EXCERPT: Why does the Pope get away with behavior that gets Notre Dame labeled a traitor to the faith? Whence this double standard?
For most protesters, the issue is religious. But while it appears to be about abortion, it must really be about something else. I say this because, if people really believed Obama must never be honored by Catholics due to his abortion views, they would criticize the pope the same way they criticized Notre Dame. Yet they accept the Pope's action. They may not like it, may wish he had not done it, but they do not protest, let alone question his Catholic fidelity or loyalty.
If abortion is not the real problem, then what is?
I believe it is this: to some, Notre Dame symbolizes a “liberal” threat to American Catholicism, and they use the Obama/abortion issue as a battering ram to besiege this perceived enemy. This offers such Catholics a "quick fix" for the current polarization of American Catholicism: “If we use abortion as a wedge to drive all our adversaries out of the Church,” they think, “then the polarization will end.” For some, this temptation is clearly irresistible.
In other words, they have applied a double standard, splitting Notre Dame and the Pope, because their real agenda is not fewer abortions at all—it is fewer Catholics!
Excellent comments -- thank you, Dr. Swain. I'm an ND alumnus ('69) and I got sick of seeing ND trashed by politicos who hoped to reverse the mandate Obama won in November, and by zealous Catholics hoping to use this as a wedge issue to send the message to the rest of us THAT WE DON'T BELONG. From where I stand, this is the first time in the history of the American church that a number of its ordinaries (how many exactly I won't pretend to know) apparently want the Church to become smaller. The wish, if that is what it is, is both futile (it's unlikely to happen: we'll continue to grow) and demeaning (it's presumptuous dismissal of the spiritual standing of millions of American Catholics).
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