President Barack Obama recently announced his decision to speak at the commencement ceremony for the University of Notre Dame on May 17. He will also be the ninth U.S. president to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from the university. As buzz and excitement spread throughout the senior class surrounding his visit, a significant population of Catholic students at Notre Dame and alumni of the university have initiated a backlash against the decision to invite Obama to speak, creating a great deal of controversy at the university.
Several groups have signed petitions imploring the university's president, Reverend John Jenkins, to revoke the invitation and prevent President Obama from speaking, arguing that his policies conflict with Catholic principles, particularly those regarding abortion. With Obama's decision to lift the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and his pro-choice stance, several groups have expressed their opposition, insisting that the selection is inappropriate.
Dennis Brown, a spokesman from Notre Dame, explained that while the university expected that some groups would react negatively, the administration had no reservations about asking Obama to speak.
"We have been inviting presidents for decades and have had, in the past, five presidents speak at our commencement ceremonies," Brown told the Daily. "It's a tradition at Notre Dame, and with the new administration, an invitation was extended."
While reactions on both sides of the debate have been strong, opinions have differed greatly among age groups.
After receiving 612 letters from various groups debating Obama's invitation, Notre Dame's newspaper, The Observer, wrote an editorial reporting statistics about the letters. According to the editorial, approximately 70 percent of the letters written by alumni opposed the decision, while only 30 percent supported it. This finding was contrasted by the letters from current students, which showed that only 27 percent opposed Obama speaking. Among seniors, for whom the ceremony is actually targeted, 97 percent of the responses were positive.
These results correspond with the opinion among some students that the scandal has been blown out of proportion. Notre Dame senior Jenna Zigman said that most of the students she knew were extremely excited about the commencement ceremony.
"There's definitely been a huge reaction and a huge controversy, but part of it seems to be that the press is focusing on the people who don't support it," she said. "I think the actual reaction is being made out to be worse than it is."
She continued that, despite the opinions of some disgruntled Notre Dame alumni and students, having the president speak is an honor that reflects positively on the university, regardless of religious issues and party discrepancies.
"I am personally excited," Zigman said. "I think it's a huge honor for the president to come speak, and it speaks volumes about the university ... and I think a lot of people feel that way whether they vote Republican or Democrat."
The group that has shown the most public opposition to Obama's speaking -- and is leading many of the petitions against it -- is the Cardinal Newman Society, a nationwide group that aims to solidify Catholic identity at America's 224 Catholic colleges and universities.
The society currently has an online petition with 232,087 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. The group has a reputation for strictly imposing conservative ideals on the Catholic universities that it oversees. The society allegedly successfully pressured one college to cancel its performance of "The Vagina Monologues" and has convinced other institutions to reject certain prospective commencement speakers who favored abortion rights.
While the society deems it inappropriate for Obama to speak, Zigman said that people seem to be missing the point of why he is speaking.
"The big issue [with the Catholic groups] is just his stance on abortion," she said. "But he's coming to speak at a graduation ceremony and [abortion] is not the issue at hand."
In a statement, Jenkins expressed a similar opinion, noting that while Obama has been a "healer" of racial prejudice in America and the university is proud to have him speak, they do not condone or endorse his positions on issues regarding the protection of human life.
But with such controversial issues plaguing the nation and a student body and alumni community so overwhelmingly religious, it was undeniable that conflict would arise, according to Brown.
"Any time you mix politics and religion, there's always going to be some sort of reaction," he said. "We fully anticipated that we would receive both criticism and support, and we've received both."
