LifeSiteNews is reporting on a resolution passed by the Notre Dame chapter of University Faculty for Life which categorically condemned the university’s decision to grant “the oldest and most prestigious honor accorded to American Catholics” to a lawmaker who has consistently violated Church teaching.
“Notre Dame claims to award the Laetare Medal ‘annually to an American Catholic in recognition of outstanding service to Church and society.’ But our Faculty for Life Chapter agrees with Bishop Kevin Rhoades that the awarding of the Laetare Medal to Vice-President Biden is a scandalous violation of the University’s moral responsibility . . . never to honor those who act in defiance of fundamental moral principles about the sanctity of life,” the resolution states.
It goes on to point out that Biden has “conspicuously rejected Church teaching about life” for decades, citing positions taken by Biden during his political career.
“Saying that Mr. Biden rejects Church teaching could make it sound like he is merely disobeying the rules of his religious group. But the Church’s teaching about the sanctity of life is true. And so the Vice-President rejects the truth that human life begins at conception,” the faculty stated. “He rejects the truth that every human life deserves protection, from conception until natural death. He rejects the truth that public officials like him have an especially grave duty to preserve the least of our brothers and sisters from harm.”
The group of faculty concluded by respectfully requesting that the University administration rescind the award.
This is just the latest eruption of outrage that has been festering since early March when the University first announced that it would grant the award to Biden as well as former House Speaker John Boehner. While Speaker Boehner has been an outspoken defender of life during his political career, the vice president has been just the opposite, supporting both abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
“While I understand Notre Dame’s intentions in conferring the Laetare Medal upon Vice President Biden and Speaker Boehner, I disagree with the decision,” said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend after the announcement.
“I believe it is wrong for Notre Dame to honor any ‘pro-choice’ public official with the Laetare Medal, even if he has other positive accomplishments in public service, since direct abortion is gravely contrary to the natural law and violates a very fundamental principle of Catholic moral and social teaching: the inalienable right to life of every innocent human being from the moment of conception.”
Bishop Rhoades said the choice would “provoke scandal” by giving the impression “that one can be ‘a good Catholic’ while also supporting or advocating for positions that contradict our fundamental moral and social principles and teachings”
Cardinal Raymond Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and ecclesiastical advisor to The Cardinal Newman Society, agreed.
“As St. John Paul II observed in his apostolic exhortation on the laity, one of the greatest evils of our times is the tendency of Catholics to separate their faith from their daily living. And this is exactly what we have here. So we have the impression, given to other Catholics and to the population in general, that one can believe one thing and act in a completely contrary way. The fact of the matter is that most people will simply conclude that the Catholic teaching with regard to the inviolable dignity of innocent and defenseless human life and the integrity of marriage as the faithful, indissoluble and procreative union of one man and one woman, is not very firm and that it can easily be violated,” Cardinal Burke said.
“Therefore it is a great scandal within the Church,” he added, “but it is also a great scandal within society in general which depends upon the Church to give a witness to the truth about human life and the family.”
Meanwhile, University President Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. issued a statement honoring both men as being “dedicated to genuine public service who “put the good of the national ahead of partisan victory” and who made “honorable compromise and progress” for the good of the nation. Therefore, the university is choosing to celebrate “two lives dedicated to keeping our democratic institutions working for the common good through dialogue focused on the issues and responsible compromise.”
However, this “responsible compromise” is precisely the problem for the Vice President.
As the Newman Society points out, “Catholic Biden has compromised his fidelity to Church teaching on intrinsic evils far too many times in his career in the interest of political compromise. He has publicly supported Roe v. Wade and legal abortion, legal redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples, taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the HHS contraception/sterilization/abortifacient mandate. Is this really the sort of “responsible compromise” Notre Dame seeks to applaud?”
Not even the students agree with the decision. A contingent of 89 students published a letter in the student newspaper on March 18 protesting the award, saying Biden’s public service “has not been ‘to the Church,’ but largely against the Church.”
“As students of this University, some of whom will graduate in May, we are disappointed Notre Dame has failed in this instance to live up to its Catholic mission,” the students stated. “We deserve to see the Laetare Medal given to an American Catholic who merits it by having served as an outstanding example for Catholics and having performed real service to the Church in this country.”
This is just one of many offenses against the Church committed in recent years by Notre Dame, with perhaps one of its greatest scandals being the invitation to President Barack Obama to give a commencement speech in 2009 and to award him with an honorary degree. This decision caused widespread outrage with more than a quarter million people signing a petition against the decision.
However, the University refused to budge and once again opted to promote scandal rather than fidelity to the faith.
The honors are scheduled to be awarded on May 15.
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