On Obama’s Commencement Speech at Notre Dame

I had no interest discussing this topic in a blog post but since some of you have asked me my opinion, I feel I should share it with you. One question I received goes like this:

“Father, I am interested in your opinion on this matter. Should we not stand up and speak out against pro-abortion politicians using our universities as a platform?”

Sure. No politicians should use our universities as a platform for pro-abortion. The issue is that abortion should not be singled out. Catholic pro-life teaching extends beyond abortion. Our Catholic universities should not be used as a platform to promote torture, capital punishment, unjust wars or to deny global warming which has consequences for the wellbeing of the next generation.
It is an honor to have the President of the country give a commencement speech at a catholic university. The purpose of his commencement speech is not to tell the audience that it is okay to have an abortion. He is not there to promote pro-abortion policies. Barack Obama has repeatedly said that he is in favor of limiting the number of abortions in the country. As a church, we may disagree with him on abortion and stem cell research but there are many other policies that we do agree with him. Example: environment, poverty alleviation, torture, universal healthcare etc. These policies promote human life and dignity.
Other Republican politicians who have spoken in the past in Catholic Universities across the country do not necessarily agree with the teaching of the Catholic Church either. I did not see any negative reaction. Two notable examples: George Bush spoke at St. Vincent College in 2007. You want to know how pro-life he is and how he agrees with Catholic teaching? As governor of Texas he approved the killing of over 150 people on death row. How prolife can that be? Remember the Iraq war? Pope John Paul II told him that was an unjust war, yet, he ignored the pope and went on ahead to fight a war in which over 4000 American servicemen excluding contractors and coalition forces have died and over 600,000 Iraqis have died. While still a graduate student at The Catholic University of America, Washington DC in 2005, Dick Cheney came on campus and gave a presentation on Social Security. I did not see any protest from any group. Dick Cheney is someone who approves of Enhanced Interrogation Methods, aka, torture. Dick Cheney also does not approve of a constitutional ban on gay marriage. How Catholic are these teachings? I leave you to decide.
The church must stop being political and focus on its central mission which is to change the hearts and minds of its members.