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"What Happened to Notre Dame?"
Notre Dame Law School professor Charles Rice is still on the case of America's largest religious university's sell-out. The Obama commencement speech episode is not over, as Rice explains in an open letter to the school's president begging him to have the charges against the "Notre Dame 88" dropped. Rice also delves into the school's still unaddressed, deeper problems in a comprehensive account in his new book What Happened to Notre Dame?
In an effort to undo some of the PR damage wrought by his invitation to the president to speak at commencement, president Fr. John Jenkins has announced that he will participate in the 2010 March for life in DC. But as Rice argues in an open letter to Jenkins, such an action would be tinged with irony in light of Fr. Jenkins's own indifference to the fate of the Notre Dame 88, a group of protesters facing jail time for pro-life demonstration.
The Notre Dame 88 are the people who were arrested during the May Notre Dame commencement for trespassing. They were all pro-life protestors, and among them were Norma McCovey, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, and 79-year-old Fr. Norman Weslin, a veteran soldier and anti-abortion protester. The 88 are scheduled to face trial for their protests, which the school could easily prevent by asking the prosecutors to drop charges. But the school refuses to do so, although the protests were peaceful and took place across the campus from the commencement activities. In his letter to Fr. John Jenkins, ND president, Rice explains why the schools should help these protesters avoid jail and writes that Fr. Jenkins's refusal to drop the charges against Fr. Weslin "may be the lowest point in the entire history of Notre Dame." The entire text of the letter is here; it lays out how unconscionable Fr. Jenkins's actions are.
In What Happened to Notre Dame, Rice explains the devolution of Notre Dame from a refuge for Catholics to a secularized school with some religious trappings with clear logic and in laborious detail.
The crux of Rice's explanation for Notre Dame's loss of religious authenticity is that the school's experience conforms to Neuhaus's Law: wherever orthodoxy is optional, it will sooner or later be proscribed. In this case Notre Dame made Catholic orthodoxy optional in the 1967 "Land O'Lakes" statement, when it asserted its academic autonomy from the Church and made orthodoxy contingent on the faculty's goals. And sure enough, Rice demonstrates, within decades orthodoxy's proscription was so advanced that not only did the school's academics often run out-of-bounds, but even in specifically ecclesiastical matters the school flouted Church teaching, as most clearly seen in the university's rogue interpretation of the USCCB's statement on politics in Church life without reference to the local bishop.
The historical detail Rice provides for this narrative is extensive -- the reader will become acquainted with not only the history of the topic going back to the '50s, but also with all the players in the recent commencement incident, right down to students who helped organize the alternative commencement exercises. But Rice is at his best when illustrating what Notre Dame has lost in its doomed quest for autonomy.
Rice provides introductions to Church teachings on the topics of life issues and education, from Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Humanae Vitae, and Deus Caritas Est through the most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritatae. He hints at the profound insight of these documents, which reflect the wisdom not only of thinkers like Pope Benedict XVI, one of the most respected theologians in the world, but also that of centuries of Christian scholars who wrestled with these problems. Then Rice contrasts those masterpieces of serious thought, which even if rejected must be at least addressed, with the rock-bottom abdication of intellectual responsibility of the current administration, displayed in Fr. Jenkins's justification for the showing of the obscene and anti-intellectual Vagina Monologues in 2006: that they were a "creative contextualization."
The reader of What Happened to Notre Dame will feel sorry for Rice, who joined the Notre Dame faculty four decades ago, for realizing what Notre Dame could be.
Comments
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hmm_contrib| 9.23.09 @ 2:03PM
So Catholic orthodoxy, or the pursuit of the same, means that private property rights no longer apply? Or that they don't apply to anti-abortion protestors? Can't graduating seniors, most of whom supported the choice of the President of the United States as a commencent speaker, enjoy an undisrupted ceremony? Why can't ND enforce private property rights as it sees fit? Isn't this the conservative position?
It seems that Catholic extremism demands that every single attending member of the graduating class, and their families and friends give over their ceremony, and everything that they have worked for for 4 or more years all for a fringe element. Anti abortion zealotry demands it! It's not about scholarship or community or anything else - this one issue, according to those who rant and scream and disrupt from the sidelines, those who hijack another's ceremony for their own personal motives - they apparently matter more than than the seniors. Pathetic.
Steve N| 9.23.09 @ 2:55PM
Geez, at least give Dr. Rice the courtesy of reading the Open Letter before you pillory it. The "trespassers" were on the other side of campus from the commencement event, other "trespassers" carrying pro-Obama signs were not arrested/detained, etc. This was hardly the hijacking of commencement - as though that rite is what "...they have worked for..." anyway.
Brubaker| 9.23.09 @ 7:16PM
"It seems that Catholic extremism demands that every single attending member of the graduating class, and their families and friends give over their ceremony, and everything that they have worked for for 4 or more years all for a fringe element. "
I never realized that Catholics were a fringe element in Catholic universities. Who knew?
Nick| 9.24.09 @ 12:13AM
The only thing "pathetic", is your straw man argument.
No one is arguing that "[...] private property rights no longer apply". What a lame attempt to make a point.
No one says Fr. Jenkins CAN'T press charges, we are saying that he SHOULD NOT press charges. Get the distinction?
I guess the Holy Father is a Pro-Life extremist too, huh?
Peter Martin| 9.25.09 @ 10:56AM
Pathetic to hijack another's ceremony. I agree! Too bad we have a President whose sensitivity is so wanting and whose ego is so immense, that it apparently never occured to him that he could have respectfully declined the invitation and probably won at least a certain grudging respect from pro-Lifers, especially those who are Catholic.
And "Catholic Extremism" demanded nothing of the sort (giving over the graduation ceremony). There was absolutely nothing about the "protests" that threatened the ceremony to the slightest degree. hmm__contrib must be thinking of the protests from the left on, say, pick a subject, where utter disruption and chaos are among the clear goals of the gathering.
The only connection between these protests and the graduation ceremony itself can be found in the juxtaposition of Fr. Jenkins and President Obama, both waxing on about the importance of dialogue and respect for beliefs of others, and those outside and across campus---a priest, a nun, and dozens of others---being shackled and hauled away, at the behest of Fr. Jenkins, for expressing their views through prayer.
Red Phillips| 9.23.09 @ 2:19PM
Yeah, that crazy extremist fringe worried about baby killing. What must they be thinking?
Steve N| 9.23.09 @ 2:57PM
But, Red, that day was what the seniors and their families have worked so hard for... the ones that weren't hung over, anyway... ;-)
What a sad period in Notre Dame history...
Oldefarte| 9.23.09 @ 3:16PM
ND, along with numerous Catholic politicians, have been effectively brainwashed by the secular, government-as-a-religion theology that prevails today. Possibly the Church's Vatican should consider revoking ND's 'Catholic Charter', so to speak unless they MEND THEIR WAYS according to Catholic teachings!!!!
Warrior| 9.23.09 @ 10:00PM
This is the same Catholic Church who wanted to refuse communion to politicians who supported abortion? Father Jenkins should removed immediately.
RexTheInvincible| 9.23.09 @ 11:08PM
The vatican is discretely partying behind their gilded ceiling-to- floor doors; merging 'the church' with the political dogma of the left so publicly is the epitome of useful ecumenism for that gaggle of hypocrites. Did anybody miss the marxist political implications of catholic 'social justice' movement the past couple decades? Obama @ ND is a political statement of the confident ND administrators; the emboldened extension of policies long ago merged with left wing politics. The soteriology of the true Church; the body of believers in the person and work of Jesus Christ motivated by gratitude to reflect HIS faith, justice and love; is unchanged. Catholics mistake that organization's religious accoutrements for God-fearing, Christ worshipping, Christianity...the world wide catholic 'church' is a political organization, it's lifting up it's embroidered skirts at Notre Dame (our lady).
Margie| 9.24.09 @ 5:42PM
"the true Church; the body of believers in the person and work of Jesus Christ motivated by gratitude to reflect HIS faith, justice and love; is unchanged."
True.
"But the Most High does not dwell in temples made by hand, as the prophet says." Acts 7:48
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst." Mt. 18:20
"Because if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him will not be put to shame." (Is. 28:16). For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord of all is is rich toward all the ones calling on Him." Romans 10:9-12.
Taken from The Interlinear Bible (Hebrew, Greek, English), Coded with Strong's Concordance Numbers. J.P. Greem, Sr. Sovereign Grace Publishers. (for those who might like to know).
God bless!
Crabby Apple Mick Lee| 9.24.09 @ 6:59AM
Hey, hmm_contrib! Fr. Jenkins said he wanted the University open to various points of view by inviting the President to the graduating ceremony. Get some pro-life protesters and Notre Dame gets two "various" views for the price of one. I guess at Notre Dame the education still goes on at the "wrap-up" parties.
Jack| 9.24.09 @ 11:59AM
There is a petition -- already 14,000 strong -- asking Notre Dame to drop the charges against the 88 pro-lifers who face up to one year in jail and heavy fines for being the voice of the unborn while Fr. Jenkins was honoring one of the most pro-abortion politicians of our age.
Sign the petition here
http://www.tfpstudentaction.or.....arges.html
God bless!
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Margie| 9.24.09 @ 5:43PM
*Typo* Should have said Jay P. Green, not Greem.
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