Notre Dame Commencement--Pro-Life Seniors Witness to Life

Wow. This is something. A group of pro-life graduating seniors at Notre Dame invited Fr. Pavone (of Priests For Life) to come to the ND campus on their upcoming commencement day to lead them in an alternative event:

Fr. Frank Pavone announced today that next Sunday, May 17, he will be present on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Members of the senior class who have decided not to attend their own graduation have invited him to lead them in prayer at the Class of 2009 Vigil for Life, which will start at 2pm, the same time as the commencement ceremony in which President Obama will be honored.

The Class of 2009 Vigil for Life will take place at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary will be prayed and Fr. Frank will give five-minute meditations prior to each decade.

[See the full PFL press release here]

This involves a sacrifice by these seniors. I commend them for their integrity in realizing that the commitment all children of God have to witness to the sanctity of human life no matter how young must come before an understandable desire to participate in their commencement.

Any Catholic university presumably takes seriously the obligation all men of good will have to protect the innocent, the weak, and the vulnerable--to come to the aid of the defenseless. What Catholic college would seriously consider inviting to campus as an honored speaker someone who
advocated infanticide as a way to "spare" disabled children from suffering? What Catholic college would warmly invite to their campus a politician who had said that very sick elderly should not be treated, but allowed to die, as a way to prevent the burden that they might become for others? What Catholic University would eagerly honor a person who was of the opinion that battered women should not be given any special help or protection? What about someone who thought slavery justifiable in some situations? Or who held that Jews really are somehow inferior? No. Appropriately, such people--no matter what their religion, political party, or particular position of leadership--would be considered unfit, unworthy, to address an auspicious gathering of new graduates. Such people would be considered by decent society disqualified from any and all public honors, no matter the occasion.

President Barak Obama (regardless of his largely empty rhetoric) has shown repeatedly--by his actions--that he supports the taking of innocent, vulnerable, defenseless human life while still in the womb. Thanks to him, the United States is once again spending tax dollars to enable people to commit abortions in foreign countries; it took him all of three days in office to overturn the Mexico City Policy.

No one, not even the President of the United States, who thinks it is OK to destroy helpless tiny human beings in the womb deserves to have any sort of public honors. This should be just as clear as it would be for the examples above. Basic decency and respect for the equal dignity of all human life should, without a moment's hesitation, come before the prestige of hosting a U.S. President.

I pray that many of the Notre Dame Class of 2009 will have the courage and heart to make the sacrifice of not attending their tarnished commencement, and instead make an honorable stand for life by attending the Class of 2009 Vigil for Life.

[HT: Jill Stanek]