which he has so consistently and ardently supported this last quarter century,” Archbishop O’Brien wrote.

In a separate letter to Bishop D’Arcy sent March 26, Archbishop O’Brien said he admired the bishop’s courage and was “proud and grateful to you as a brother bishop.”

As Notre Dame continued to hear from protestors over its decision to honor President Obama, the head of the Holy Cross religious order that founded the university wrote to the U.S. president and asked him to rethink his positions on abortion and other life issues.

Father Cleary asked the president to use the occasion to “give your conscience a fresh opportunity to be formed anew in a holy awe and reverence before human life in every form at every stage – from conception to natural death.”

Father Cleary’s letter congratulated President Obama on being awarded an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame, and said the university was honored to have him deliver the commencement address.

He asked the president to take advantage of the occasion to “rethink, through prayerful wrestling with your own conscience, your stated positions on the vital ‘life issues’ of our day, particularly in regard to abortion, embryonic forms of stem-cell research and your position on the Freedom of Choice Act.”

“An ‘unwanted’ child comes in many forms: an untimely presence; a disabled or deformed creature; an embryo of the wrong sex; a child conceived out of wedlock; a child conceived through a hideous crime,” he said.

Catholic News Service contributed to this story.