In Defense of Obama at Notre Dame

I blogged briefly once before about the Obama-at-Notre-Dame controversy, but at that point hadn't formulated a firm opinion.  In case anyone was wondering, I've been mulling it over for a few weeks and this is the best I've come up with:

I understand and sympathize with the objections of Catholics and other Christians (among whom I count myself) who care about Notre Dame's Catholic character.  I disagree strongly with President Obama on numerous issues, and on those issues I agree  with many of those who object to his presence at the University's commencement next week. That said, I do not join in the angry protests leveled against University President Father Jenkins for his  invitation to President Obama to speak at this year's commencement and to award him an honorary degree.

I went to Notre Dame, and still hold it in the highest regard, because it is the finest Christian university in the country. No doubt there are many Christian colleges and universities, Protestant and Catholic, which take seriously their religious missions, but as a center of Christian academic life, and as a Christian witness in the intellectual world, Notre Dame is without peer. It has the historical gravitas, intellectual robustness, and the cultural savvy to be unapologetically Christian in an unapologetically secular academy. The greatest gift I received from Notre Dame is the relationships with first-rate professors and classmates who excel in their vocations precisely because of their deep faith, and who are unafraid to engage, as Christians, in public debate.  Because of them, I graduated from Notre Dame with the intellectual and moral confidence to, God willing, effectively bear witness to the Truth in public and academic life.   

This is why I am so untroubled by the University’s decision to invite and honor the President. Rather than a bellwether of Notre Dame’s slog toward secularism, this event is a testament to the University’s strength and stature as a distinctively Catholic University. 

Much of the debate in the blogosphere and elsewhere on the Web seems to miss the point: isn’t the main reason to honor the President just that he is the President—our head-of-nation, the “leader of the free world”; to host him as a guest, speak with him, hear him deliver a message written just for Notre Dame, establish a relationship with him, and yes, to enjoy the public recognition that accompanies such an event.  Opponents of the University’s invitation to President Obama argue that Father Jenkins is trading Notre Dame’s commitment to the Truth for prestige in the eyes of the world.  No doubt prestige has something to do with it, but is there necessarily a trade-off? I don't see it. I recognize that I don’t know much about the internal politics of Notre Dame, or of American Catholicism, but as an outsider I do not understand or share the assumption that the invitation represents some kind of apostasy.

In this conservative Christian’s humble opinion, honoring President Obama does not indicate that the University is wandering from its Catholic mission. On the contrary, it represents Notre Dame's unique ability to engage society and politics in ways other Christian universities cannot. How many other Christian institutions could host the President and graciously honor him while publically, unflinchingly opposing many of his policies? This is what makes Notre Dame so remarkable and so important to Christianity and to America.