Notre Dame Students to Skip Graduation

You’ve certainly heard the flap over Notre Dame’s keynote speaker at this year’s graduation, President Barack Obama, but today a group of graduating seniors announced plans to skip their own graduation because they refuse to support or pay homage to a President who holds such disdain for the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

The problem, of course, stems from Notre Dame’s Catholic roots and Obama’s position on the sanctity of human life in its embryonic stage. The Catholic Church “has always condemned abortion as a grave evil” and condemns stem cell research on the basis that “It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable ‘biological material.” These views are polar opposites of the President’s positions on abortion and stem cell research.

Several Catholic leaders have publicly criticized the university’s choice of a commencement speaker.

The Catholic Bishop of Ft. Wayne/South Bend, John D’Arcy, has publicly denounced the invitation to OBama and will not attend the commencement exercises.¹

Ralph McInerny, a philosophy professor at Notre Dame wrote “Notre Dame has forfeited its right to call itself a Catholic university.”¹

Now the student group ND Response has organized a prayer vigil to be held concurrently with the commencement ceremony. The following announcement has been placed on the group’s website where you can also find a schedule of demonstration events.

ND Response has received official permission to hold a prayerful and constructive demonstration on the South Quad of the University of Notre Dame between 11am and 4pm on the day of Commencement. The students of this coalition would like to extend an invitation to all those interested in joining us on campus on May 17th as we respectfully give witness to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and pro-life principles.