Look to Notre Dame For a Reason Why Catholics Are Furious
The University of Notre Dame's Dec. 3 decision to file a lawsuit challenging the federal mandate requiring religious employers to provide contraceptive coverage — including sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs — had to be a difficult one for Notre Dame President John Jenkins. After all, it was only a few years ago that Father Jenkins was lauding President Obama as a “leader who has great respect for the role of faith and religious institutions in public life.”
Father Jenkins continues to seem bewildered about the way his relationship with the president has ended so badly. Like a spurned lover, still unable to admit to himself that he was used by the president to provide Catholic cover, Father Jenkins posted a statement on the Notre Dame website last week thanking the president for “undertaking these discussions in good faith.” Stating that he was “grateful to the administration for the time it gave to this matter and for its efforts to accommodate our concerns,” Father Jenkins wrote, “We have concluded, however, the government’s accommodations would require us to forfeit our rights, to facilitate and become entangled in a program inconsistent with Catholic teaching and to create the impression that the university cooperates with and condones activities incompatible with its mission.”
Faithful Catholics know that Father Jenkins began his entanglement with activities incompatible with the mission of Notre Dame on the day he invited Mr. Obama to campus for the commencement ceremony.
Perhaps it is time for him to realize that.
Read more: www.washingtontimes.com/…/hendershott-the…
