Bishop D’Arcy Challenges Notre Dame

Bishop John D'Arcy who heads the Ft. Wayne - South Bend Diocese has a question for Notre Dame University in the aftermath of President Obama's address there last spring. The following is taken from an article by bishop D'Arcy that appears in the August 31 issue of America magazine (emphasis mine):

“As summer plays itself out on the beautiful campus by the lake where the young Holy Cross priest, Edward Sorin, C.S.C., pitched his camp 177 years ago and began his great adventure, we must clarify the situation that so sundered the church last spring: What it is all about and what it is not about.

“It is not about President Obama. He will do some good things as president and other things with which, as Catholics, we will strongly disagree. It is ever so among presidents, and most political leaders.

“It is not about Democrats versus Republicans, nor was it a replay of the recent general election.

“It is not about whether it is appropriate for the president of the United States to speak at Notre Dame or any great Catholic university on the pressing issues of the day. This is what universities do. No bishop should try to prevent that.

“The response, so intense and widespread, is not about what this journal called ‘sectarian Catholicism.’ Rather, the response of the faithful derives directly from the Gospel. In Matthew’s words, ‘Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your heavenly Father’ (5:13).

“Does a Catholic university have the responsibility to give witness to the Catholic faith and to the consequences of that faith by its actions and decisions—especially by a decision to confer its highest honor? If not, what is the meaning of a life of faith? And how can a Catholic institution expect its students to live by faith in the difficult decisions that will confront them in a culture often opposed to the Gospel?”