Opinion: In Friday’s Letters to the editor
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Notre Dame traditionally invites new presidents to speak at its commencement ceremonies. This year, not surprisingly, it extended an offer to the newly-elected Barack Obama.
Some Catholics have expressed outrage that a Catholic university would bestow such an honor on a pro-choice president. Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote about the debate last week, and The Times’ editorial board opined that informed debate should trump concerns about doctrine in this case.
In Friday’s letters, readers -- including the president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic organization that has led the protest against the invitation -- fired back.
Nicholas Engler, of Los Angeles, wrote that
The Times makes a poor case against well-founded Catholic criticism of Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to speak at graduation. A commencement speaker should embody the ideals and mission of the university. By reversing stem cell research and abortion-related policies, the president put himself in direct contradiction with important church teachings and is therefore not an appropriate choice.
While Dan Jiru, of Long Beach, saw it differently.
It has always mystified me how so many Catholics can ignore years of Catholic teaching addressing pro-life issues beyond the womb: child poverty, economic justice, environmental integrity and war and peace. Obama bonds with the church’s ‘preferential option for the poor,’ which states that ‘the moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation.’ Past policies enriched the few and stifled the incomes of the poor and middle class. We now have a president who is changing the dynamic from a ‘preferential option for the upper crust’ to one that focuses on the needs of those who struggle. Can all of this have simply escaped these protesters, or don’t they care?
Letters responding to our editorial blasting the notion of making police chief an elected office, to this story about race and the UC schools, and to Iranian official Ali Akbar Javanfekr’s March 31 Op-Ed, too.