For people whose view of history extends beyond last week, the furor over Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to be its commencement speaker and receive an honorary degree is simply the latest chapter in an old story by the name of "Americanism."
Notre Dame is a paradigmatic institution — flagship of the Americanist impulse in U.S. Catholicism — and with the uproar over our pro-abortion president the university's special status has come home to roost for folks under the Golden Dome.
Pope Leo XIII in 1899 condemned a heresy he called Americanism as a "reprehensible" error. He had in mind a set of attitudes and practices intended to adjust Catholic belief and behavior (or in some cases just sweep them aside) to suit contemporary secular standards in unacceptable ways. The existence of such views, Leo said, "raises a suspicion that there are those among you who envision and desire a Church in America other than that which is in all the rest of the world."
Prominent figures in U.S. Catholicism like Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore — to whom the pope's letter was addressed — and Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul promptly insisted they held none of the views which Leo had condemned. And thereupon, one historian writes, Americanism "quickly disappeared as a meaningful force in the U.S."
But of course it didn't. Instead, as the 20th century progressed, the Americanist spirit merged with the sociological phenomenon of cultural assimilation. Especially after World War II, higher education, new affluence, and population shifts — the breakdown of inner-city ethnic parishes as Catholics moved to the booming suburbs — fueled a progressive thinning-out of Catholic identity that's still going on.
One result of this is easy to state: "American Catholics are firmly implanted in the American mainstream." Those words come from an official history of Notre Dame on the university website. The overview leaves no doubt that Notre Dame considers itself similarly "implanted" while at the same time remaining a Catholic school.
The cultural assimilation of American Catholics has been a good thing in many ways — but not all. That's painfully clear from empirical data on U.S. Catholicism showing declines in Mass attendance and sacramental participation, in priests and religious, in adherence to Catholic doctrine, and even in number of Catholics (partially masked by Hispanic immigration). Life in the secular mainstream has not proved to be all that healthy for the Church.
Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama — an aggressive supporter of abortion "rights" who already has promulgated several anti-life policy decisions and threatens more — is part of this Americanist pattern. What could be more mainstream for a Catholic school, after all, than having the president of the United States as commencement speaker? That the official policy of the Catholic bishops of the United States rules it out evidently doesn’t matter.
"Quite a coup," Kenneth L. Woodward, former Newsweek religion editor and a longtime Notre Dame booster, crowed on the op-ed page of The Washington Post. "Our voices must be raised to say that we are thrilled such a distinguished Catholic university is considered such a part of the life of the nation," gushed an America magazine blogger named Michael Sean Winters.
At least since the time of Leo XIII, American Catholics have faced a choice between assimilation and counterculturalism. The emergence of legalized abortion makes that choice even more demanding. But Notre Dame's invitation to Obama comes from the assimilationist heart of Catholic Americanism. The outrage it has produced is counterculturalism's response. However this turns out, the argument will go on.
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I think the graduating class at Notre Dame should not attend graduation exercises but instead go to the chapel en masse and say the rosary during graduation. Their families should join them there. I believe it would make a big difference because our Blessed Mother is always heard by her Son. In this way, we would honor our Blessed Mother (Notre Dame) instead of defaming her name.
The article is important to point out that to be Catholic is to be in accordance with the Catholic teaching, which samy Americans who claim to be catholic are not. When one protest a dogmatic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, one ceases to be Catholic. You can't reject the isses of life (ie..abortion, euthenasia, birth controll), the sacraments (receiving The Eucharist in mortal sin if objecting life issues, and not utilizing Confession), and Obeidance to the Magistrium. An American saying they are catholic but reject Her teachings, is like saying the sun is shining during the middle of a typhoon. Come to think of it, that might be the state of their soul..."i'm going to heaven anyway so it doesn't matter what i do on earth"...
I would submit that since John Kennedy's speach to the Preachers, we have been rendering unto Ceasar the things that are God's. I believe that the costs and benefit of assimilation have been greatly miscalculated.
Like many Catholics I too am scandalized that Notre Dame could invite Mr Obama - the most pro-abortion president ever - to its campus. As a Cathlic priest I could never again recommend anyone to enroll at what was once a great Catholic University. In the meantime I will pray for the president that he come to his senses and realize all the spiritual damage his action has caused to countless souls. God help us all!
I AM A CRADLE CATHOLIC AND I LOVE MY FAITH - I ALSO PICKET IN FRONT OF AN ABORTION MILL/TO HAVE HIM AS
PREISDENT BROKE MANY HEARTS - AND WILL TAKE MILLIONS OF LIVES BUT GOD WILL PREVAIL - THESE ARE HIS CHILDREN - OBAMA IS NOT GOD - TO HAVE HIM AT THIS UNIVERISTY WAS A TOTAL OXYMORON. WHAT IS WRONG - WILL THAT INVITATION CONVERT HIM WHEN HE WAS SO ADAMANT WITH POPE BENEDICT 16TH ? IF YOU ARE NOT WITH CHRIST - YOU ARE AGAINST HIM - PRAY PRAY PRAY....FOR CONVERSION
Accept Catholic teachings and you are a Catholic. Omit those you don't agree with and then what do you call yourself: dishonest. You are either one or the other, but you can't be both.
Truth is never focused on the wants of the many over the needs of the few, it is not exploitative of tens of millions of innocent unborn lives, and it is never, ever impressed by any office or title or man, even if that man is Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America.
Notre Dame, are you merely a university, or a Catholic university? On what basis?
Your analysis, I think, breaks down when one realizes that the Church in other western countries is experiencing a similar phenomenon. Americanism meant more than simply cultural assimilation. Rather, Pope Leo had specific practices and beliefs in mind such as, absolute freedom of the press, an individualism premised upon Enlightenment philosophy, and separation of Church and state. And as far as that goes, many more Catholics than just the administration of Notre Dame--including conservative, pro-life Catholics--are guilty of Americanism.
Where were the protests 25 years ago when Notre Dame gave a platform for Governor Mario Cuomo (Ccatholic) to give the excuse for Catholics to be pro choice? He expressed the cover for Catholic politicians to go along with the child killers by saying "we can't make everyone accept our moral view". He omitted that outlawing murder has not been unique to Catholics. Murder has been condemned in every civil society.
Thank God that Catholics are beginning to fight!
This is rediculous. I'm reading this article and these comments and am offended at these blatant, outright attacks on President Obama. The fact that the article calls Obama "Anti-Life" is appaling, just because he is Pro-Choice doesn't mean he is Anti-Life, I read Anti-Life and I think someone who wants to kill every person in the world, themselves included, which is absolutely rediculous. I think that Notre Dame should be honored to have the President of our country attend their graduation, I know if I was graduating this year I would be greatly honored. All I have heard so far are attacks on Obama's integrity, which as far as I know, isn't a very Christian thing to do. You need to look at your own comments and relize what Hypocrits you have all become with this situation. I know my comment will probably be deleted or ignored because I am speaking my mind, but I feel it must be done.
It is amazing to me that a Catholic istitution is so willing throw aside its values only so tradition will continue. This will only end in err. Where is the leadership of the school headed? one can only wonder. The wolves are inside the hen house.
Francis Donovan you are exactly right--I reread Cuomo's speech the other day. LONGwinded, but at its core, more mealymouthed doublespeak from just another politician. I noticed Cuomo, using not wanting to impose his moral view as the reason he chickened out on abortion, but had no qualms about doing away with the death penalty in New York. A laudable action from a Catholic perspective but how does abortion get left out of that logic?
I believe we need to forget "Americanism" and look to a deeper well-attested problem: that of the communist party infiltrating American religious
organizations with an eye to destroying them, using religion as its own private way of sticking it to good decent people.
"I Led 3 Lives" Herb Philbrick was
drafted into the Communist Party by members who took over a Baptist Young Adults Group. Mrs. Bella Dodd, a convert from communist party leadership in NY, swore in
an affadavit for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen she had PERSONALLY recruited between 750 and 1300 or so men without faith to become Catholic priests in order to
throw the Church into havoc. Last I checked, the clip was still on YouTube. Hard to tell who is the communist, and who is the victim of bad theology. Instead, we need to remove the unorthodox.
Notre Dame has deliberately kept and
defended Fr. Richard McBrien all these years, with his
lack of orthodoxy, causing harm to the consciences of
countless Catholics. WHY?
Promoting an Obama supporter to law dean,
honoring a President so morally deficient that he thinks
we have too many people and killing the unborn is a "civil
right" with a doctorate of laws is totally consistent with
this: totally perverse.
The Bishops need to seize Notre Dame's assets,
fire the heretics, and hire and appoint orthodox Catholic's
to run it. The order now running it has failed to maintain
the Catholic Faith, and to pass it on.
I found your piece most interesting. I think it is important for Catholics to remember that we cannot serve God and Mammon. Hence, we must always strive to make the correct choice.
We must always remember to be in the world, but not of it. We must strive against all that opposes our religion, especially the errors of modernism that now run wild throughout our society.
If the anti-Catholicism isms were laid out on a table for scrutiny we would find that true Christocentric humanism (as preached by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI) is under siege. This attack shows no sign of ever letting up. "Our foes press on from every side..." I find it odd that we think that by isolating Americanism we can even contain it for proper study let alone propose anything meaningful to combat it at this late stage in the culture wars. Universal war requires universal truth and universal action.
We must lament the present condition in America. We have been blessed and we blew a golden opportunity to lead the world to Christ. We must now face the consequences of our sins, "blessing" may become "cursing." Yet we must also propose a concrete, attainable goal, a hope-filled vision with God's blessing still in mind for we are not alone in the trenches and Christ's mission of winning souls for the Father is still not over.
We must turn Pope John Paul II's SOLIDARITY as exhorted in Ecclesia in America in 1999 into a Church Militant operations order. In his encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987) he witnessed to the true meaning of this key Trinitarian word (quote follows):
Solidarity is a Christian virtue. Solidarity seeks to go beyond itself; it includes forgiveness and reconciliation. One’s neighbor is then not only a human being with rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but is the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbor, including one’s enemy, must be loved with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her. For our neighbor’s sake one must be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one, namely to lay down one’s life for the brethren (cf. 1 Jn 3:16). At that point, awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of all in Christ and of the presence and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit will bring to our vision of the world a new criterion for interpreting it. This supreme model of unity one God in three Persons, is what Christians mean by the word “communion.”
Ten years ago In Ecclesia in America, the Holy Father asked (more like pleaded) for the remaining practicing Roman Catholics in the one America (North and South America together under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe) to be courageous ambassadors of the Gospel in order to faithfully gift "living encounters in Christ" to those among us needing re-evangelization or evangelization for the first time. The Triune God will do the rest...conversion, communion and/or solidarity.
As secular globalism (IMHO a vacuum-based, value-driven vortex, a downward spiral to the abyss) continues accelerating, we had better show wisdom and BE ATTENTIVE to the most dangerous and immediate threat...solidarity of the anti-Catholicism forces that aim to destroy the Church.
We have a narrowing window of opportunity to witness the remedy for souls: TRUE SOLIDARITY IN JESUS CHRIST. It worked in the 1980's at the shipyards of Gdansk, Poland but we in the caldron of Americanism—our boiled over melting pot, are challenged to find our own rallying point, motto and distinctive voice. We are beset with "rugged American individualism" and a pluralism of viewpoints that may be our Achilles heal. It seems an impossibility. Not so, for all things are possible with Christ.
We must first take back language before we can effectively bear witness on the street.
Three key words are imprisoned and must be released from rusty shackles—Light, Life, Love must be unbound and rushed to the high ground for safety. We need them and must use them as they are defined in the Gospel. They must be haloed, or else we cannot communicate the fullness of the truth of the Word of God to the masses. No three words contain such power to create or destroy...they are our weapons of mass construction and we must wield them skillfully.
I have a blog devoted to this pursuit at http://eucharist-emc2.blogspot.com/
Next we must have courageous public witness of bonded teams, not individuals (i.e., no Lone Rangers) for where two or three are gathered in His name Jesus Christ is present among them, and a triple cord is not easily broken. We must witness complementarity of vocations.
I recall the iconic hillside scene in the movie Spartacus when one-by-one the slave revolt rebels stood and announced in solidarity "I'm Spartacus." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFbCS4a14J4 We need to be prepared to do the same. We must be willing to yell "I'm in Jesus Christ"
Our means are Holy Mass (living in heaven for an hour a day) holy lives, sacrificial boycotts, peaceful non-violent protests, and most importantly sustained Rosary/Eucharistic marches to the power centers of this hemisphere (Washington, Mexico City, NY, Chicago, LA)
If we spend any more time trying to figure out the cut lines between the various isms: Americanism, modernism, post-modernism, secular humanism, radical feminism, positivism, Darwinism, liberalism, socialism, moral relativism, rationalism, pluralism, protestantism, materialism, consumerism, hedonism, Neo-paganism, gnosticism, environmentalism, etc., we will have fallen into the death trap of intellectualizing during mortal combat, rendering ourselves impotent in the fight, and reducing us to no better than chattering rats in individually marked cages. I recall a key line from the movie the Great Escape: "We are fighting the whole bloody lot of them."
G.K Chesterton's famous quote about Christianity was never more true than it is today: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
It is time to try the ideal.
God help America if our ultimate "manifest destiny" is the confusion of the Twin Towers of Babel, military exile in Babylon, and our exported "culture of death" (abortion, immorality, pornography, gambling, obesity, greed, etc.) as a final legacy. If it is, the Ayatollah Khomeini will have been proven right: Uncle Sam will have torn off his mask to reveal the Great Satan.
I don't think the protest is so much against Obama as it is against the president of Notre Dame. As far as being appalled at calling Obama 'anti-life', he IS in fact anti life because he not only supports the killing of babies in the wombs of their mothers, he also supports letting a baby die who survives an abortion by denying that baby life saving measures. 'pro choice' is just a nice way of saying he's okay if one kills a baby or lets a baby live. He is filling his administration with rabidly anti life people so his goal is clear: let's get those babies killed while I am in office, no holds barred! Do you have a problem with pro lifers being called anti abortionists? Obama not only supports but also fosters the greatest crimes against humanity: the killing of human babies...so yes, I'd say he is truly and irrevocably anti-life...and should not be given an award at a Catholic University; he has already received awards and money from anti life organizations like Planned Parenthood and Naral...enough is enough!
The article is exceptional. The added reality, however, is that the Chicago-metro area (of which Notre Dame is a part -- long history of renegade, ultra-liberal priests taking cover at Notre Dame) played a crucial role in the election of Obama as President:
1. Chicago is chock-full of "activist" priests who, over the past several decades, have managed to sufficiently blur the lines between Catholicism and their activism (starting initially as pro-labor union activism, including initiatives led by Msgr. Egan, who fled to Notre Dame during the years when his activism was frowned upon by Diocesan superiors, but who ultimately flourished at the “honorary” post carved out for him at the singularly most “un-Catholic” “Catholic” university in the nation, bar none – Chicago’s DePaul), and evolving into the “black rights” activism of priests like St. Sabiina’s Pflager and Sun Times columnist Andrew Greeley (who had the audacity to write a pre-election column stating that anyone who failed to vote for Obama was simply racist – he did subsequently fall and hit his head while alighting from a cab and was briefly silenced by his medical needs).
2. Chicago s "governed" by a "Catholic" mayor who hails from the highly ethnic "Irish Catholic" neighborhoods of Chicago (genesis of the original Chicago “political” machine, established by his Father, the first Mayor Daley, who unlike his son, apparently remained a practicing Catholic throughout his life, including daily Mass attendance), but who avidly supports/promotes "gay rights/policies," as well as "abortion rights” (the current Mayor Daley is apparently considered a "practicing" Catholic even by Cardinal George, who openly attends events with the Mayor, despite Daley's strident "gay rights" and pro-abortion policies).
3. The “Catholic” Mayor Daley and his Brother who served in the Clinton Administration, together with the many activist priests throughout the State of Illinois (the state capitol, which is the “home” of pro-abortion “Catholic” Dick Durbin is no exception – Durbin was instrumental in promoting Obama’s initial exposure within the Democratic party and was once refused communion by a then Monsignor who has since left Springfield to become a Bishop in Texas) invested much energy into the election of Obama (and the Cardinal in Chicago and the other Illinois Bishops certainly didn’t dissuade Catholics from voting for the Obama/Biden ticket).
On one visit to Chicago, the prior Pope (now potentially to be declared a saint) said “Woe to the Catholics in Chicago.” He knew hire dire the situation was even then.
Notre Dame should be stripped of their Catholic identity. For twenty year they have not been obedient to the in many ways to what our Catholic faith teaches.
I agree with the person who said the students and their families would set a great example to the rest of America if they would go to Mass instead of graducation, where they would truly give the glory to God and Our Lady, and not a president who is determined to make abortion the law of the land, and who is anti-Catholic in so many ways.
Jesus taught, lived and died by God's Word. One of those divine principles was (and still is) to ... "make your YES always mean YES, and your NO always mean NO" (paraphrase).
Conversely, any one choosing to instead operate by means of a very politician-like "middle ground" ... would seem to satisfy the criteria specified in God's Word (Revelation) for distasteful, lukewarm behavior - worthy of rejection.
These Standards certainly applied and guaranteed Jesus' effective eviction from the Temple, essentially at the same time He was teaching them! And ... any one can freely chose to adopt and abide by all of God's Standards; which seem to comprise His defined "narrow and difficult path" for life. However, that path also seems to be the only way to true Wisdom (of God).
In this matter of Notre Dame's very prominent compromise; and, very sobering and grave public display of mixed-messaging ... it appears the institution's leadership has confused 'charity' & 'tradition' with ... 'foolishness'.
This once-Catholic Institution would do well to return to God's Word and the invaluable lessons presented therein. Its success in this endeavor would be evident in its eviction by the State. Whereby, both Church and State could be more cleanly and definitively "separated"; and, both parties would become healthier because of it. For it was also written that Jesus came to this world bringing a Sword known as Truth; and, the (immediate [my addition]) purpose for it was not for achieving peace - but division.
Anonymous said: "When one protest a dogmatic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, one ceases to be Catholic."
AMEN! People, it's really just that simple. When someone rejects the teachings of Holy Mother Church, that person ceases to be a Catholic, regardless of what happened to them when a child. It's not a club membership, for crying out loud. It's a RELIGION that must be LIVED.
What I find scary is the almost worshipful attitude toward THE presidency so many Catholics have.
When George Washington was asked how he wanted to be addressed--"Your excellency?" "Your highness??? "Your eminence??" He replied: "Mr. President will be fine."
Yes! A man elected president still puts his pants on one leg at a time.
And if he also endorses plunging a knife into a baby's skull to scoop out its skull (as Obama does)-then he is the next best thing to a baby-murderer himself and is evil no matter what other good things he might be in favor of.
Notre Dame has forever besmirched itself. The corruption of our society, enhanced by the Supreme Court, is now embraced by a university which honors people who accept the murder of --not only the unborn, but the newborn.
Someone should give Notre Dame's president one of those millstones Christ himself reccommended for those who promote scandal and evil.
The once-great Notre Dame, like so many organizations and individuals,
have forsaken their heritage to pander to a perverse and faithless
generation: BOW, to YOUR Pharaoh, BOW.
THE Battle has just BEGUN, and GOD is
GREATER!
http://www.all4webs.com/q/f/love4yahweh
"I'm reading this article and these comments and am offended at these blatant, outright attacks on President Obama. The fact that the article calls Obama "Anti-Life" is appaling, just because he is Pro-Choice doesn't mean he is Anti-Life"
Whoever wrote this - do you hear yourself?? read your post again. Pro-choice is anti-life. Maybe Obama hasn't said he wants to kill every person in the world, but giving the ok to kill one baby makes him a murderer. I have lost all respect for Notre Dame and feel sorry for the graduating seniors who end up being the victims of this outrage. Satan is having a jolly old time with Fr. Jenkins. He's got him right where he wants him. The only way to fight this is with prayer.
To the person who thinks President Obama is not anti-life because he calls himself "pro-choice", I ask what is that "choice"? I will tell you. It is the choice not to kill or to kill one's child in the womb by (1) tearing it apart limb by limb;(2) burning it skins off with a saline injection until it drowns in the saline or; (3)partialy birthing it three quarters of the way out of the womb, sticking a pair of surgical scissors in the back of its head, then after the head colapses, sucking the brains out with a suction device. No anesthetic is used in any of these procedures. Furthermore, Obama could not even force himself to sign legislation, when he was in illinois, to protect a child that survived an abortion. Even after the legislation was changed twice for uuh! "pro-choice" people who did sign it because even they were appalled.
Anonymous says:Some writers argue that President Obama is prochoice and not proabortion. Tsk, tsk. Prochoice and proabortion are synonymous. Do you want proof? Okay. Planned Parenthood is also "prochoice." Planned Parenthood clinics is where abortions are performed by the tens of thousands every year. I rest my case.
That Americanism in Catholicism exists is evident to anyone who has spent time in other countries. It doesn't take long in Catholic Churches throughout the world to realize that Jesus founded a Universal Church, not an American Church. On the one hand, that's a wonderful realization for those who know that they're Catholic Americans. On the other, its hard for many who consider themselves Americans first and Catholic second to swallow the fact that we're not the center of the universe.
That said, its past time for everyone in the USA to wake up & smell the coffee. This country is in the process of dissolving into another Civil War over the same issue as the first one: the Dignity of the Human Person. Anon can play with the semantics of "Prochoice" and "murderer" until his last breath.
The fact is that, if the "Catholics" in this country had voted according to the teachings of their Church, Obama wouldn't be president right now. The NDU controversy is simply the opening volley of the bed we're going to have to lie in.
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