Fr. Jenkins Shows That He Doesn't Really Want Dialogue
IMHO Fr. Jenkins has shown that what he really cares about is sucking up to President Obama. & he doesn't care if he destroys his soul or Notre Dame in doing so. If he was serious that this was about dialogue he would have gladly welcomed it.
Fr. Jenkins isn't the only 1 afraid of debate. A coalition of student groups called ND Response invited former Gov. Mario Cuomo to debate Princeton University law professor Robert George over the university’s planned honor to President Barack Obama on May 17. Cuomo Declined. But he said in an South Bend Tribune interview that he supported the invite to Obama. Given his '84 speech at ND where he defended Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, this is not surprizing. Coumo knows that in an honest debate, he would lose, hands down.
Notre Dame student John Daly told the South Bend Tribune: “We are finding that people love the idea of dialogue, but they aren’t really interested in engaging in it.”
As Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society, put it: “The Notre Dame students who are fighting for their university’s Catholic identity are finding that no one will engage them in dialogue, because a Catholic university providing an honor to someone with President Obama’s record on life issues is indefensible.
There can no longer be an argument about whether it was appropriate for Notre Dame to provide this honor. The nearly three dozen bishops who have publicly criticized the honor and the almost 300,000 people who have signed the protest petition at NotreDameScandal.com know that Notre Dame has made a tragic mistake which they still have time to correct.”
Manassas, Va. – Students at the University of Notre Dame have announced that university president Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C. is refusing to meet with them regarding Notre Dame’s plan to honor and provide a commencement platform to pro-abortion President Barack Obama on May 17.
“Father Jenkins has insisted that his honor for President Obama is all about ‘dialogue’—even though a commencement ceremony offers no opportunity for debate or discussion—yet now rejects dialogue with the students who profoundly disagree with honoring a pro-abortion politician,” said Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The students’ preconditions are reasonable and should not have prevented discussion.”
The leaders of ND Response, a broad coalition of Notre Dame student groups founded to express the “deepest opposition” to the invitation to President Obama to speak at commencement, informed The Cardinal Newman Society that they wrote a letter to Father Jenkins confirming their interest in discussing concerns with him. The students expressed hesitancy at accepting the limited closed-door meeting which was at first suggested by Father Jenkins. They instead proposed to allow all student members of ND Response to attend.
According to ND Response, the group also requested that, before meeting, the University publicly declare that it will never engage in or collaborate with research involving human embryos or fetal tissue obtained through destructive techniques. Another precondition was that the University appoint a “pro-life ombudsman” to ensure that proper attention is paid to life issues in both Notre Dame’s teaching and research.
“These requests,” ND Response spokeswoman Mary Daly said, “were intended to lead the University into making gestures of goodwill that would facilitate our productive discussion and demonstrate President Jenkins’ genuine interest in transparent dialogue.”
ND Response is now reporting that Father Jenkins sent a private letter to the 12 campus groups comprising ND Response in which he denied the students’ requests for dialogue on the issues surrounding the University’s invitation to President Obama.
In the letter Father Jenkins wrote that “conditions for constructive dialogue simply do not exist” and that students could disregard his earlier invitations to meet with him.
The protest against Notre Dame’s slated honor to President Obama has now surpassed 272,000 supporters.
“Father Jenkins has insisted that his honor for President Obama is all about ‘dialogue’—even though a commencement ceremony offers no opportunity for debate or discussion—yet now rejects dialogue with the students who profoundly disagree with honoring a pro-abortion politician,” said Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The students’ preconditions are reasonable and should not have prevented discussion.”
The leaders of ND Response, a broad coalition of Notre Dame student groups founded to express the “deepest opposition” to the invitation to President Obama to speak at commencement, informed The Cardinal Newman Society that they wrote a letter to Father Jenkins confirming their interest in discussing concerns with him. The students expressed hesitancy at accepting the limited closed-door meeting which was at first suggested by Father Jenkins. They instead proposed to allow all student members of ND Response to attend.
According to ND Response, the group also requested that, before meeting, the University publicly declare that it will never engage in or collaborate with research involving human embryos or fetal tissue obtained through destructive techniques. Another precondition was that the University appoint a “pro-life ombudsman” to ensure that proper attention is paid to life issues in both Notre Dame’s teaching and research.
“These requests,” ND Response spokeswoman Mary Daly said, “were intended to lead the University into making gestures of goodwill that would facilitate our productive discussion and demonstrate President Jenkins’ genuine interest in transparent dialogue.”
ND Response is now reporting that Father Jenkins sent a private letter to the 12 campus groups comprising ND Response in which he denied the students’ requests for dialogue on the issues surrounding the University’s invitation to President Obama.
In the letter Father Jenkins wrote that “conditions for constructive dialogue simply do not exist” and that students could disregard his earlier invitations to meet with him.
The protest against Notre Dame’s slated honor to President Obama has now surpassed 272,000 supporters.
posted by Al @ 12:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home