The university has updated its award policies to prevent future scandal. Our concerns were heard. Thank you for staying the course.
June 16, 2016
Final supporters
Petition to the Fellows of the University of Notre Dame
The undersigned -- alumni, students, parents, others of the Notre Dame family and signatories concerned with preserving the Catholic integrity of the university – follow Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades in his denunciation of the University’s award of the Laetare Medal to Vice President Joseph Biden. With him, we urge the adoption of a policy that will preclude this or any award’s becoming a source of scandal and division and that will instead ensure they fully reflect the values Notre Dame aspires to teach.
The University declares that the Laetare Medal is awarded each year to "an American Catholic in recognition of outstanding service to the Church and society." The nation’s bishops have declared that politicians “have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws” lest they give scandal by “cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.” They have designated Roe v. Wade and laws and decisions respecting embryonic stem cell research, same sex marriage, and impairment of religious liberty as such “morally defective” laws. Vice President Biden supports Roe v. Wade – he has even campaigned for loosening abortion prohibitions abroad – as well as same sex marriage, public funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the abortifacient/contraceptive mandate that Notre Dame insists violates its institutional conscience.
In sum, he has been unfaithful to his obligation as a Catholic public official and accordingly does not qualify for recognition by a Catholic institution, especially one as influential as Notre Dame, for "outstanding service to the Church and society."
Bishop Rhoades’s overriding concern, and ours, is scandal. It is, we submit, blindingly obvious that, as the Bishop says, in honoring Vice President Biden Notre Dame "can give the impression to people, including Catholics in political life, that one can be 'a good Catholic' while also supporting positions that contradict our fundamental moral and social principles and teachings." Moreover, especially given the Vice President’s notoriety as a Catholic dissident, surely Bishop Rhoades is right in saying that the university’s attempt to set aside his actions by declaring that he is being honored for something else is neither “realistically possible or intellectually coherent.” By this award, then, Notre Dame lifts up an alternative version of Catholicism that is popular with many because it confirms them in their error but that is not authentic.
We join Bishop Rhoades in urging you to protect against a repetition of episodes of this sort by "raising the bar" for the award of honors, not merely to avoid scandal, important as that is, but also to “thank authentic witnesses to the Catholic faith for their fidelity” and to “inspire others to imitate their example.” We commend to you Bishop Rhoades’s counsel:
"We should seek to honor those who act to protect human life and dignity, from conception to natural death, who respect true marriage and the family, who promote peace, justice, religious freedom, solidarity, the integral development of the poor, the just treatment of immigrants, and care for creation. We should not honor those who may be exemplary in one area but gravely irresponsible in another. We should not honor those who claim to personally accept church teaching, but act contrary to that teaching in their political choices. We should choose for honors those whose lives and work are exemplary in witnessing to the gospel and disqualify those who dissent from the truths and values we profess and hold dear."
We do not wish to close without noting also our dismay at the willingness of the university to disregard the considered judgment of Bishop Rhoades. The university’s want of deference is especially striking in view of the relative weightlessness of its interest. The celebration of civility in public life is certainly worthy, but to honor the Bishop’s recommendation by employing other means would have been small price to pay for sustaining the “close communion” with the Bishop that should exist and for honoring his “right and duty to watch over the preservation and strengthening of the Catholic character” of the university (Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Article 5).
Respectfully submitted,
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
April 7, 2016
March 24, 2016
We just hit 100 signatures. Message received loud and clear by the university.
Reached 1,000 supporters
March 24, 2016
Reached 100 supporters
March 23, 2016
1,430 Comments
This is one of the most pro-abortion politicians under one of the most pro-abortion administration in history. Biden blatantly defies Catholic teachings. What an embarrassment to an institution that is supposed to guide students in their faith.
It is sad that a flagship Catholic university is rejecting Church teachings in awarding this prestigious medal to someone that happily leads others to believe that the sanctity of life is situational. I must confess my profound disappointment.
As the father of 2 alumni and 2 other current students, I find it profoundly disturbing that our Lady's University continues to bestow honors on persons whose public life has contributed to the culture of death and to the decline of respect for truth.
The right to life is a right above all others. Moral law, natural law and common sense teach us that all life is precious. ND is supposed to be a leader on these issues and they consistently are not. Father Jenkins, we're not Yale nor do we want to be.
This ranks with the stupidity of granting the abortionist Barack Obama an honorary degree. As a Catholic parent of a former student ,I have eased my contributions to Notre Dame. Father Jenkins should be listening to his bishop and to his Church.
According to the New York Post’s story, Hunter Biden in 2015 introduced his Father, then VP in the Obama Administration, to a Top Exec Vadym Pozharskyi at Ukrainian Burisma Holdings Ltd after Hunter joined the company’s board which was Paying him up to $83,000 a Month. The insinuation is that Hunter Successfully Influenced his Father to Pressure Ukraine Government officials “into Firing the Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was Investigating Corruption against Burisma. Facebook and Twitter took action to limit distribution (censored) the New York Post story citing Emails purportedly Revealing Evidence of Influence-Peddling by Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. The Emails were obtained from a Laptop which had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, and had been Abandoned at Computer-Repair Shop, named “The Mac Shop” in Wilmington, Delaware and owned by John Paul Mac Isaac, who then reported the laptop’s contents to authorities which determined that the laptop and hard drive contain fruits of criminal activity. Joe Biden and his family engaged in "Legal Corruption" despite claims of no wrongdoing and the Liberal Main Stream Media Refuses to Talk and will never Report about Hunter Biden’s laptop and emails, fearing Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden will Lose the 2020 Election if this information is exposed to the American People. This is evidence that Joe Biden participated in his Family’s CASH-for-Influence Scheme with Shady Foreign Companies. The American people should be demanding that the Media investigate this, as they need know before they VOTE, but YOU know that this is Never going to happen.
Presenting this award to Joe Biden, is a disgrace and insult to Our Lady and the Holy Roman Catholic Church! The University of Notre Dame, as the preeminent Catholic University in the US, has a moral obligation to defend the truths handed down from Almighty God and to be an example of virtue and truth and not a disgrace and a whited sepulcher.
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The university has updated its award policies to prevent future scandal. Our concerns were heard. Thank you for staying the course.
June 16, 2016
Final supporters
Petition to the Fellows of the University of Notre Dame
The undersigned -- alumni, students, parents, others of the Notre Dame family and signatories concerned with preserving the Catholic integrity of the university – follow Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades in his denunciation of the University’s award of the Laetare Medal to Vice President Joseph Biden. With him, we urge the adoption of a policy that will preclude this or any award’s becoming a source of scandal and division and that will instead ensure they fully reflect the values Notre Dame aspires to teach.
The University declares that the Laetare Medal is awarded each year to "an American Catholic in recognition of outstanding service to the Church and society." The nation’s bishops have declared that politicians “have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws” lest they give scandal by “cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.” They have designated Roe v. Wade and laws and decisions respecting embryonic stem cell research, same sex marriage, and impairment of religious liberty as such “morally defective” laws. Vice President Biden supports Roe v. Wade – he has even campaigned for loosening abortion prohibitions abroad – as well as same sex marriage, public funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the abortifacient/contraceptive mandate that Notre Dame insists violates its institutional conscience.
In sum, he has been unfaithful to his obligation as a Catholic public official and accordingly does not qualify for recognition by a Catholic institution, especially one as influential as Notre Dame, for "outstanding service to the Church and society."
Bishop Rhoades’s overriding concern, and ours, is scandal. It is, we submit, blindingly obvious that, as the Bishop says, in honoring Vice President Biden Notre Dame "can give the impression to people, including Catholics in political life, that one can be 'a good Catholic' while also supporting positions that contradict our fundamental moral and social principles and teachings." Moreover, especially given the Vice President’s notoriety as a Catholic dissident, surely Bishop Rhoades is right in saying that the university’s attempt to set aside his actions by declaring that he is being honored for something else is neither “realistically possible or intellectually coherent.” By this award, then, Notre Dame lifts up an alternative version of Catholicism that is popular with many because it confirms them in their error but that is not authentic.
We join Bishop Rhoades in urging you to protect against a repetition of episodes of this sort by "raising the bar" for the award of honors, not merely to avoid scandal, important as that is, but also to “thank authentic witnesses to the Catholic faith for their fidelity” and to “inspire others to imitate their example.” We commend to you Bishop Rhoades’s counsel:
"We should seek to honor those who act to protect human life and dignity, from conception to natural death, who respect true marriage and the family, who promote peace, justice, religious freedom, solidarity, the integral development of the poor, the just treatment of immigrants, and care for creation. We should not honor those who may be exemplary in one area but gravely irresponsible in another. We should not honor those who claim to personally accept church teaching, but act contrary to that teaching in their political choices. We should choose for honors those whose lives and work are exemplary in witnessing to the gospel and disqualify those who dissent from the truths and values we profess and hold dear."
We do not wish to close without noting also our dismay at the willingness of the university to disregard the considered judgment of Bishop Rhoades. The university’s want of deference is especially striking in view of the relative weightlessness of its interest. The celebration of civility in public life is certainly worthy, but to honor the Bishop’s recommendation by employing other means would have been small price to pay for sustaining the “close communion” with the Bishop that should exist and for honoring his “right and duty to watch over the preservation and strengthening of the Catholic character” of the university (Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Article 5).
Respectfully submitted,
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
April 7, 2016
March 24, 2016
We just hit 100 signatures. Message received loud and clear by the university.
Reached 1,000 supporters
March 24, 2016
Reached 100 supporters
March 23, 2016
1,430 Comments
While facilitating respectful political dialogue is an admirable goal, the Laetare Medal should not be awarded to Joe Biden because he has been an outspoken advocate for the very issues that run contrary to teachings of the Church as well as society.
This is one of the most pro-abortion politicians under one of the most pro-abortion administration in history. Biden blatantly defies Catholic teachings. What an embarrassment to an institution that is supposed to guide students in their faith.
It is sad that a flagship Catholic university is rejecting Church teachings in awarding this prestigious medal to someone that happily leads others to believe that the sanctity of life is situational. I must confess my profound disappointment.
As the father of 2 alumni and 2 other current students, I find it profoundly disturbing that our Lady's University continues to bestow honors on persons whose public life has contributed to the culture of death and to the decline of respect for truth.
The right to life is a right above all others. Moral law, natural law and common sense teach us that all life is precious. ND is supposed to be a leader on these issues and they consistently are not. Father Jenkins, we're not Yale nor do we want to be.
This ranks with the stupidity of granting the abortionist Barack Obama an honorary degree. As a Catholic parent of a former student ,I have eased my contributions to Notre Dame. Father Jenkins should be listening to his bishop and to his Church.
According to the New York Post’s story, Hunter Biden in 2015 introduced his Father, then VP in the Obama Administration, to a Top Exec Vadym Pozharskyi at Ukrainian Burisma Holdings Ltd after Hunter joined the company’s board which was Paying him up to $83,000 a Month. The insinuation is that Hunter Successfully Influenced his Father to Pressure Ukraine Government officials “into Firing the Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was Investigating Corruption against Burisma. Facebook and Twitter took action to limit distribution (censored) the New York Post story citing Emails purportedly Revealing Evidence of Influence-Peddling by Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. The Emails were obtained from a Laptop which had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, and had been Abandoned at Computer-Repair Shop, named “The Mac Shop” in Wilmington, Delaware and owned by John Paul Mac Isaac, who then reported the laptop’s contents to authorities which determined that the laptop and hard drive contain fruits of criminal activity. Joe Biden and his family engaged in "Legal Corruption" despite claims of no wrongdoing and the Liberal Main Stream Media Refuses to Talk and will never Report about Hunter Biden’s laptop and emails, fearing Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden will Lose the 2020 Election if this information is exposed to the American People. This is evidence that Joe Biden participated in his Family’s CASH-for-Influence Scheme with Shady Foreign Companies. The American people should be demanding that the Media investigate this, as they need know before they VOTE, but YOU know that this is Never going to happen.
Presenting this award to Joe Biden, is a disgrace and insult to Our Lady and the Holy Roman Catholic Church! The University of Notre Dame, as the preeminent Catholic University in the US, has a moral obligation to defend the truths handed down from Almighty God and to be an example of virtue and truth and not a disgrace and a whited sepulcher.
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While facilitating respectful political dialogue is an admirable goal, the Laetare Medal should not be awarded to Joe Biden because he has been an outspoken advocate for the very issues that run contrary to teachings of the Church as well as society.