The American Spectator

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National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

By Joseph Lawler on 5.8.09 @ 11:10AM

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke forcefully condemned Notre Dame's decision to honor President Obama at commencement at this morning's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Archbishop Burke said that Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkin's invitation to Pres. Obama to address the graduating class and receive an honorary doctorate of laws is "a source of the greatest scandal." His remarks about Notre Dame, which drew the loudest and most sustained applause of the entire event, were one focus of the archbishop's speech concerning Catholics in public life. In the course of discussing the president's persistently anti-life record, the responsibilities of Catholic voters, and what he perceived as grave threats to religious life in American society, Burke also contradicted those who would argue that religious institutions must compromise in order to remain relevant in secular society. In the face of officials advocating for laws that are "always and everywhere evil," he said, "Catholic schools and institutions are necessarily countercultural."

The group Catholicvote.org also introduced a video at the breakfast that they hope will achieve the same success as the video they released during the election season that went viral. The earlier video portrayed Barack Obama as an example of an unborn child whose mother chose life. Below is the video, which the promoters hope to run during primetime hours, including the American Idol finale, according to Raymond Arroyo, the event's MC: