a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2id=97628659-3048-741E-7280896060807590" target=_blankFrom iAmerica/i magazine, Michael Sean Winters on the President's prospective audience with the Pope/a:blockquotePope Benedict XVI will receive President Barack Obama in audience at the Vatican on July 10. Let the gnashing of teeth begin.br /pAdmit it, wasn’t your first impulse to call Dr. Mary Ann Glendon and ask, "If you were still the ambassador, would you show up or would you boycott?" The Cardinal Newman Society, which spent the better part of the spring telling the world that no Catholic could in good conscience share the stage with President Obama, perhaps now they will start issuing press releases entitled "Pope Creates Scandal" or "Outrage at the Vatican." The Catholic News Agency, which featured the headline "Vatican announces Pope’s vacation without confirmation of Obama visit" just a few weeks ago, has nary a mention of the visit on its website this morning. Cat got your tongue?br /pObama’s Catholic critics need to re-calibrate their message and it is difficult to see how they will compete with the pictures of Obama in the frescoed halls of the Vatican, his beautiful wife and children in tow, shaking hands with the Holy Father. Actually, in addition to shaking hands, it is traditional that the Pope will present a gift to the President. Does that count as an "honor" of the kind forbidden by the bishops’ document "Catholics in Political Life"? Notre Dame, of course, has a tradition of conferring an honorary degree upon every new president that pre-dates presidential visits to the Holy See./blockquoteMichael Sean Winters -- intemperate snark or astonishingly thick-headed? Either way, iAmerica/i magazine could do a lot better.br /pbrThe Pope regularly receives heads of state all the time. It is simply one of the many things the Vatican does. To do so, even to exchange personal gifts as a matter of courtesy, does not imply endorsement of any or all of the policies espoused by that particular head of state. br /pWere the Pope to present Obama with a gift, it would no more indicate his support of Obama's support for unrestricted abortion or federally-funded embryonic stem cell research than the exchange of gifts with President Bush in 2008 indicated an endorsement of the questionable policies of his own administration.pMr. Winters might argue the same point with Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama, but this is actually quite different. pThe USCCB has stated quite clearly that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." pIn the a href="http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CardinalNewmanSociety/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/435/ItemID/520/Default.aspx" target=_blankwords of Bishop John M. D’Arcy/a -- to whom the USCCB recently a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/06/23/usccb-issues-a-statement-of-support-for-bishop-darcy/" target=_blankaffirmed their collective support/a -- in Notre Dame's conferral of honors upon the President, "we have here, however, the granting of an honorary degree of law to someone whose activities both as president and previously, have been altogether supportive of laws against the dignity of the human person yet to be born."br /pIf Michael Sean Winters believes as I do, a href="http://www.usccb.org/prolife/keelerhomily05.shtml" target=_blankor as Cardinal William Keeler asserted/a, that iRoe v. Wade/iblockquoteinvented a constitutional concept that had never been envisioned; in doing so, they contravened two of our nation's most precious values: the recognition of a God-given, inalienable right to life, and the promise of equal protection under law./blockquoteThen surely it is not beyond him to grasp just how scandalous it may be to Catholics to witness the conferral of a ilaw/i degree on a President who boasted his "100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America" and declared his furvent support of the decision.br /pbrAnd no, Michael -- the Catholic Bishops did not speak "only with their absence" at the commencement -- unless you're willing to ignore the statements of a href="http://www.americanpapist.com/2009/04/round-up-bishops-who-have-responded-to.html" target=_blank77 Catholic bishops/a and a href="http://www.notredamescandal.com/SignthePetitiontoFrJenkins/tabid/454/Default.aspx"367,000/a Catholics voicing their protest.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9017636-5226269060587328673?l=thepublicsquare.blogspot.com'//div
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Obama to visit the Vatican; the triumphant vindication of Michael Sean Winters?
a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2id=97628659-3048-741E-7280896060807590" target=_blankFrom iAmerica/i magazine, Michael Sean Winters on the President's prospective audience with the Pope/a:blockquotePope Benedict XVI will receive President Barack Obama in audience at the Vatican on July 10. Let the gnashing of teeth begin.br /pAdmit it, wasn’t your first impulse to call Dr. Mary Ann Glendon and ask, "If you were still the ambassador, would you show up or would you boycott?" The Cardinal Newman Society, which spent the better part of the spring telling the world that no Catholic could in good conscience share the stage with President Obama, perhaps now they will start issuing press releases entitled "Pope Creates Scandal" or "Outrage at the Vatican." The Catholic News Agency, which featured the headline "Vatican announces Pope’s vacation without confirmation of Obama visit" just a few weeks ago, has nary a mention of the visit on its website this morning. Cat got your tongue?br /pObama’s Catholic critics need to re-calibrate their message and it is difficult to see how they will compete with the pictures of Obama in the frescoed halls of the Vatican, his beautiful wife and children in tow, shaking hands with the Holy Father. Actually, in addition to shaking hands, it is traditional that the Pope will present a gift to the President. Does that count as an "honor" of the kind forbidden by the bishops’ document "Catholics in Political Life"? Notre Dame, of course, has a tradition of conferring an honorary degree upon every new president that pre-dates presidential visits to the Holy See./blockquoteMichael Sean Winters -- intemperate snark or astonishingly thick-headed? Either way, iAmerica/i magazine could do a lot better.br /pbrThe Pope regularly receives heads of state all the time. It is simply one of the many things the Vatican does. To do so, even to exchange personal gifts as a matter of courtesy, does not imply endorsement of any or all of the policies espoused by that particular head of state. br /pWere the Pope to present Obama with a gift, it would no more indicate his support of Obama's support for unrestricted abortion or federally-funded embryonic stem cell research than the exchange of gifts with President Bush in 2008 indicated an endorsement of the questionable policies of his own administration.pMr. Winters might argue the same point with Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama, but this is actually quite different. pThe USCCB has stated quite clearly that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." pIn the a href="http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CardinalNewmanSociety/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/435/ItemID/520/Default.aspx" target=_blankwords of Bishop John M. D’Arcy/a -- to whom the USCCB recently a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/06/23/usccb-issues-a-statement-of-support-for-bishop-darcy/" target=_blankaffirmed their collective support/a -- in Notre Dame's conferral of honors upon the President, "we have here, however, the granting of an honorary degree of law to someone whose activities both as president and previously, have been altogether supportive of laws against the dignity of the human person yet to be born."br /pIf Michael Sean Winters believes as I do, a href="http://www.usccb.org/prolife/keelerhomily05.shtml" target=_blankor as Cardinal William Keeler asserted/a, that iRoe v. Wade/iblockquoteinvented a constitutional concept that had never been envisioned; in doing so, they contravened two of our nation's most precious values: the recognition of a God-given, inalienable right to life, and the promise of equal protection under law./blockquoteThen surely it is not beyond him to grasp just how scandalous it may be to Catholics to witness the conferral of a ilaw/i degree on a President who boasted his "100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America" and declared his furvent support of the decision.br /pbrAnd no, Michael -- the Catholic Bishops did not speak "only with their absence" at the commencement -- unless you're willing to ignore the statements of a href="http://www.americanpapist.com/2009/04/round-up-bishops-who-have-responded-to.html" target=_blank77 Catholic bishops/a and a href="http://www.notredamescandal.com/SignthePetitiontoFrJenkins/tabid/454/Default.aspx"367,000/a Catholics voicing their protest.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9017636-5226269060587328673?l=thepublicsquare.blogspot.com'//div
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