President Barack Obama was greeted with a mix of protests and cheers as he gave the commencement address Sunday at the University of Notre Dame. Twenty-six of the graduates skipped the ceremony altogether, gathering on a corner of campus for a prayer vigil.
Catholics around the world were outraged when the pro-abortion Obama was invited to speak. Longtime Notre Dame philosophy professor Ralph McInerny was among them.
"Abortion is an essentially evil act, both from the viewpoint of natural morality and from the explicit teaching the Church," he wrote. "There is no way in which an individual, a politician or an institution can finesse that fact.
"By inviting Barack Obama as commencement speaker, Notre Dame is telling the nation that the teaching of the Catholic Church on this fundamental matter can be ignored."
Life advocates gathered near the campus all week long. Jill Stanek, a pro-life speaker and blogger, was at the protest Sunday.
"I’m quite sure we made good advances over the weekend and leading up to this fight," she said, "because we were able to talk about Notre Dame juxtaposed with Barack Obama’s extreme abortion (and) infanticide positions.
"(We) did not allow people to get into the commencement without being reminded about Barack Obama's (positions)."
Meanwhile, inside, Obama said Americans need to "work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions."
His policies, however, suggest a far different agenda.
In his first 100 days in office, Obama:
- Signed an executive order allowing taxpayer funding to go to international groups that promote or provide abortions.
- Opened the door for more human embryos to be destroyed for unethical stem-cell research.
- Began the process of rescinding the Bush health care provider conscience regulations.
- Lifted a seven-year ban on taxpayer funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is linked to forced abortion programs.
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Watch or read President Barack Obama's address.
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