What the....!?

An open letter to the Ft. Wayne - South Bend Bishop on the Dear Leader's selection as Notre Dame's commencement speaker:

Fort Wayne Chancery
1103 S. Calhoun Street
P.O. Box 390
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46801

March 24, 2009

Dear Bishop D’Arcy:

I see that the world’s most pre-eminent advocate for abortion and expansion of stem cell research has been invited to give the commencement address at Notre Dame. Did you and the university “leadership” miss this man’s recent actions to advance those hideous activities?

How are we to take seriously the church’s teachings on these matters? The church says it opposes these things then turns about and presents the bully pulpit of one of its most prestigious and well known universities to a person who advances them.

I’m sure this all makes perfect sense to the finely honed and open minds that populate your Chancery and the university board room, but to a great many of us who populate the pews of your churches it appears hypocritical and dangerous.

When is the church going to adopt the same approach on Sunday mornings? Father John will deliver a 20 minute sermon on the church’s teachings on giving to help the poor. Then Father John can introduce some Gordon Gekko type to spend 20 minutes telling us what a bunch of saps we are to be giving our hard earned money to the church. Frankly, the choice of Notre Dame’s commencement speaker makes it look as if we are saps.

Have you considered how the media will portray this commencement address? It will be portrayed as the church caving into the new government’s position on these issues. And why not? It appears that you are. It will be portrayed as mainstream Catholics being more in step with the new government’s position than with the Holy Father’s. And why not? No matter how many of us gather to protest the speech outside, the lemming media will loop endlessly the cheering and adoring crowd inside.

Sadly, I doubt that this decision can be reversed. You should oppose it in the strongest manner possible. Who will speak for us? Someone on the dais on graduation day should step to the mic, look the commencement speaker in the eye and condemn him in the strongest and most unambiguous way possible for his views on abortion and support for Mengele-like bioresearch. Who will speak for us? Sadly, I have little hope that anyone will.

Yours in Catholicism (for now),


Doug Schumick
Ft. Wayne, IN