A Controversial Invitation to Graduation

You may have heard about the simmering controversy sparked by the recent decision of the University of Notre Dame's president, Father John Jenkins, to invite President Barack Obama to give the school's commencement address on May 17. Obama accepted, and ever since, Jenkins has been under attack from individuals and groups, mostly Catholic, for providing a prominent platform to, and for conferring an honorary degree from, this leading Catholic university on a political leader who endorses — in opposition to Church teaching — abortion rights.

Jenkins has defended his decision: Obama "is an inspiring leader who has taken leadership of the country facing many challenges: two wars, a really troubled economy, he has issues with health care, immigration, education reform, and he has addressed those with intelligence, courage and honesty."

What about Obama's support of legalized abortion? "You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them ... show respect for them and listen to them."

As a proud graduate of Notre Dame and, frankly, as an admirer of Father Jenkins, I am not a disinterested bystander in this controversy. My university likes to think of itself, not immodestly, as the place where the Catholic Church does its thinking. But the current rhubarb is already conspicuous for generating — mostly off the campus — more heat than light.

Let us first agree on some basic facts: Any college (even those located in Cambridge and New Haven) is delighted to have the president — any president — as its graduation speaker. President Obama would be ninth chief executive to be awarded an honorary degree by Notre Dame. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush preceded him.

The Catholic Church categorically opposes abortion. But American Catholic bishops have made it clear that a Catholic voter cannot legitimately invoke a candidate's opposition to abortion "to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity" — such as this country, at the cost of thousands of lives, invading and occupying another country on the untrue grounds that the invaded country posed a serious threat to the United States, or passively accepting continued increases in poverty, homelessness and hunger.

Notre Dame is honoring Barack Obama as president of the United States and as a major political leader, not as a champion of legalized abortion.

The reality is that Roe v. Wade is not going to be overthrown. Americans remain uncomfortably ambivalent on the thorny issue of abortion. Our complicated position is best described as pro-choice and anti-abortion. A majority is clearly unwilling to criminalize a woman — after consulting with her conscience, or her confessor, or her physician — for making that agonizing decision. At the same time, no candidate has won election promising to work for more abortions.

I want President Obama to give the commencement address at my alma mater. I want him to spend time with graduates who are enrolled to become commissioned officers in the Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Air Force, and where more than 10 per-cent of the class will commit a year or more of volunteer work in Teach for America, the Peace Corps, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the Alliance for Catholic Education, and on a campus where four out of five of the students participate in volunteer work in South Bend and around the globe.

I want the President to personally encounter Catholic teaching that champions public policies with a clear priority for poor families, for the unemployed worker, the undocumented immigrant, for the vulnerable child and the forgotten elderly.

I believe that Notre Dame will be good for President Obama and that President Obama will be good for Notre Dame. They both will benefit from the visit.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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COPYRIGHT 2009 MARK SHIELDS