Ethics and Culture in the News

Komen Foundation Defunds Planned Parenthood

2012-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

The breast cancer research foundation Susan G. Komen for the Cure has announced that it will no longer provide grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings services. The Komen foundation had been providing Planned Parenthood, an abortion provider, with significant grants since 2005. The grants have been rescinded due to a new rule the Komen foundation adopted preventing them from funding organizations under congressional investigation. Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation for how it spends and reports money. Read the full story here in the New York Times. You can thank the Komen foundation for the work they do to promote women's health in a way that no longer supports the destructive work of Planned Parenthood by emailing news@komen.org.

MLK's legacy

2012-01-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago America celebrated the legacy of one of its greatest heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a champion for civil rights. As the nation remembers this great historical figures, various political thinkers claim his legacy in support of their cause. Unfortunately, many have distorted the true philosophical and theological foundations of King's worldviews. According to University of Missouri's political science professor Justin Dyer, "Those who praise the modern civil rights movement, but who also want to keep morality and theology absent from public discourse, seldom mention King’s reliance on natural law in his justly famous letter".

Visit the Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse discussion to read more about the true roots of King's political thoughts.

ND to welcome Patrick Deneen to faculty

2012-01-27T10:29:00.000-08:00

Georgetown political science professor Patrick Deneen has publicly announced his move to Notre Dame this fall. He is the founding director of the Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, an accomplished scholar, and a devout Catholic. His announcement has rocked Georgetown's Government Department, and is a cause for celebration at Notre Dame. Read more about his reasons for moving to Notre Dame in his blog post "Why I am leaving Georgetown."

An excerpt:
"Notre Dame has recruited me explicitly because they regard me as someone who can be a significant contributor to its mission and identity, particularly the Catholic identity of the institution. Considerations of “mission fit” has become a criterion for faculty hiring at Notre Dame – indeed, it was a major consideration in seeking to hire me – whereas it is generally not a consideration at Georgetown. Without such a criterion, Georgetown increasingly and inevitably remakes itself in the image of its secular peers, ones that have no internal standard of what a university is for other than the aspiration of prestige for the sake of prestige, its ranking rather than its commitment to Truth. Its Catholic identity, which should inform every activity of the community, from curriculum to dorm life to faculty hiring, has increasingly been cordoned off to optional activities of Campus Ministry. I would like to be a contributor to a more widely-embraced institutional mission in the life of my institution and community. I don’t doubt that there will shortcomings at Our Lady’s University. But, there are at least some comrades-in-arms to share in the effort."

Read a Georgetown student's analysis of the loss here. An excerpt from "The State of the University":

"Perhaps more alarming, though, is Deneen's explicit grievance at the lack of Catholicism at this place. We are Georgetown, the nation's oldest and preeminent Roman Catholic college, founded by no less than the first Catholic bishop in the United States. We are the touchstone of Catholic education in this country. If Georgetown loses the faith, who indeed is left to defend it?

In a word, it is a tragedy that brilliant Catholic academics who wish to integrate their religious convictions into their vocation no longer feel welcome in Washington. We will never go back to being a small religious school. To have the space compressed, however, for those who would defend the old ways, and to squeeze them out slowly is the best example of eradicating intellectual diversity from a place that ostensibly prizes free discourse and thought."

Cancer-stricken teen mom dies for her baby

2012-01-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

Jenni Lake, 17, was diagnosed with cancer in October 2010. Seven months later, while undergoing chemotherapy, she discovered she that was pregnant. Jenni was given a choice: proceed with treatment and endanger the life of her child or end her treatment and risk losing her own life. Jenni courageously chose to discontinue chemotherapy and save her child. She gave birth to a healthy boy in November 2011 and passed away two weeks later. Lifesite News recounts her story.

An excerpt:

"After the delivery, she told the nurse, 'I'm done. I did what I was supposed to do. My baby is going to get here safe.'"

Read the full story here.

Responses to Sebelius' decision on contraception

2012-01-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

Catholic leaders nationwide have vocally responded to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision that religious institutions will have to provide contraception coverage in health plans for employees, a decision which violates the rights of conscience of many religious institutions and especially affects the Catholic Church. Here are some of their notable responses:

Cardinal-designate Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, said “In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairmen of the USCCB committee on pro-life activities said, “Although this new rule gives the agency the discretion to authorize a ‘religious’ exemption, it is so narrow as to exclude most Catholic social service agencies and healthcare providers. For example, under the new rule our institutions would be free to act in accord with Catholic teaching on life and procreation only if they were to stop hiring and serving non-Catholics. Could the federal government possibly intend to pressure Catholic institutions to cease providing health care, education and charitable services to the general public?Health care reform should expand access to basic health care for all, not undermine that goal.”

Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins, CSC, said “I am deeply disappointed in a decision by the administration that will place many religious organizations of all faiths in an untenable position. This unnecessary intervention by the government into religion disregards our nation’s commitment to the rights of conscience and the longstanding work of religious groups to help build a more compassionate society and vibrant democracy. I find that profoundly troubling on many levels. Moving forward, we call for a national dialogue among religious groups, government and the American people to reaffirm our country’s historic respect for freedom of conscience and defense of religious liberty.”

Robbie George, law professor at Princeton, said, "The Obama administration's abortifacient and contraception mandate is appalling, but I cannot claim to be surprised by it. In fact, I would have been surprised---indeed stunned---had the administration done anything significant to honor or protect the rights of Catholics and others on whose consciences the mandate will impose. In every area touching the sanctity of human life and issues of sexual morality, the Obama administration is aggressively prosecuting the agenda its critics predicted and its most ardent left-wing supporters hoped for. Those who are driving the train, including key administration officials who self-identify as members of the Catholic Church, have no regard for the ethical beliefs of Catholics and others when they are in conflict with left-liberal orthodoxy. Their task, as they perceive it, is to fortify and expand the "right to abortion" and "sexual freedom" wherever they can. They pursue this agenda with a religious zeal because, in fact, the ideology in which abortion is a "right" and "sexual freedom" is a core value is their religion. These beliefs are integral to their worldview. If, like Kathleen Sebelius, they happen to be Catholics, you can be assured that it won't be Catholic teaching, or the Judaeo-Christian ethic, that shapes their policies on issues of life and death and marriage and sexual morality; it will be liberal ideology---pure and simple---that does the shaping."

HHS refuses to expand religious exemption to contraception mandate

2012-01-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, Fr. Jenkins, President of Notre Dame, wrote a letter to Kathleen Sebilius, Health and Human Services Secretary for the Obama administration, making a plea for a wider religious exemption from the new laws requiring all employers to cover contraception in their health insurance plans for employees. That plea has fallen on deaf ears. The Obama administration has refused to modify its new rule requiring Notre Dame and religious educational institutions like it to provide coverage of contraceptives in all its health insurance plans. Religious institutions are being given until Aug. 1, 2013 to comply fully with the new mandate. Here is the full statement from the HHS:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2012

Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

A statement by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

In August 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final rule that will require most health insurance plans to cover preventive services for women including recommended contraceptive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible. The rule allows certain non-profit religious employers that offer insurance to their employees the choice of whether or not to cover contraceptive services. Today the department is announcing that the final rule on preventive health services will ensure that women with health insurance coverage will have access to the full range of the Institute of Medicine’s recommended preventive services, including all FDA -approved forms of contraception. Women will not have to forego these services because of expensive co-pays or deductibles, or because an insurance plan doesn’t include contraceptive services. This rule is consistent with the laws in a majority of states which already require contraception coverage in health plans, and includes the exemption in the interim final rule allowing certain religious organizations not to provide contraception coverage. Beginning August 1, 2012, most new and renewed health plans will be required to cover these services without cost sharing for women across the country.

After evaluating comments, we have decided to add an additional element to the final rule. Nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule. We intend to require employers that do not offer coverage of contraceptive services to provide notice to employees, which will also state that contraceptive services are available at sites such as community health centers, public clinics, and hospitals with income-based support. We will continue to work closely with religious groups during this transitional period to discuss their concerns.

Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women. This rule will provide women with greater access to contraception by requiring coverage and by prohibiting cost sharing.

This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty. I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services. The administration remains fully committed to its partnerships with faith-based organizations, which promote healthy communities and serve the common good. And this final rule will have no impact on the protections that existing conscience laws and regulations give to health care providers.

Happy Feast of Bl. Basil Moreau!

2012-01-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, the French priest who founded the Congregation of Holy Cross, which founded Notre Dame. Here is a special reflection for today's feast, by a long-time friend of the Center:

Happy Feast of Blessed Moreau

Published: January 20, 2012

Author: Mr. Andrew Polaniecki

http://vocation.nd.edu/blog/28406-happy-feast-of-blessed-moreau/

The beatification of Blessed Basil Moreau took place in Le Mans, the place in France where he lived, died and was buried, as well as the home of the mother church of his order, the Congregation of Holy Cross. The beatification of Blessed Moreau testifies that he practiced the theological and cardinal virtues to a heroic degree and that he is model of a life that exhibits vision, prayer, zeal, and extraordinary piety.
The first decades following the French Revolution, which were also the years when Blessed Moreau was first ordained a priest, the European world was moving in a direction that emphasized social individualism over the collective good, an ideological shift that continues to be prominent in our secular culture today. It is therefore appropriate for all people, both professed religious and the lay faithful, to use Blessed Moreau’s Feast Day as an opportunity to reflect on an idea that is central to the life of the Congregation of Holy Cross: a sense of community that would be in radical opposition to society’s growing emphasis on the individual.

Early in the life of Holy Cross, Blessed Moreau presented his religious with the Holy Trinity as the image of the union they should strive for among themselves: “Just as in the adorable Trinity … there is no difference of interests and no opposition of aims or wills, so among the priests, brothers, and sisters there should be such conformity of sentiments, interests and wills as to make all of us one in somewhat the same manner as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. This was the touching prayer of our Lord for His disciples and their successors: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you’” (Circular Letter 14).
In other words, characterizing the communal life of Holy Cross are individuals sharing a life of common prayer and work where the good of the community would be put ahead of the good of the self. Whether in educational institutions, parish life, or missionary endeavors, Blessed Moreau believed that the common life of the community would be the driving force for the evangelization and transformation of the people Holy Cross religious served. He hoped that the lived witness of the communal and common life of Holy Cross would lead observers to a radical commitment to the service of God.

The current Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross state it this way: “It is essential to our mission that we strive to abide so attentively together that people will observe: ‘See how they love one another.’ We will then be a sign in an alienated world: men who have, for love of their Lord, become closest neighbors, trustworthy friends, brothers” (Constitutions 4:42).

Like many others, my four years of high school consisted of playing sports, attending class, hanging with friends in the lunch room, and growing in faith and knowledge. However, these ordinary experiences where shaped and formed by the lives of the 10 or so Holy Cross religious that were the very flesh and spirit of the Notre Dame High School community (today called Notre Dame College Prep) in Niles, IL. What I never envisioned was that the joy, faithfulness, and love that I saw in this family who were my teachers, coaches, and mentors would inspire me to live my life in a uniquely “Holy Cross” way.

Although I initially discerned a vocation as a Holy Cross religious, I was eventually led by the Spirit and called by God to be a Holy Cross educator in the faith as a married man and father. Blessed Moreau’s charge that it is necessary to live a life of common prayer and shared faith is still entwined in the very depths of my heart. I primarily live out this life in my family, but I also live it out with the Holy Cross religious that I work with on a daily basis as the director of Campus Ministry, the dozens of Holy Cross lay educators that partner with me to make up the faculty and staff of Holy Cross College, and of course the hundreds of students with whom I am intimately connected on a daily basis.

Blessed Moreau’s Feast Day is one of great joy in which we give thanks and praise for his family of religious men and women who share a common life of faith and work together to bring hope to the world.

Mr. Andrew Polaniecki, who spent several years in formation with Holy Cross at Old College, is now the Director of Campus Ministry at Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Ind. A great friend of and collaborator with Holy Cross, he helps us today celebrate the Feast Day of Blessed Basil Moreau. Learn more about the holy founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Pope Participates in Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

2012-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

Pope Benedict XVI commemorated Christian Unity Week by praying for union among believers and reminding Catholics of their ecumenical responsibilities. He said that ecumenism is the responsibility of all faithful Christians, not just a few, and that “the unity we strive for cannot result merely from our own efforts." but instead “it is a gift we receive and must constantly invoke from on high.” read more at the National Catholic Register.

From the Archives: A Supposedly Fun Thing

2012-01-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

The unfortunate news of the capsizing of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Tuscan coast this weekend brought to mind one of David Foster Wallace's most popular pieces, originally published in a 1996 edition of Harper's as "Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise," and later republished as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again." Read his original article on his time on the 7NC Megacruiser Zenith here. An excerpt:

"You are, here, excused from even the work of constructing the fantasy, because the ads do it for you. And this near-parental type of advertising makes a very special promise, a diabolically seductive promise that's actually kind of honest, because it's a promise that the Luxury Cruise itself is all about honoring. The promise is not
that you can experience great pleasure but that you will. They'll make certain of it. They'll micromanage every iota of every pleasure-option so that not even the dreadful corrosive action of your adult consciousness and agency and dread can f*** up your fun. Your troublesome capacities for choice, error, regret, dissatisfaction,
and despair will be removed from the equation. You will be able-finally, for once to relax, the ads promise, because you will have no choice. Your pleasure will, for 7 nights and 6.5 days, be wisely and efficiently managed."

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

2012-01-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

We at the Center for Ethics and Culture congratulate our old friend, Msgr. "Charlie" Brown, a graduate of Notre Dame, who on the Feast of the Epiphany was ordained Archbishop Charles Brown by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. He now goes to take up his new position as papal nuncio in Ireland. Bishop Brown has spoken at a number of our events over the past five years, most notably the annual Fall Conference; he helped organize our annual medical ethics conference when we took it to Rome; and he has been a good friend of many of us at the Center, especially David Solomon, who has know him since he was an undergraduate at Notre Dame. You can read Pope Benedict's homily for the occasion here. Let us pray for the new archbishop, and for the whole Church, as he goes serve Ireland, where the Church is in great need of his holiness, wisdom, and compassion.

New journal of Catholic culture

2011-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

The Center for Cultural and Pastoral Research, a recently founded subsidiary of the American session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, is launching its new online review Humanum in November 2011. http://www.humanumreview.com/

The Future of Catholic Higher Education

2011-11-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Inside Higher Ed has an article today on "The Key Task for Catholic Higher Ed" by Rev. Gregory Kalscheur of Boston College. He worries that while Catholic universities are working hard to maintain a Catholic ethos in their Campus Ministries, Student Activities, and even Residential Life, they are ignoring the most essential aspect of a Catholic education: the Catholic intellectual tradition.

An excerpt:
"Ten years after Ex Corde was formally adopted by U.S. Catholic bishops, Catholic colleges and universities today must meet the challenge to reaffirm and revitalize their engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition. Failure to do so will mean that they are content by default to risk leaving Catholic identity to what happens outside the classroom by abandoning the conviction that, to be authentically Catholic, they must integrate their 2000-year intellectual legacy into the academic life of their campuses."

Read the full article here.

The Contraception Mandate

2011-11-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Notre Dame Law Professor Rick Garnett has a column in USA Today arguing that the mandate for contraception coverage in all new healthcare plans should be scrapped. The mandate violates the conscience rights of religious institutions who are opposed to contraception, abortion, and sterilization. An excerpt:

"It is true that the administration's proposed mandate includes an exemption for some religious employers, but it is so stingy as to be nearly meaningless. It does nothing for individuals or insurers, and it applies only to employers whose purpose is "the inculcation of religious values" and that hire and serve primarily those of the same religious faith. The vast majority of religious educational, social-welfare and health care organizations — not to mention the ministry of Jesus on earth — do not fit this crabbed definition.

The proposed exemption covers only inward-looking, members-only, religious-instruction organizations while excluding those that respond to the call to feed the hungry, care for the sick, house the homeless and share the good news with strangers. Religiously affiliated hospitals, charities and universities that serve people of other religions would be vulnerable. The exemption assumes that religion is only about belief and values, not service, sacrifice and engagement. It purports to accommodate religious believers, but it actually would confine their belief."

Read the full column here.

Fall Conference news coverage

2011-11-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

LifeSiteNews ran an article last week on our annual Fall Conference. Kathleen Gilbert has a lengthy article giving the flavor of the proceedings. Find it here. An excerpt:

"Wandering among crowds of professors, scholars, and students at the University of Notre Dame for the 12th annual conference of the Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC) for the first time, one can get a little overwhelmed.

Sit down with a Baptist scholar with a thick Southern accent, and he may just start talking to you about the richness of Catholic social teaching, and Marian tradition.

Or you might just run into the “Orthodox posse,” a group of Eastern scholars often hovering near ethicist Tristram Engelhardt, who may buy you a scotch and ask just why exactly you haven’t converted to the true faith.
In any event, the first thing that’s clear is that the CEC annual Fall conference is no ordinary scholarly conference. The second, is that this conference forms an intellectual catalyst for advancing the culture of life virtually unparalleled at any other university in America."

Fall Conference highlights

2011-11-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

Tom Hoopes from the Gregorian Institute at Benedictine College shared some of his favorite quotes from the Fall Conference on their blog. Here are his highlights:

“We are the diversity at Notre Dame.” — David Solomon, Director, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and culture, opening the conference.

“To evangelize is to declare to the various areas of the culture that Jesus Christ is Lord. … Evangelization doesn’t compromise culture, it elevates it.” —Father Robert Barron, Director, Word on Fire Ministries, on his breathtaking series Catholicism.

“You can never successfully evangelize a culture you don’t love.” — Father Barron quoting Cardinal Francis George, who launched Father Barron’s apostolate at the instigation of Pope John Paul II.

“Christian morals without God are neither Christian nor moral. When God is removed, they lose meaning and purpose.” —Ryan Topping, St. Thomas University, Fredricton, New Brunswick, Canada.

“My subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.” — Dan McInerny quoting Flannery O’Connor to explain why he likes No Country for Old Men.

“When your premise is an idea you feel you must prove to the world, and you design your story as an undeniable certification of that idea, you set yourself on the road to didacticism. In your zeal to persuade, you will stifle the voice of the other side.” — Dan McInerny quoting Robert McKee to explain why he doesn’t like Fireproof.

“Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of and the existence of free wills involve, and you will find that you have excluded life itself.” — C.S. Lewis quoted by Benedictine College counselor Jennifer Schmidt on the need for “perinatal hospice” for infants diagnosed before birth with fatal diseases.

“The goal of all marketing is the reduction of a big desire to a small desire. In other words, you long for beauty, love, friendship, wisdom, and it is the job of the marketer to convince you that the way you will achieve these desires is to purchase a certain brand of shampoo.” — Kimberly Shankman, Dean of Benedictine College, riffing on Benedictine colleague Salvatore Snaiderbaur.

“Shakesepeare was probably a Catholic who kept his views hidden because to reveal them to the public would have been too dangerous.” — Lucy Beckett, author of the great In the Light of Christ: Writings in the Western Tradition which she explains here.

“If I had known Carter Snead would be leading the center I would have retired years ago.”— David Solomon at the close of his last conference, introducing his successor, the incomparable Carter Snead.

Carter Snead to speak at St. Thomas, MN

2011-11-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

If you live in the Twin Cities, then you will have a chance to hear the Center's newly appointed Director, Carter Snead, speak on embryo rights and stem cell research at the University of St. Thomas, tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. Read the full announcement here.

Archbishop Chaput on human dignity

2011-11-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia discussed human dignity in an address at the University of Pennsylvania last night.

An excerpt:

"Here’s my first point. We remember Bonhoeffer, Solzhenitsyn, and other men and women like them because of their moral witness. But the whole idea of “moral witness” comes from the assumption that good and evil are real, and that certain basic truths about humanity don’t change. These truths are knowable and worth defending. One of these truths is the notion of man’s special dignity as a creature of reason and will. Man is part of nature, but also distinct from it."

....

"Working against abortion doesn’t license us to ignore the needs of the homeless or the poor, the elderly or the immigrant. It doesn’t absolve us from supporting women who find themselves pregnant or abandoned. All human life, no matter how wounded, flawed, young or old, is sacred because it comes from God. The dignity of a human life and its right to exist are guaranteed by God. Catholic teaching on abortion and sexuality is part of the same integral vision of the human person that fuels Catholic teaching on economic justice, racism, war, and peace."

Read the full address here.

45th Anniversary of the Observer

2011-11-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

To mark the Notre Dame Observer's 45th anniversary, the school newspaper reprinted their very first issue, from Nov. 3, 1966. We are posting here an article we especially enjoyed, detailing the campus politics of the student senate of the time. Read to the end for student Ken Beirne's incisive commentary on student life in 1966 and the direction the University was heading: “It is time for one last look; when it happens there will be no memories for there will be no awareness. The Notre Dame boy can choose relative asceticism and a grasp of life, or he can for the final time reaffirm his weary attempts at alcoholic or sexual prowess and settle for ontological impotence. To have both is impossible.”

Thursday, November 3, 1966

“The Magnificent Reactionary” by Dennis O’Dea

To call Notre Dame a hot bed of seething discontent and potential eruption would be as far from the truth as labeling motherhood a subversive institution. Notre Dame is the home of the “Fighting Irish,” Our Lady, and Knute Rockne – that’s all.

Yet people do live there. And every fall they elect representatives whose task it is to articulate their thought – a very difficult challenge; but one that is met with great courage and energy by the asps and fish on the campus.

Ideas are never very central to Student Government elections – though it is in vogue now to rattle your sword over student rights and freedom. The way to get rights and freedom, of course, is to take University authority, and drown it in the lake, and replace it with student responsibility, honor code, and community spirit. And just about everybody seems to agree that there lies the hope and salvation of Our Lady...almost everybody.

In the senate election in Lyons Hall though, Kenneth Beirne decided to challenge the popular mythology and suggest a new approach. Said Beirne: “We are now unfettered, but we are not free. Freedom demands a purpose. The man is not free who has no chains, unless he has something to do. In the last year we have seen freedom of motion take over in the absence of a significant sense of m oral and academic freedom. Soon the latter may both be gone.”

We are all members of the great “honest” and “sincere” generation. Everyone is being “honest” about sexual morality and ethical values. Students at Notre Dame are honest too – or as Ken Beirne says, “honestly dishonest.” And when they say they want freedom, they are quite clear in how they define it: elimination of all curfews, and restrictions on their physical freedom, women in the halls, cars for everybody – and anything else they think they might have overlooked (i.e. anarchy). The assumption seems to be that the best authority at all – let Christian community take care of it – whatever that means.

Ken Beirne did not take a very positive view of this student action in his campaign: “The Asp (or ASP if you will) seems certain that the administration is afraid of them. I rather think it hopes they’ll stay around, for if that organization and Student Government keep themselves busy on cars and other trivia, they won’t look at themselves and discover that they are the symptoms of a rapidly weakening Christian educational system. Those demanding surfeit cannot at the same time demand an education, and that demand the administration fears, for I don’t think it’s at all sure how to go about it. The administration can only sit in horror, wondering what someone in the past knew that they don’t, and watch Notre Dame be slowly turned into a chicken Berkeley.”

And this is the central accusation Beirne makes against the Notre Dame community. The Administration is not providing its students with an education, is not providing the moral center this generation desperately needs. Instead it is hiding behind its long black skirts and slowly retreating before the hysteria of freedom, student rights and anarchy.

And what has to be done to save Notre Dame from “Chicken” Berkeleyism? Here Ken Beirne fights extremism with extremism with such proposals as: “…reduction of the student body to a tolerable level, at the cost of the non-liberal arts schools” …and… “voluntary reinstatement of curfews and similar restrictions, sponsored by the student body, to preserve leisure on campus and provide any interested advisor with a clue to the most severely disoriented individuals.” Along with these rather unique suggestions, are more common and conservative demands for reevaluation of stay hall, honor code, curriculum faculty salaries, tuition, and the traditional demand for a more interested and involved clergy – yet here Ken breaks out and blazes a new trail. Instead of demanding that the University show its interest by acquiescing to student demands and assist the march toward anarchy, he wants the students to “force” the University to take power: “It is time the Catholic clergy reaffirmed its right to butt in on its own students’ personal lives, or else let it take up knitting.” So there it is – the emergence of the Anti-student, a student who does not want other students “to escape from the realization that it might take four years of relative asceticism to prepare oneself for a meaningful moral existence.”

Whether the newly emergent student rightists or Asp people lose any sleep over Ken Beirne’s six page challenge to their credo is unimportant – the challenge is there. Are students at Notre Dame running away from what they know is the truth? Ken Beirne thinks they are: “It is time for one last look; when it happens there will be no memories for there will be no awareness. The Notre Dame boy can choose relative asceticism and a grasp of life, or he can for the final time reaffirm his weary attempts at alcoholic or sexual prowess and settle for ontological impotence. To have both is impossible.”

Ideas such as these will neither sway the masses nor win elections. The most they can hope to do is provoke a response. And whether or not Notre Dame’s absent-minded student body is able to respond is an open question.

Harvard vindicates Pope

2011-11-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Harvard researcher Edward Green has published a book entitled Broken Promises: How the AIDS Establishment Has Betrayed the Developing World in which he argues that condom distribution has had no clear impact on slowing the spread of AIDS in Africa, and that sexual fidelity has. Read more here.

"At Culture's Edge" Call for Papers

2011-11-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

A Conference sponsored by the Keough Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame:

Hybrid Irelands: At Culture¹s Edge (Abstracts due November 15th, 2011)
A Graduate-Student Conference Exploring the Relationship between Hybridity and Irish Literature

Place: University of Notre Dame

Date: March 29-31, 2012

Keynote Speakers: Terry Eagleton (University of Lancaster, University of

Notre Dame)

David Lloyd (University of Southern California)

Clair Wills (Queen Mary, University of London)

Poetry Reading: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Medbh McGuckian (tentative) (Queen¹s University, Belfast)

In recent literary and cultural analyses, Ireland¹s unique relation to various notions of hybridity has been given preliminary consideration. Whether pertaining to genres and styles, discourses and disciplines, or identities and influences, it has become apparent that a defining feature of many Irish works is their resistance to traditional, narrow categorization.

In an attempt to expand upon these earlier approaches, the Keough-Naughton Institute at the University of Notre Dame will be holding a three-day graduate-student conference to address the relationship between hybridity and Irish literature, with a special focus on texts from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Submissions might interrogate past engagements with the concept of hybridity definition are specific to Ireland.

We invite criticism that focuses on conventionally understood literary genres (poetry, fiction, drama, memoir) as well as work from related fields, including but not limited to history, art, theory, folklore, material culture, and film studies. Furthermore, because the nature of hybridity suggests a coming-together of different elements, one of our goals is to cultivate a critical approach that is itself hybrid; in other words, we very much encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the topic. Our hope is to facilitate a critical conversation that envisions a hybrid Ireland

We're also pleased to announce that we will be able to offer a limited number of international scholarships for graduate students attending the conference from abroad. To apply for these scholarships, in addition to the
abstract, please submit a 500 word statement explaining the importance of the conference to you own work.

Suggested topics:
Transnational Poetics
Generic Crossovers
Contemporary Engagements with Folklore
Transatlantic Fictions
Culture and Immigration
Ireland in Translation
Evolving Images in Film and Art
Recontextualizing ³Literary Ireland²
Dialects and Language Change
Dislocated Spaces
Print Culture and Textual Authorship

Abstracts should be no longer than 150 words. The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2011. Please email your abstracts to hybridIE@nd.edu

For questions or concerns, please contact John Dillon and Nathaniel Myers at hybridIE@nd.edu hybridIE@nd.edu> , or look us up on Facebook (search: Hybrid Irelands).

Cultivating Catholic Imagination

2011-11-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

Dan McInerny, a presenter at our upcoming Fall Conference, discusses how to cultivate a Catholic imagination in this Catholic Exchange article. He has recently started a company called Trojan Tub Entertainment to produce wholesome and humorous children's literature, available through digital media.

An excerpt:

"his is the Catholic moment in the arts. In other words now, more than ever, our culture demands the fruit of a truly Catholic imagination, to save it from the Scylla of hyper-rationalization and the Charybdis of an exaltation of the imagination rooted more in the passions than in reality.

There are many Catholics, as well as other Christians, doing exciting things in the arts. And yet so much more is needed, especially in the arenas of popular culture. Recently I decided to make my own contribution to this effort, to lend my small trowel to the cultural cause. I started a company, Trojan Tub Entertainment, devoted to my Patria series of humorous adventure stories for middle grade readers. With Trojan Tub I hope to share with children and families my passion for wholesome, but always funny, children’s literature."

Read the full article here.

Archbishop Gomez on religious freedom

2011-10-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has an article in First Things today entitled "Defending our First Freedom" in which he raises concern that the US government is attempting to coerce Catholic relief organizations, such as the Migration and Refugees Services Agency and Catholic hospitals, into providing sterilizations and abortions, in contradiction to their mission.

An excerpt: "America’s founders understood that our democracy depends on Americans being moral and virtuous. They knew the best guarantee for this is a civil society in which individuals and religious institutions were free to live, act, and vote according to their values and principles. We need to help our leaders today rediscover the wisdom of America’s founding. And we need to help believers once more understand the vital importance of this “first freedom.” At stake are not just our liberties but also the future character of our democracy."

Read the full article here.

Breast Cancer: Awareness of ALL the risk factors

2011-10-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month (and the month of the Rosary, and Respect Life month....) and campaigns to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer are everywhere. This MercatorNet article raises the question: why doesn't breast cancer awareness month raise awareness about all the risk factors for breast cancer...specifically the highly elevated risk for women who have used the contraceptive pill or had an abortion?

An excerpt:
"The pink awareness campaign is packaged, quite profitably, as an expression of genuine concern about women’s health. So surely it is reasonable to expect that such concern be matched by an accurate presentation of all the known risk factors, and by an insistence upon the very best corresponding prevention recommendations, right? After all, early detection measures such as screening are not nearly the same thing as solid prevention. Indefensibly, however, most awareness efforts fail to feature some factors known to reduce breast cancer risk: having children, avoiding induced abortions, and refraining from oral contraceptives (OC). True, there is no guaranteed way for anyone to dodge or develop breast cancer, but that does not mean there are not risk factors. Women today are delaying childbirth as never before, and having fewer children. Younger women are using OC for longer periods of time. And well over a fifth of all pregnancies in America end in abortion – hardly the rarity its “safe, legal and rare” advocates say it should be. If you suspect that these reproductive risk factors might have something to do with the 40 percent increase in the incidence of breast cancer over the last 30 years, you have spotted the elephant in the room."

Breast cancer has been one of the most prominent issues in women's health for years now; it is time to raise awareness of how abortions and oral contraceptives seriously harm women's health by elevating the risk for breast cancer. Read the full article here.

ND offers first major in Irish lang outside of Ireland

2011-10-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame's Department of Irish Language & Literature has just announced that it will now offer a major in Irish Language & Literature for undergraduates studying at Notre Dame. Up to this point at Notre Dame it has only been possible to minor in Irish. This is the first major program of study in Irish Language outside of the country of Ireland, making Notre Dame a world leader in Irish scholarship. Maith siad!

Inconsistancies in California parental consent laws

2011-10-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

A new law in California allows for minors over the age of 12 to be vaccinated for STDs without parental consent. This is the same state that just banned the use of tanning beds for anyone under the age of 18 for health reasons, and where the governor vetoed a law mandating the use of bike helmets claiming that 'I believe parents have the ability and responsibility to make good choices for their children.' Also in California, minors must have parental consent to get anything other than their ears pierced, but can have an abortion without parental consent. Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez warns against a "serious erosion of parental rights in California." Read the full Catholic News Agency report here.

CUA President speaks out about conscience clauses

2011-10-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

John Garvey, Notre Dame graduate and President of Catholic University of America, joins Father Jenkins in objecting to the HHS Rules requiring Catholic universities to provide contraceptive services that violate Catholic teaching. Read his Washington Post article here.

An excerpt:
"The regulations that HHS unveiled in August will require Catholic University to offer its students sterilization procedures and prescription contraceptives, including pills that act after fertilization to induce abortions. If we comply, as the law requires, we will be helping our students do things that we teach them, in our classes and in our sacraments, are sinful — sometimes gravely so. It seems to us that a proper respect for religious liberty would warrant an exemption for our university and other institutions like it."

2012 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal Announced

2011-10-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life has just announced that it will honor Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at George Mason University, with its annual Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal. Read more here and find the press release here.

President Jenkins' open letter to Secretary Sebelius

2011-09-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

University of Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins, CSC, has written an important letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius regarding the federal requirement for private insurance to cover all contraceptive (and some abortifacient) prescriptions, including sterilization procedures. The "Interim Final Rules on Preventive Services" puts Catholic institutions like Notre Dame between a rock and a hard place, requiring us to cover something to which we are morally opposed, leaving us the choice between eliminating health insurance for students and employees or covering contraceptive and abortifacient drugs. Notre Dame would not be exempted under the conscience clause, because the conscience clause is the narrowest on record, excluding organizations like Notre Dame that serve and employ many non-Catholics.

An excerpt from Fr. Jenkins' compelling letter:

"Surely you know that we welcome the Administration's decision to require health plans to cover women's preventive services, such as critical screenings that will make preventive care more widely available and affordable. However, I'm sure you also understand that the inclusion in that mandate of contraceptive services that the Catholic Church finds morally objectionable makes it imperative that the Final Rule include broader conscience protections. In their current form, these regulations would require us to offer our students sterilization procedures and prescription contraceptives, including pills that act after fertilization to induce abortions, and to offer such services in our employee health plans. This would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the Church's moral teaching, or to discontinue our employee and student health care plans in violation of the Church's social teaching. It is an impossible position."

We urge you to read the full text of the President's letter here and we commend the President for speaking out for Catholic institutions across the country who refuse to pit the Church's moral teaching against the Church's social teaching. His is a voice which needs to be heard in this debate, and we hope other university presidents and directors of Catholic hospitals will follow his lead in proclaiming the truth.

Pope Benedict addresses the German Legislature

2011-09-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Last week Pope Benedict XVI delivered the following speech to the German legislature:

Mr President of the Federal Republic,
Mr President of the Bundestag,
Madam Chancellor,
Mr President of the Bundesrat,
Ladies and Gentlemen Members of the House,

It is an honour and a joy for me to speak before this distinguished house, before the Parliament of my native Germany, that meets here as a democratically elected representation of the people, in order to work for the good of the Federal Republic of Germany. I should like to thank the President of the Bundestag both for his invitation to deliver this address and for the kind words of greeting and appreciation with which he has welcomed me. At this moment I turn to you, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, not least as your fellow-countryman who for all his life has been conscious of close links to his origins, and has followed the affairs of his native Germany with keen interest.

But the invitation to give this address was extended to me as Pope, as the Bishop of Rome, who bears the highest responsibility for Catholic Christianity. In issuing this invitation you are acknowledging the role that the Holy See plays as a partner within the community of peoples and states. Setting out from this international responsibility that I hold, I should like to propose to you some thoughts on the foundations of a free state of law.

Allow me to begin my reflections on the foundations of law [Recht] with a brief story from sacred Scripture. In the First Book of the Kings, it is recounted that God invited the young King Solomon, on his accession to the throne, to make a request. What will the young ruler ask for at this important moment? Success – wealth – long life – destruction of his enemies? He chooses none of these things. Instead, he asks for a listening heart so that he may govern God’s people, and discern between good and evil (cf. 1 Kg 3:9).

Through this story, the Bible wants to tell us what should ultimately matter for a politician. His fundamental criterion and the motivation for his work as a politician must not be success, and certainly not material gain. Politics must be a striving for justice, and hence it has to establish the fundamental preconditions for peace. Naturally a politician will seek success, as this is what opens up for him the possibility of effective political action. Yet success is subordinated to the criterion of justice, to the will to do what is right, and to the understanding of what is right. Success can also be seductive and thus can open up the path towards the falsification of what is right, towards the destruction of justice.

"Without justice – what else is the State but a great band of robbers?", as Saint Augustine once said (1). We Germans know from our own experience that these words are no empty spectre. We have seen how power became divorced from right, how power opposed right and crushed it, so that the State became an instrument for destroying right – a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss.

To serve right and to fight against the dominion of wrong is and remains the fundamental task of the politician. At a moment in history when man has acquired previously inconceivable power, this task takes on a particular urgency. Man can destroy the world. He can manipulate himself. He can, so to speak, make human beings and he can deny them their humanity. How do we recognize what is right? How can we discern between good and evil, between what is truly right and what may appear right? Even now, Solomon’s request remains the decisive issue facing politicians and politics today.

For most of the matters that need to be regulated by law, the support of the majority can serve as a sufficient criterion. Yet it is evident that for the fundamental issues of law, in which the dignity of man and of humanity is at stake, the majority principle is not enough: everyone in a position of responsibility must personally seek out the criteria to be followed when framing laws. In the third century, the great theologian Origen provided the following explanation for the resistance of Christians to certain legal systems: "Suppose that a man were living among the Scythians, whose laws are contrary to the divine law, and was compelled to live among them ... such a man for the sake of the true law, though illegal among the Scythians, would rightly form associations with like-minded people contrary to the laws of the Scythians" (2).

This conviction was what motivated resistance movements to act against the Nazi regime and other totalitarian regimes, thereby doing a great service to justice and to humanity as a whole. For these people, it was indisputably evident that the law in force was actually unlawful. Yet when it comes to the decisions of a democratic politician, the question of what now corresponds to the law of truth, what is actually right and may be enacted as law, is less obvious. In terms of the underlying anthropological issues, what is right and may be given the force of law is in no way simply self-evident today. The question of how to recognize what is truly right and thus to serve justice when framing laws has never been simple, and today in view of the vast extent of our knowledge and our capacity, it has become still harder.

How do we recognize what is right? In history, systems of law have almost always been based on religion: decisions regarding what was to be lawful among men were taken with reference to the divinity. Unlike other great religions, Christianity has never proposed a revealed body of law to the State and to society, that is to say a juridical order derived from revelation. Instead, it has pointed to nature and reason as the true sources of law – and to the harmony of objective and subjective reason, which naturally presupposes that both spheres are rooted in the creative reason of God.

Christian theologians thereby aligned themselves with a philosophical and juridical movement that began to take shape in the second century B.C. In the first half of that century, the social natural law developed by the Stoic philosophers came into contact with leading teachers of Roman Law (3). Through this encounter, the juridical culture of the West was born, which was and is of key significance for the juridical culture of mankind. This pre-Christian marriage between law and philosophy opened up the path that led via the Christian Middle Ages and the juridical developments of the Age of Enlightenment all the way to the Declaration of Human Rights and to our German Basic Law of 1949, with which our nation committed itself to "inviolable and inalienable human rights as the foundation of every human community, and of peace and justice in the world".

For the development of law and for the development of humanity, it was highly significant that Christian theologians aligned themselves against the religious law associated with polytheism and on the side of philosophy, and that they acknowledged reason and nature in their interrelation as the universally valid source of law. This step had already been taken by Saint Paul in the Letter to the Romans, when he said: "When Gentiles who have not the Law [the Torah of Israel] do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves... they show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness ..." (Rom 2:14f.). Here we see the two fundamental concepts of nature and conscience, where conscience is nothing other than Solomon’s listening heart, reason that is open to the language of being.

If this seemed to offer a clear explanation of the foundations of legislation up to the time of the Enlightenment, up to the time of the Declaration on Human Rights after the Second World War and the framing of our Basic Law, there has been a dramatic shift in the situation in the last half-century. The idea of natural law is today viewed as a specifically Catholic doctrine, not worth bringing into the discussion in a non-Catholic environment, so that one feels almost ashamed even to mention the term. Let me outline briefly how this situation arose.

Fundamentally it is because of the idea that an unbridgeable gulf exists between "is" and "ought". An "ought" can never follow from an "is", because the two are situated on completely different planes. The reason for this is that in the meantime, the positivist understanding of nature and reason has come to be almost universally accepted. If nature – in the words of Hans Kelsen – is viewed as "an aggregate of objective data linked together in terms of cause and effect", then indeed no ethical indication of any kind can be derived from it (4).

A positivist conception of nature as purely functional, in the way that the natural sciences explain it, is incapable of producing any bridge to ethics and law, but once again yields only functional answers. The same also applies to reason, according to the positivist understanding that is widely held to be the only genuinely scientific one. Anything that is not verifiable or falsifiable, according to this understanding, does not belong to the realm of reason strictly understood. Hence ethics and religion must be assigned to the subjective field, and they remain extraneous to the realm of reason in the strict sense of the word. Where positivist reason dominates the field to the exclusion of all else – and that is broadly the case in our public mindset – then the classical sources of knowledge for ethics and law are excluded. This is a dramatic situation which affects everyone, and on which a public debate is necessary. Indeed, an essential goal of this address is to issue an urgent invitation to launch one.

The positivist approach to nature and reason, the positivist world view in general, is a most important dimension of human knowledge and capacity that we may in no way dispense with. But in and of itself it is not a sufficient culture corresponding to the full breadth of the human condition. Where positivist reason considers itself the only sufficient culture and banishes all other cultural realities to the status of subcultures, it diminishes man, indeed it threatens his humanity.

I say this with Europe specifically in mind, where there are concerted efforts to recognize only positivism as a common culture and a common basis for law-making, so that all the other insights and values of our culture are reduced to the level of subculture, with the result that Europe vis-à-vis other world cultures is left in a state of culturelessness and at the same time extremist and radical movements emerge to fill the vacuum. In its self-proclaimed exclusivity, the positivist reason which recognizes nothing beyond mere functionality resembles a concrete bunker with no windows, in which we ourselves provide lighting and atmospheric conditions, being no longer willing to obtain either from God’s wide world. And yet we cannot hide from ourselves the fact that even in this artificial world, we are still covertly drawing upon God’s raw materials, which we refashion into our own products. The windows must be flung open again, we must see the wide world, the sky and the earth once more and learn to make proper use of all this.

But how are we to do this? How do we find our way out into the wide world, into the big picture? How can reason rediscover its true greatness, without being sidetracked into irrationality? How can nature reassert itself in its true depth, with all its demands, with all its directives?

I would like to recall one of the developments in recent political history, hoping that I will neither be misunderstood, nor provoke too many one-sided polemics. I would say that the emergence of the ecological movement in German politics since the 1970s, while it has not exactly flung open the windows, nevertheless was and continues to be a cry for fresh air which must not be ignored or pushed aside, just because too much of it is seen to be irrational. Young people had come to realize that something is wrong in our relationship with nature, that matter is not just raw material for us to shape at will, but that the earth has a dignity of its own and that we must follow its directives. In saying this, I am clearly not promoting any particular political party – nothing could be further from my mind. If something is wrong in our relationship with reality, then we must all reflect seriously on the whole situation and we are all prompted to question the very foundations of our culture.

Allow me to dwell a little longer on this point. The importance of ecology is no longer disputed. We must listen to the language of nature and we must answer accordingly. Yet I would like to underline a further point that is still largely disregarded, today as in the past: there is also an ecology of man. Man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will. Man is not merely self-creating freedom. Man does not create himself. He is intellect and will, but he is also nature, and his will is rightly ordered if he listens to his nature, respects it and accepts himself for who he is, as one who did not create himself. In this way, and in no other, is true human freedom fulfilled.

Let us come back to the fundamental concepts of nature and reason, from which we set out. The great proponent of legal positivism, Kelsen, at the age of 84 – in 1965 – abandoned the dualism of "is" and "ought". (I find it comforting that rational thought is evidently still possible at the age of 84!) He had said that norms can only come from the will. Nature therefore could only contain norms if a will had put them there. But this would presuppose a Creator God, whose will had entered into nature. "Any attempt to discuss the truth of this belief is utterly futile", he observed (5). Is it really? – I find myself asking. Is it really pointless to wonder whether the objective reason that manifests itself in nature does not presuppose a creative reason, a "Creator Spiritus"?

At this point Europe’s cultural heritage ought to come to our assistance. The conviction that there is a Creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person and the awareness of people’s responsibility for their actions. Our cultural memory is shaped by these rational insights. To ignore it or dismiss it as a thing of the past would be to dismember our culture totally and to rob it of its completeness.

The culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man’s responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history.

As he assumed the mantle of office, the young King Solomon was invited to make a request. How would it be if we, the law-makers of today, were invited to make a request? What would we ask for? I think that, even today, there is ultimately nothing else we could wish for but a listening heart – the capacity to discern between good and evil, and thus to establish true law, to serve justice and peace. Thank you for your attention!

Berlin, September 22, 2011

UN pressuring Ireland to allow abortion

2011-09-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

The UN committee against torture has accused Ireland of not conforming with the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment and Punishment in its most recent report, at the closing of its 46th session. The Irish constitution protects equally the life of the unborn and the lives of mothers, but the UN is pressuring Ireland to offer abortion services in the country. Currently women seeking abortions typically travel to the UK to take advantage of their liberal abortion laws. LifeNews.com reports on the UN committee's stance against Ireland here.

An excerpt:
"The recommendations issued by the treaty body seek the establishment of guidelines specifying the circumstances when women can procure abortion and the establishment of “services” for abortions. The Committee states that Ireland must establish “adequate services for carrying out abortions in the State party, so that its law and practice is in conformity with the Convention,” despite the fact that the Convention against Torture does not reference or mention abortion. The argument by the Committee that access to abortion is necessary to “conform” to the treaty is an example of the pro-abortion strategy to create a “right to abortion” by stating falsehoods about international law and treaties over and over again until they begin to be treated as truth."

Summer 2011 Newsletter

2011-09-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

Our most recent edition of Ethics & Culture, our semiannual newsletter, was recently mailed out. You can view a pdf of it here. It features articles on all of our spring and summer 2011 events, and a look ahead at the fall semester.

Sectarian Conflict V. Liberal Whateverism

2011-09-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame Sociology Professor Christian Smith recently wrote a piece for the Huffington Post in which he discusses some of the findings of his research in the sociology of religion among American youth. He contrasts the age of 'sectarian conflict' in the United States, in which differences between religious commitments led to bigotry, with the current age of 'liberal whateverism' in which religion is relegated to a personal and private sphere with no influence on public or communal life.

An excerpt:
"I think we need to reject both sectarian conflict and liberal whateverism and commit ourselves instead to an authentic pluralism. Genuine pluralism fosters a culture that honors rather than isolates and disparages religious difference. It affirms the right of others to believe and practice their faith, not only in their private lives but also in the public square -- while expecting them to allow still others to do the same. Authentic pluralism does not minimize religious differences by saying that "all religions are ultimately the same." That is false and insipid. Pluralism encourages good conversations and arguments across differences, taking them seriously precisely because they are understood to be about important truths, not merely private "opinions." It is possible, authentic pluralism insists, to profoundly disagree with others while at the same time respecting, honoring, and perhaps even loving them. Genuine pluralism suspects the multi-cultural regime's too-easy blanket affirmations of "tolerance" of being patronizing and dismissive. Pluralism, however, also counts atheist Americans as deserving equal public respect, since their beliefs are based as much on a considered faith as are religious views and so should not be automatically denigrated."

Read the full article here, and attend our Annual Fall Conference, where Christian Smith will be one of our invited speakers.

David Brooks highlights Christian Smith's research

2011-09-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

New York Times columnist David Brooks' most recent opinion piece highlighted the research of Dr. Christian Smith, a Notre Dame professor of social science who will be speaking at our annual Fall Conference, "Radical Emancipation: Confronting the Challenge of Secularism," Nov. 10-12. Christian Smith's research focuses on the religious experience of teenagers and young adults in the United States, and on what guides their moral reasoning.

An excerpt:
"Smith and company found an atmosphere of extreme moral individualism — of relativism and nonjudgmentalism. Again, this doesn’t mean that America’s young people are immoral. Far from it. But, Smith and company emphasize, they have not been given the resources — by schools, institutions and families — to cultivate their moral intuitions, to think more broadly about moral obligations, to check behaviors that may be degrading. In this way, the study says more about adult America than youthful America."

Read the full article here.

Dominicans beat Marians in annual Labor Day game

2011-09-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Br. Innocent Smith (ND '08) gives a blow-by-blow account of the annual softball game between the Dominicans and Marians at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., which featured three Notre Dame graduates, all playing for the Dominicans.

An excerpt:
"The MIC time-out gave Br. Raymund the opportunity to confer with fellow Notre Dame alum and long-time Dominican softball veteran, Br. Justin Brophy. Drawing largely on an analogy from Latin grammar, Br. Justin exhorted Br. Raymund to keep his eye on the ball all the way through the point of contact (the idea being that in Latin translation, identification of the proper case endings is necessary for success - or something to that effect). Anyway, Br. Justin's counsel appeared to have the desired effect as Br. Raymund drilled a line drive single deep to left, bringing home two runs and enabling the Friars to take a 9-8 lead over the Marians."

Read more here.

Lack of Sperm Donor Regulation Poses Problems for Offspring

2011-09-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

The United State's largely unregulated sperm donation industry poses serious risks for children born through IVF using donated sperm, reports the New York Times. Not only do children often lack half of their medical histories, but there is also a real risk of accidental incest between genetic half-siblings and also an increased risk of spreading genes for rare diseases through the population at an artificially high rate. For these reasons, other countries such as Britain, France, and Sweden limit the number of conceptions permitted for the sperm of any one donor, but the U.S. has no such restrictions.

An excerpt: “We have more rules that go into place when you buy a used car than when you buy sperm,” said Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College and author of “The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception.” “It’s very clear that the dealer can’t sell you a lemon, and there’s information about the history of the car. There are no such rules in the fertility industry right now.”

Read the full article here.

Schmitt Lecturer Yuval Levin on the Health Care Debate

2011-08-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

Our fall semester Schmitt lecturer, Yuval Levin, today had a piece published on the Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse web journal. He addresses the moral and practical issues of the health care debate, the subject of his lecture here coming up on December 7 at 4 p.m. in McKenna Hall, highlighting the social justice principle of subsidiarity. An excerpt:

"Of course, any system of health insurance has to involve decisions about what to cover and pay for—and, in that sense, what to ration. But an underappreciated virtue of the market is that it puts such decisions far closer to the ground, and so to the people involved. Allowing for a wide variety of insurance options means giving people more choices and more power, and therefore also allowing families far greater freedom to choose among treatment options with their doctors. Hard choices will still need to be made, but having more of them made by families and physicians with some power to choose is vastly better than having all of them made by distant bureaucrats with the power to impose.

Believing in equality does not mean pursuing one-size-fits-all public policies. On the contrary, central planning and command-and-control administration too often require a betrayal of equality. Public rationing is not private rationing writ large; it requires an explicit rejection of our most fundamental national premise. Enabling a private market—backed with subsidies to allow those with lesser means to choose among options for themselves—would not only avoid the economic inefficiencies of central planning; it would also reduce the moral enormities of public rationing."

Read the full article here.

World Youth Day begins

2011-08-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame class of 2007 valedictorian Michael Rossmann, SJ, reports from Madrid where he is chaperoning a group of young people for World Youth Day. Stuck in a back alley during an enormous celebration of Mass that spanned several city blocks, when it came time for Communion, his student's attitude was:

"Can we receive Jesus? Let's go!"

Read Mike's full report here.

New 'Catholicism' Documentary enthusiastically reviewed

2011-08-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our Fall Conference this year features Rev. Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries for our Thursday night (Nov. 10) keynote address. Fr. Barron has recently produced a book and DVD documentary, "Catholicism," which is being reviewed extraordinarily positively by the Catholic press. It is designed to present a comprehensive introduction to the Catholic faith through a multimedia approach, and by all reports the finished product is masterful. In the first review to be published, by The Catholic Thing, the reviewer says:

"I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a Catholic film or TV program and commented, “Surely we can do better than this!” Well, Catholicism is better than I ever imagined such a film could be – a feast for eye and ear and soul."

Read more here, and learn more about the Catholicism Project.

ND Scholars Speak Out Against Coverage for Contraception

2011-08-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame scholars are speaking out against the contraception coverage mandated under President Obama's health care plan. It was reported last week that all health insurance policies will be required to provide contraception and sterilization without a co-pay to all policy holders in the future, and the conscience clause for religious institutions is now up for debate. “This will likely drive many important Catholic social service providers to close up shop, inevitably harming the poor communities that they serve,” Notre Dame Law School professor O. Carter Snead told the Catholic News Agency.

The debate over coverage for contraception is already lost. Now conscience protection for religious institutions hangs in the balance. CNA reports: "The Obama administration has released an amendment allowing religious institutions the choice of whether to cover contraceptive services. However, the exemption applies only to non-profit religious employers whose purpose is “the inculcation of religious values.” Exempted employers must primarily employ persons who share their religious tenets and must primarily serve those who share those beliefs.
'The so-called ‘exemptions’ are extremely narrow,' Snead said. 'This category does not cover virtually any Catholic institution that serves or employs non-Catholics. Accordingly, Catholic universities, Catholic social service agencies, and even perhaps the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will be required to provide contraceptive coverage (including abortifacients like the recently FDA-approved ‘Ella’),' he explained. Notre Dame Law School professor and associate dean Richard W. Garnett also criticized the exemption. It is not broad enough 'because it excludes those religious institutions, employers, and ministries that are engaged actively in the world, providing care, services, and education to a diverse group of people, besides our fellow Catholics,' he told CNA."

Read the full article here.

Free contraceptives mandated under new health care law

2011-08-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

President Obama's Health and Human Services adminstration determined today that all health insurance policies will be required to offer all contraceptive methods, including the aborficant Morning After pill, and sterilization for both men and women, for free, with no copayment under the new health care legislation. The HHS is now considering whether or not there should be a conscience exemption for religious organizations that provide health insurance for their employees and do not want to cover contraception and sterilization.

More chillingly, LifeSiteNews reports that "The same report even suggested that elective abortion could also have been considered a mandatory “preventive service” had it not been for federal law: the authors note that abortion had to be ruled out “despite the health and well-being benefits to some women.” Read the full article here.

NCR interview with Fr. Bill Miscamble, CSC

2011-07-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

In a National Catholic Register article entitled "Saving Notre Dame's Soul," reporter Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Fr. Bill Miscamble, CSC, Notre Dame history professor and member of the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life committee. He speaks frankly and forthrightly on a number of issues related to Notre Dame's identity and future, including the Roxanna Martino affair, whether the University has yet recovered from the Obama commencement, the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life, the future of the leadership of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, and the need for the University's administration to make a more serious effort at institutionally supporting the cause for life.

Some excerpts:

On Notre Dame's pro-life efforts:
"If Notre Dame is truly going to be “unambiguously pro-life,” it needs to pursue a much stronger effort to support and sustain the pro-life cause. It should proudly be an institution dedicated to training a new generation of pro-life leaders. It must give strong institutional support to the efforts of Project Guadalupe. It should assure that her students leave more likely to be pro-life than when they enter, which is not the case presently. The institution should do something more to support pregnant students in need, such as is being done through the Room at the Inn organization associated with Belmont Abbey College. Surely, the university leadership should overcome its timidity and speak up forcefully for life in the public domain."

On Notre Dame's identity and future:
"...Notre Dame is a place that is not clear about its mission and identity. There is a debate here as to whether it will be a Catholic university at its heart or just in a peripheral way. That Notre Dame is not sure what foundational document will guide its present and future is the source of many of our problems."

On the future of the Center's leadership:
"David Solomon had the courage to speak in opposition to Notre Dame’s honoring of President Obama. This stance certainly seems to have led to recriminations against him. Already, one effort was made to oust him from his directorship of the Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC), but this was foiled because of fear of bad publicity for Notre Dame. But the administration seems determined to move him on without any concern for the damage that would do to the important work of the CEC. In doing so, the administration is removing the person whose great pro-life work was recently recognized by the national University Faculty for Life organization with its annual Smith Award. The administration seems to want to neuter the person who has been the leader of our pro-life efforts at Notre Dame. It is little short of a disgrace. We need a firm statement from the administration that David Solomon will continue in his duties until all stages of Project Guadalupe are up and running. Notre Dame should be a place that appreciates and celebrates all that he has done and is doing."

Read the full interview with Fr. Miscamble here, and comment with your thoughts on this post in our comments section.

Visiting the Beach: An Act of Civil Disobedience

2011-07-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

The New York Times ran an article today about Israeli women smuggling Palestinians out of the southern part of the West Bank to enjoy a simple day out at the beach- something many Palestinians have never experienced before. Ilana Hammerman, the Israeli woman who instigated this act of civil disobedience, wanted to protest the Law of Entry which restricts Palestinian movement in the Holy Land. Explaining her actions, Ilana Hammerman said simply, "One day in the future, people will ask, like they did of the Germans: ‘Did you know?’ And I will be able to say, ‘I knew. And I acted.’"

Read the full story here.

Contraceptives likely to be included in national health coverage

2011-07-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

According to the Washington Times, "A nonpartisan Institute of Medicine panel recommended Tuesday that contraception and a handful of other services related to women’s health be considered preventative and must be covered by insurance companies without charging co-payments." Apparently, women's health recommendations were considered too sensitive an issue to be placed in the actual healthcare bill, so now it is at the discretion of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to determine which recommendations will be adopted as part of the law. Because of the bill's ambiguous wording about the power of the secretary, Sebelius is able to force all taxpaying Americans to pay for the contraceptives of others. The conservative Family Research Council said including the morning-after pill in the insurance guidelines “essentially would mandate coverage for abortion.” “If HHS includes these mandates, the conscience rights of millions of Americans will be violated,” Jeanne Monahan, the director of the council's Center for Human Dignity, said in a statement. “HHS should focus on items and services that prevent actual diseases, and not include controversial services just to placate the abortion industry.” Read the full story here.

New York's redefinition of marriage

2011-07-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Friend of the Center, Prof. Robert George of Princeton, weighs in on the recent redefinition of marriage by the New York state legislature. You can read his interview in the National Review Online here.

Secularism and education

2011-07-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Irish Times columnist John Waters reflects on what teaching religion really does for children, and why the struggle in Ireland over whether to continue religious instruction in its national schools is a struggle over what education is really for. An excerpt:

"Properly understood, religion enables the opening up of the child’s natural understanding of his/her own structure and relationship with the totality of reality. True education involves the proffering of a tradition in its entirety, together with the freedom to interrogate it. Its fundamental objective is not the “inculcation” of anything, still less the indoctrination of values or beliefs. That Irish Catholicism has tended to misunderstand the meaning of the word “freedom” is insufficient reason to replace a stunted form of propaganda with an outrightly sinister one."

Read the full article here.

Indiana Planned Parenthood funding restored

2011-06-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame Law Professor Gerry Bradley analyzes why the federal district judge who at first upheld Indiana's recently passed law to defund Planned Parenthood first allowed it to stand, but has now caved to pressure from Obama's HHS secretary, so that funding has been restored to the largest abortion provider in the state of Indiana. He explains:

"The difference-maker was not anything the Indiana Civil Liberties Union lawyer or Planned Parenthood argued. The deciding factor — as, again, Judge Pratt practically conceded — was the intervention of HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Her deputy in charge of Medicaid, Donald Berwick, publicly announced on June 1 (during the pendency of the plaintiffs’ motion for an injunctive relief) that HHS “rejected” Indiana’s law. And this rejection decided the case for Judge Pratt.

This intervention was transparently political. Sebelius (through Berwick) adopted a novel and highly controversial reading of the Medicaid law, an interpretation which seems to be based not in law but on pro-choice ideology."

To read the full National Review article, click here.

Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.

2011-06-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Franzen's commentary is better than his fiction. So even if you couldn't get through the Corrections and snubbed your nose at this year's hype over Freedom, take a few minutes to enjoy his diagnosis of our contemporary infatuation with technology. An excerpt:

"Very probably, you’re sick to death of hearing social media disrespected by cranky 51-year-olds. My aim here is mainly to set up a contrast between the narcissistic tendencies of technology and the problem of actual love. My friend Alice Sebold likes to talk about “getting down in the pit and loving somebody.” She has in mind the dirt that love inevitably splatters on the mirror of our self-regard.

The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships. Sooner or later, for example, you’re going to find yourself in a hideous, screaming fight, and you’ll hear coming out of your mouth things that you yourself don’t like at all, things that shatter your self-image as a fair, kind, cool, attractive, in-control, funny, likable person. Something realer than likability has come out in you, and suddenly you’re having an actual life.

Suddenly there’s a real choice to be made, not a fake consumer choice between a BlackBerry and an iPhone, but a question: Do I love this person? And, for the other person, does this person love me?"

Read the rest of his New York Times article, "Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts" here.

Pro-life faculty feel isolated, says UFL president

2011-06-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

At the University Faculty for Life's (UFL) annual national conference, held this year at the University of Notre Dame, newly installed UFL president Teresa Collett says professors who hold pro-life views often feel isolated and marginalized on college campuses. Collett is a professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. Despite academia's claim of encouraging diversity and rigorous inquiry into all areas of life and human experience, pro-life research and writing is excluded at secular and Christian institution alike:

"In most institutions, particularly before tenure but even after tenure, the reigning orthodoxy on abortion is enforced by faculty review committees and administrators," Collett said. "Writing about abortion is often discouraged pre-tenure as 'too controversial' and after tenure as a distraction from the faculty member's established area of scholarship," she continued. "For the courageous faculty member who wants to explore these issues, having a community of like-minded scholars to collaborate with is critical."

For the full story, click here.

Belmont Abbey College opens first college-based maternity home

2011-06-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Belmont Abbey College has provided courageous leadership for Catholic colleges and universities by opening the first college-based maternity home for women who want to carry their babies to term and continue their educations. The college broke ground for the new home on Monday, and the maternity home will provide free room and board to pregnant college students and their babies after birth for up to two years. The new program is operated by Room At The Inn, an organization founded by 1999 Notre Dame alumna Lacy Dodd, who became pregnant her senior year and resisted pressure from her boyfriend to get an abortion. She is now the proud mother of her beautiful 11-year-old daughter and founder and board member of Room At The Inn. She hopes the initiative at Belmont Abbey will be a model for similar maternity homes at other colleges and universities, especially her alma mater, Notre Dame. We would do well to follow her lead.

For LifeNews.com's account of the groundbreaking, click here. For more information on Room At The Inn, click here. For more background on the genesis of the new initiative on Belmont's campus, click here.

Reflections on Jack Kevorkian's Death

2011-06-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jeffrey P. Bishop, who holds the Tenet Endowed Chair in Health Care Ethics at St. Louis University, and who regularly participates in the Center's medical ethics conference, reflects on medicine technology, and the end of life following Jack Kevorkian's recent death. An excerpt:

"I remember watching on "60 Minutes" the death of Thomas Youk, the one death at which Kevorkian was present. Just two years earlier, I had finished my residency training in internal medicine. Watching Youk's death, I thought about all of the machines that kept people alive: the ventilators I had tweaked, the infusion pumps I had titrated. Seeing Kevorkian work on Youk, I was struck by the cold, procedural efficiency that Kevorkian and I shared. Yet, there was a stark contrast. On the one hand, technology was used to cause death; on the other, technology was used to cause life to continue, often in people who would die only a few days later."

Read his full column, Love is Stronger than Death, here.

ND Trustee Martino resigns over pro-abortion contributions

2011-06-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame's Office of Public Relations released the following announcement today:

"Roxanne Martino has resigned from the University of Notre Dame Board of Trustees, effective immediately, in the wake of reports criticizing donations she has made to organizations that characterize themselves as pro-choice.

“In the best interests of the University, I regretfully have decided to step down from the Notre Dame Board of Trustees,” Martino said. “I dearly love my alma mater and remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching and to the mission of Notre Dame. I had looked forward to contributing in this new role, but the current controversy just doesn’t allow me to be effective.”

“Ms. Martino has served Notre Dame in many ways over the years and is highly regarded as someone who is absolutely dedicated in every way to the Catholic mission of this University,” said Richard C. Notebaert, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “She has lived her life and faith in an exemplary way, including the counsel and support she has provided to Notre Dame, many other Catholic institutions and Thresholds, an organization that provides programs for thousands of people with severe mental illness.”

Martino received her bachelor’s degree in business from Notre Dame and a master of business administration degree from the University of Chicago. She joined Aurora Investment Management in 1990 and now leads the Chicago firm."

Fr. Bill Miscamble, C.S.C., Professor of History and Research Fellow of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture comments:

"I am grateful that Mrs. Martino had the decency to resign from the Board of Trustees but very disappointed that she included no apology in her statement for her sad record of donations to Emily's List and other virulently pro-abortion PACs like Illinois State Personal PAC.

I am further disappointed by the very limited press release from the University of Notre Dame and by the remarks of Board Chair, Mr. Richard Notebaert. He neither gives an apology for his earlier misleading statements concerning Mrs. Martino's donations nor expresses regret for his failure to vet this appointment with appropriate diligence. Further, he gives no assurance that contributing in any way to explicitly 'pro-choice' organizations is incompatible with service on the Notre Dame Board of Trustees.

There is clearly a need for a serious investigation as to how this appointment was made and how similar appointments can be avoided in the future. Such action will be supported by all those who love Notre Dame and want it to be an unambiguously pro-life institution."

Speech from Alumni Reunion Weekend

2011-06-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

“LIFE MATTERS, THE ROXANNE MARTINO CASE, AND THE CATHOLIC CHARACTER OF NOTRE DAME.”

BILL MISCAMBLE, C.S.C.

Presented at the PROJECT SYCAMORE BREAKFAST, JUNE 4, 2011

(A shorter version of this talk was also presented as part of a panel on “The Catholic Identity, Character, and Mission of Notre Dame,” as part of Notre Dame Alumni Association’s Reunion Weekend Program, with John Cavadini, Gary Anderson and Sr. Ann Astell, June 4, 2011.)

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.

I want to thank each one of you for coming to this breakfast, and more especially for your love and interest in Notre Dame and its future.

I want to give special thanks to Bill Dempsey and Project Sycamore for hosting us this morning.

I’m not sure how many of you are regular subscribers to the Project Sycamore bulletins, but I’m sure that those of you who are would readily agree with me as to the important role which Bill Dempsey and his colleagues are playing in forcing serious discussion about the present circumstance and future direction of the University we love.

Indeed Project Sycamore plays an enormously important role in promoting the Catholic character and mission of Notre Dame. It provides a sustained and deeply thoughtful monitoring of developments. It works to influence Notre Dame for the good and it is greatly needed at this time.

Let me encourage any of you who may not have done so to take up the chance to subscribe to Project Sycamore and to receive its regular bulletins.

Friends, I want to offer a quick overview of some recent developments at Notre Dame and to give some evaluation of where we are as a Catholic university.

My colleague and friend, Prof. David Solomon, will speak as well and plans to address primarily matters associated with the Center for Ethics and Culture, which he heads, and also matters concerning the curriculum.

After we are both done I hope there will be plenty of time for questions and observations from you.

Let me at the outset make clear that there are many wonderful developments taking place at Notre Dame. Some good teaching occurs and good scholarship is undertaken. Some good hires are made. We benefit from such fine initiatives as the Alliance for Catholic Education. We are fortunate and privileged to have fine students attend and most benefit from their time here. The place looks great and even some of our sports teams are pretty successful -- let’s hear it for that fencing team and for women’s soccer and basketball. (Thank God for the women!)

I first arrived here to begin graduate studies in 1976 and have been teaching here as a priest in Holy Cross for a quarter century. It is hard for me to imagine teaching anywhere else.

Now, you know well that the Notre Dame public relations machine is excellent at producing expensive visual presentations, all kinds of engaging website material and glossy brochures to propagate the most positive spin on things around the place.

--Some folk here seem to think it inappropriate if one does not simply join the P.R. cheerleading squad and read from the “frequently asked questions” sheet [known as the UND NIGHT FAQs] prepared for speakers who hit the road for Universal Notre Dame Night presentations.

-- But I see my responsibility differently. I actually believe in the intelligence of Notre Dame alums and their spouses––and don’t think you should have to settle for canned answers. I have taught some great students over the years and I feel confident they can handle the reality of our circumstance. I feel the same about each of you.

I draw some inspiration for my remarks today from a story told about my favorite American president––Harry S. Truman. The story is told by Bill Moyers who served as an aide to LBJ. It took place in Truman’s home on Delaware Avenue in Independence, Missouri in 1965.

QUOTING MOYERS:

LBJ brought a passel of his young aides, because he was insistent that we would meet Harry Truman. We were in a circle in what was the dining room of his house. And LBJ brought Harry Truman around and had every one of the aides shake his hands and introduced us each by name.

As we were leaving, Harry Truman said: “Boys, you take care of the president.”

And somebody said, “he can take care of himself.”

Truman said, “Boys let me tell you what I mean. Since the president won the largest plurality in American political history last fall he’s going to say, “2+2 is five isn’t it?” And everyone in the room is going to say: “yes, Mr. President 2+2 is five.”

And he’s going to say, ‘the sun comes up in the West, right?’ And everyone’s going to say, “yes, Mr. President, the sun comes up in the West.”

And he’s going to say: “I don’t have to put my pants on one leg at a time do I?” And everyone in the room’s going to say, “No, Mr. President, you don’t have to put your pants on one leg at a time.”

And your job, boys is to tell the president, “2+2 is still four, the sun still comes up in the East, and we don’t care how you put your pants on, but your fly is unzipped.”

Let me try to talk to you plainly and directly about recent developments here.

Forgive the brevity with which I pass over events – but our time is relatively short.

It is just over two years ago since the May 2009 commencement at which Notre Dame honored Pres. Barack Obama, a politician deeply committed to the abortion regime that prevails in the United States today. This was in many ways a sad event. As you may recall the visit brought forth criticism of the country’s leading Catholic University from over 80 bishops, from literally thousands of Notre Dame alums and from hundreds of thousands of committed Catholic folk who love Notre Dame and expected more from her.

My purpose here is not to rehash the Obama visit in any detail but to use it as my point of departure and to review what has happened subsequently at Notre Dame.

The Obama visit was explained and defended by Fr. John Jenkins, the president, and by Richard Notebaert, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, as an exercise in “dialogue.” This was misleading, of course. There was no two-way exchange of views at any time. It is a sad exercise in obfuscation to suggest so -- rather like saying that “2+2 equals five.” But it is not the only occasion they have engaged in such behavior, as we shall see.

On one level the visit of Pres. Obama was a “success” for Notre Dame––great visuals, cheering crowds on the actual day etc., but the picture is a more complicated one as we know.

The visit put Notre Dame at odds in a very direct way with the local bishop––then Bishop John D’Arcy. It strained the University’s relationship with the institutional Church. I think it fair to say that it was a source of scandal for some.

The Notre Dame administration was surprised by the extent of the negative reaction––however much they might deny that. They had given out a very mixed moral message on the life issue. Indeed, they had chosen “prestige over truth” to use the words of Bishop D’Arcy. Far from being able to celebrate the Obama visit, the administration was pushed into the work of damage limitation, at least to some degree.

DAMAGE LIMITATION

Perhaps we should take some heart from the fact that the Notre Dame administration was pushed into damage limitation mode. Sadly the pressure to do so did not really come from within the university––

––certainly not from the faculty;

––not it would appear from the trustees;

––and not, I regret to say, from the Holy Cross community.

No, it was ND alumni and friends as well as the sense that Notre Dame’s reputation and credibility as a Catholic university had been hurt and was in need of repair.

Of course, there was no indication of regret. There was no apology to Bishop D’Arcy––who is now retired and been replaced by Bishop Kevin Rhoades. Yet, there is surprisingly little mention of the event in administration publicity. In fact there is a certain downplaying of it. What received more attention were worthy initiatives to strengthen Notre Dame’s pro-life credentials.

Curiously, there was enormous room for the Notre Dame administration to act in this area, for there was little of substance to demonstrate the reality of Fr. Jenkins oft-given assurance that Notre Dame was “unambiguously prolife.”

Indeed, we might see it as a measure of the secularization of Catholic universities generally that they have clearly distanced themselves from pro-life endeavors. Instead of being institutional bastions of support and sustenance for the pro-life movement they often seem to be embarrassed to be associated with the most important moral cause of our time. (Such a pro-life course, my friends, is just not the way you impress the New York Times and your preferred peer institutions out there on the East Coast.)

Nonetheless, Fr. Jenkins took some actions:

1. He set up the Notre Dame task force on supporting the choice for life––which was chaired by John Cavadini (theology) and Peg Brinig (law). This group worked hard and produced two valuable statements:–

A. An institutional statement supporting the choice for life––which indicated the University’s commitment to the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death;

B. and the University of Notre Dame’s statement of principles for institutional charitable activity.

There were other positive developments:

––Fr. Jenkins and a considerably larger faculty group participated in the March for life in both 2010 and 2011;

––Fr. Jenkins quietly resigned from the Millennium Promise Board (One should note that Fr. Hesburgh had never resigned from the board of the Rockefeller Foundation despite its extensive support of population control measures throughout the Third World.)

––the Office of Life Initiatives was established and Mary Daly was appointed to staff it;

--and I am very glad to report that the Alumni Association has appointed a Life Initiatives Coordinator to liaise with Clubs and assist and support their endeavors. I hope Alums will benefit greatly from the efforts of Beth Bubik.)

––a firm commitment was made not to engage in embryonic stem cell research.

Let us be grateful for these measures. They were at least something but we should not overstate them.

The main pro-life efforts on campus continued to be those pushed by the students in Notre Dame Right to Life and by those faculty most closely associated with the Center for Ethics and Culture, certain terrific folk in the Law School, and the Faculty for Life group.

Speaking for myself, I would say the central administration did what they felt was required but little more. Certainly there was no generosity of spirit towards the ND 88––indeed quite the opposite.

There could be and there must be a much stronger effort to support and sustain the pro-life cause at Notre Dame. We should proudly see ourselves as the institution that will train a new generation of pro-life leaders.

--There must be strong institutional support for PROJECT GUADALUPE -- the effort led by Prof. David Solomon and the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life to equip young folk well to engage effectively in the pro-life struggle.

There are many other ways in which Notre Dame could further demonstrate its deep commitment to the pro-life cause. At a minimum we should assure that our students leave Notre Dame more likely to be pro-life than when they enter, which is not the case now. (Perhaps the institution could gift them with a copy of John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae and encourage them to read it and discuss it.)

Most certainly the institution should do something more to support pregnant students in need – and not just ND students but young women from other Colleges just as is being done through the “Room at the Inn” organization associated with Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Friends, we all know that there is much more that Notre Dame can do if there is the desire and commitment to do so.

But is there that desire and commitment? Is there a real and deeply felt need to demonstrate that Notre Dame is unambiguously pro-life?

Recent events would suggest otherwise.

The Roxanne Martino Case

Some of you would be very familiar with the case from reading the informative Project Sycamore bulletins and forceful pieces written by the Wall Street Journal columnist, Bill McGurn.

The basic details are these. The Fellows of Notre Dame have elected to the Board of Trustees, Roxanne Martino, a Chicago businesswoman and ND alumna, who has given over $25,000 to the pro-abortion Political Action Committee, Emily’s List. Her most recent donation was $5,000 made last December. [This is apparently the maximum amount permitted.]

Mr. Notebaert and Fr. Jenkins have sought to defend Mrs. Martino. They assert that Mrs. Martino (who, by the way, handles other people’s investments) was simply unaware of the purposes of Emily’s List to which she donated over a ten-year period. They are seeking to mount an “ignorance defense “ on behalf of Mrs. Martino claiming that she did not know that Emily’s list took a pro-choice position.

I suspect they must think that Notre Dame graduates are idiots and morons who will simply accept this and move on to worrying about next football season. Perhaps they think that saying “2 + 2 equals five” will really make it so. Their dissembling is an embarrassment to our university. That the leaders of Notre Dame are seeking to defend such an appointment is simply a disgrace and it must be named as such.

Clearly a mistake was made in vetting Mrs Martino. Certainly I know from a CSC member of the Fellows that they had no knowledge of Mrs. Martino’s history of giving to Emily’s list when they voted in her favor.

But I ask you––would an “unambiguously pro-life” institution seek to defend this appointment.?

And that “defense” is becoming increasingly more difficult. Today (June 4), a report reveals that “Ms. Martino gave to another group solely dedicated to advancing abortion rights: the Illinois state Personal Pac. Like Emily’s List, this group makes no secret of its agenda, stating up front across the top of its home page: ‘Vital to Electing a Pro-choice Illinois.’” As Bill McGurn has noted: “This new information makes the official spin that Emily’s List was an accident much harder to swallow.”

Surely, there should have been a quick and honest admission of a mistake and a request for Mrs. Martino to stand down. Surely she herself should be genuinely troubled at having given substantial money to Emily’s List? (Hopefully, she might take some actions in subsequent years to demonstrate the depths of her acceptance of Catholic teaching on respect for every human life and compensate for her sad track record of generosity to an organization that promotes and defends one of the most liberal abortion regimes in the world.) Mrs Martino, however, should not set policies and the broad direction of Notre Dame!!

In many ways this matter is more important than the Obama fiasco for what it means about the future direction of Notre Dame and for what it tells us about those who lead our university.

Already the case has raised for me substantial questions about the suitability of Mr. Notebaert to lead our Board.

--He has emerged as the main defender of Mrs. Martino and seems to have supplanted Fr. Jenkins in determining university policy on the matter. If he can’t understand the damage that an appointment like this does to Notre Dame’s credibility and reputation as a Catholic University then his credentials and capabilities to lead the Board must surely be questioned.

Regrettably, the six Holy Cross fellows seem ready to acquiesce in Mr. Notebaert’s decisions. This has not been in episode in which Holy Cross has sought to lead. I know this disappoints many of you who expect more of the Order.

(I can only say as someone who served as Rector of Moreau Seminary some years ago that there are some among the younger Holy Cross priests who see the matter differently. They wish to be explicit in their loyalty to the Church and they understand that loyalty to Christ is integrally related to commitment in his Church. I hope and pray they will have the chance to exercise some influence in this place.)

A Catholic University at its Heart

In the end, for Notre Dame to be unambiguously pro-life it will have to be very clear that it wants to be a Catholic university at its heart and not just at the periphery.

Notre Dame must clarify well what is the foundational document that guides its present course and its future direction.

Mr. Notebaert seems to think that the Land O’Lakes Statement with its strictures for complete institutional autonomy from the Church should serve this role. This is a disastrous course and one that pushes us further down the road to the marginalization of religion and ultimately to secularization. It is a course that asks us to ape and mirror the secular schools that lie ahead of us in the U.S. New and World Report rankings. (So, we must strive hard to match Northwestern at what it does and so forth.)

The alternate course is the one offered by John Paul II’ s Ex Corde Ecclesiae and which is already incorporated into Notre Dame’s Mission Statement. Thus, our mission statement reads:

“a Catholic university draws it’s a basic inspiration from Jesus Christ as the source of wisdom and from the conviction that in him all things can be brought to their completion. As a Catholic university, Notre Dame wishes to contribute to this educational mission.”

The debate between these two versions is occurring right now. How this contest gets worked out in practice will determine the long-term direction of Notre Dame.

Will we merely settle for a Catholic “gloss” on or around Notre Dame.––this is what my colleague Fred Freddoso from Philosophy was getting at when he suggested that Notre Dame might be willing to be “a public school in a Catholic neighborhood.”

There would still be the beautiful Basilica, perhaps even chapels in the dorms, touchdown Jesus, the Lady on the Dome, and a couple of old priests drooling in their rocking chairs on the Corby Hall porch. But the central academic project would not be guided by Catholic principles or by the call of Christ.

Dear alumni friends—please don’t allow the university to settle for this. There are enormous issues at stake and I ask you to keep track of two essential areas and they are related.

The first is what is taught and how. This is the whole area of curriculum. Will Notre Dame provide a distinct Catholic education which offers not only intellectual but moral and spiritual formation? Can Notre Dame provide an education that aides folk to be not only smart but good? Can it be a place where young men and women of our day can come and ask: “Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?” and not be laughed at and dismissed? (JP II Veritatis Splendor)

The second is of course, who teaches here––will we have faculty (Catholics and non-Catholics alike) who are supportive of the broad and distinct mission of Notre Dame?

I will be glad to address these issues in our question and answer session. They are essential matters -- faculty hiring and the content of the curriculum.

But, let me beseech you again to stay involved with Notre Dame. Some folk occasionally get so disappointed with the school that they want to break ties with it. This is a foolish course and a recipe for defeat for all that is best at Notre Dame.

Yet, you must recognize well that the pressures to simply conform to the reigning secular education model are strong. Many here want to be recognized by the American Association of Universities and so forth. They want the esteem and regard of the leaders in American higher education.

But friend, there are already plenty of schools where intellect has managed to detach itself from morality -- places like Princeton where Professor Peter Singer holds an endowed chair and yet thinks it is okay to kill babies. Is this the model we want to conform to and imitate?

Rather, would you not have Notre Dame be the place that unabashedly pursues the truth in these challenging times for both the church and society – and we know how challenging they are and have been.

Shouldn’t it strive to be “different” – to be a place where Faith and reason “are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of the truth.” (JP II -- Fides et Ratio)

Would you not rather that Notre Dame be the place that resisted the vain temptation to gain the whole world at the expense of its soul?

Thank you.

The ND 88: Case Dismissed!

2011-05-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

The case has been dropped against the 88 individuals who protested President Obama two years ago at Notre Dame when he was commencement speaker. We are grateful the issue has finally been resolved. Under the agreement, the "ND 88," each of whom had been arrested in front of Notre Dame's main gates for protesting on private property without permission, agreed not to sue the University for damages and the University in return agreed to ask the prosecutor to dismiss the charges, which he promptly did.

Read the Notre Dame press release, the Thomas More Society press release, and the agreement between Notre Dame and the Thomas More Society for more information.

Planned Parenthood De-Funded in Indiana

2011-05-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Governor Mitch Daniels has signed into law a bill that goes farther to protect unborn life in the state of Indiana since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in America. He signed the bill on Tuesday, and on Wednesday a court denied Planned Parenthood's request for an emergency injunction and restraining order against it going into effect. The bill cuts off funding to clinics whose services include abortion, and it bans abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy except in cases of substantial threat to the life of the mother. Indiana Right to Life President Michael Fichter said, "Governor Daniels has now established Indiana as one of the leading pro-life states in the nation." Read more from the Huffington Post here.

Indiana governor to sign substantial pro-life bill

2011-05-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Indiana House Bill 1210 has successfully passed the House and is going to Governor Mitch Daniels, who is intending to sign it into law. The Bill includes the most substantial pro-life legislation that Indiana has seen since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States. It would ban abortions past the 20th week of pregnancy, require women considering abortion to receive full information about the affects of the procedure in writing, and de-fund Planned Parenthood and any other organizations that receive state tax money and provide abortions among their services. Planned Parenthood is threatening to sue. The Alliance Defense Fun have volunteered their services to Gov. Daniels should that come to pass. In response to Planned Parenthood's threats, Daniels said, “Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.” Read more here.

Archbishop Chaput lecture

2011-04-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

On April 8, the Notre Dame Right to Life student club sponsored the last lecture in its spring lecture series, given by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. Entitled "Politics and the Devil," he discussed the importance of advancing the right to life of the unborn within the full context of Catholic social teaching. An excerpt:

"The moral and political struggle we face today in defending human dignity is becoming more complex. I believe that abortion is the foundational human rights issue of our lifetime. We can’t simultaneously serve the poor and accept the legal killing of unborn children. We can’t build a just society, and at the same time, legally sanctify the destruction of generations of unborn human life. The rights of the poor and the rights of the unborn child flow from exactly the same human dignity guaranteed by the God who created us.
Of course, working to end abortion doesn’t absolve us from our obligations to the poor. It doesn’t excuse us from our duties to the disabled, the elderly and immigrants. In fact, it demands from us a much stronger commitment to materially support women who find themselves in a difficult pregnancy."

Click here to read the full address.

Religious persecution in China and France

2011-04-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

The New York Times today reported in separate stories on two cases of religious persecution this week, concerning headscarves in France and public prayer in China.

France's ban on headscarves that fully veil the face came into effect today, resulting in the detention of two women who protested at Notre Dame Cathedral. The law is expected to affect 2.000 women who were a naqib or burqa.

The Times reports, "As debate flared over the law last year, Jean-François Copé, the parliamentary leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, defended the bill on the grounds of public security and as an important assertion of French identity and values. Mr. Sarkozy himself has said, “The burqa is not welcome in France because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman’s dignity.”" Find the full article here.

In China, officials are cracking down on Christians who worship at non-state sanctioned churches. This weekend, 100 members of a Protestant house church were detained for praying in a public plaza in Beijing. The pastor of the church responded to the crackdown in his sermon: "At this time, the challenges we face are massive. For everything that we have faced, we offer our thanks to God. Compared with what you faced on the cross, what we face now is truly insignificant.” Read more here.

Chile's abortion ban results in low maternal mortality

2011-04-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

The Catholic News Agency reports that Chile just won an International Protect Life Award for having the lowest maternal mortality rate in Latin America. They attribute their good record to the fact that abortion is banned in Chile and to their supportive programming for women in crisis pregnancy situations. You can read the full story here.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the state of the Church in Ireland

2011-03-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

The ever eloquent and clear-sighted archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, recently delivered an address to Cambridge University on the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the radical transformation it is undergoing. The full address is available here. An excerpt:

"The paradoxical thing is that the farther the Church goes in adapting to the culture of the times, the greater is the danger that it will no longer be able to confront the culture of the time. It will only be able to speak the language of the culture of the day and not the radical newness of the message of the Gospel which transcends all cultures. It could become a type of civil religion, politically correct, but without the cutting edge of the Gospel. There is a difficult path to tread between a fundamentalism which would pretend that the Church can have its own answer to all questions and a lack of courage to take up positions which may be culturally unpopular. The conformism of the mid-twentieth century remained unchallenged because it had support. Every generation has to allow the Gospel to challenge conformism, even a conformism which calls itself progressive....

When I was received by the Pope on the occasion of the ad limina visit four years ago, I arrived well prepared with all my statistics and my analysis of the bright spots and the shadows of Catholicism in Dublin. I had statistics about priests, about institutions, about Mass attendance. After greeting me the Pope started the conversation immediately by asking me “where are the points of contact between the Church in Ireland and those areas where the future of Irish culture is being formed”. Instead of asking me about the number of parishes he quizzed me about the relationship between faith and universities, and media, as well as literature and the arts and the fundamental ethical issues on economy and society.

How can the Church in Ireland better foster interaction between faith and culture? The Church has an undoubtedly a contribution to the improvement of society. But that contribution cannot simply be that of being just a political commentator. The principal contribution of Church institutions in an increasingly secular society is, as Pope Benedict noted in an interview of some years ago, “to witness to God in a world that has problems finding Him… and to make God visible in the human face of Jesus Christ, to offer people access to the source without which our morale becomes sterile and loses its point of reference.”"

Winter 2011 Newsletter now posted

2011-03-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Our Winter 2011 Newsletter, Ethics & Culture, is now available on our website here. Read all about our Fall 2010 semester events!

An Interview with Matt Levering

2011-03-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Our 2006-2007 Myser Fellow, Matt Levering, recently gave an interview to the blog Vox Nova. He reflects on the vocation of a Catholic theologian, the relationship between academic theology and popular apologetics, and his forthcoming book on predestination.

An excerpt:
"...the development of doctrine is not the theologian’s first task, and is not something that a theologian sets out at first to do. The situation at present requires emphasizing this point even more. The task of contemplating and handing on the faith is the central labor of the theologian. Only in this way can a sense of revealed truth be retained."

Read the full interview here.

The Revolution of Solid Love in Argentina

2011-03-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

One of the most remarkable developments in student culture in recent years has been the revival among small and energetic groups of students of an enthusiasm for traditional conceptions of human sexuality. These groups rely for the most part on arguments rooted in human reason and the social sciences, eschewing what some regard as the narrower theological reasons to which one might expect them to appeal. Princeton’s Anscombe Society, founded in 2005, was among the first such student groups, but the interest in forming similar groups has spread to a number of universities across the country, including Notre Dame.

The movement now shows signs of going international with student interest popping up in Europe and South America. Ignacio Ibarzabal, a 25 year old Argentine lawyer and a very good friend of the Center, is one of the leaders of the movement in Argentina. He is the founder and Executive Director of Grupo Sólido, an NGO that is leading the so called "solid love revolution" among young people in Latin America. After studying part of his career in Rome, he graduated at Austral University, Argentina, where he is assistant lecturer of Civil and Family Law. He also worked at the Buenos Aires City Government and served as an advisor to a national congressman.

Ignacio published an opinion piece in La Nacion—the most important newspaper in Argentina—on February 8^th of this year describing the goals of Grupo Solido. With Ignacio’s permission we are posting a translation of his very interesting article. Here at the Center for Ethics and Culture we have a file for pieces like this. It is labeled “Very Good News.”

The uprising of solid love

Ignacio Ibarzábal

For LA NACION

Tuesday February 8th, 2011 | Published in the printed edition

Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish sociologist, has achieved great editorial success describing our “liquid” society. On his book “Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds”, he captures the postmodern outlook regarding relationships: In these days, bonds among people are fragile, weak, almost ethereal.

Liquid love is the legacy we inherited from the sexual revolution. And while adults may believe that young people comfortably swim in its waters, many of us are filled with dissatisfaction. In fact, a reaction is about to start.

In the past few years, everywhere around the world we have seen young-led initiatives coming up against the manipulation of sexuality. The stronger movement sprouted in the United States. It started in February 2005 at Princeton University with the launching of the Anscombe Society. This society has gathered a group of students that—as Ryan T. Anderson, one of its founders, reports—were tired of the dehumanizing campus culture, and hoped to point to an alternative, a better way of celebrating human sexuality. The news spread rapidly, and the model was quickly mirrored on other campuses. Today we have similar groups in more than 30 universities and a new organization, the Love and Fidelity Network, has been created just to furnish resources and training to help these students to articulate and promote their values in the midst of hostile environments. In fact, similar groups are appearing all over the world, including here in Argentina.

All these young people agree on a common set of ideas, unbeknownst today for too many adults. They believe sexuality is a human dimension to be celebrated. It should never be repressed, but it cannot be either reduced to the use of a partner as a means of pleasure. In this light abstinence acquires meaning and marriage stands out as an act of fundamental freedom that qualitatively enhances the ability to love. These youngsters—the first massive generation of children born from divorced parents–—see the family as a source of unconditional love, as a support for a healthy development of personality, and as a cradle of proactive and responsible citizens.

The vital notion is that sexuality is where love flows naturally and that sexuality without true love cannot fulfill the hopes and aspirations of human beings.

Nevertheless, the radical novelty is that these groups do not rely on theological reasons, but rather on human sciences. Which is why they dare to challenge and counter argue the dominant discourse of academia.

An inattentive observer could claim that this vision contradicts facts. That the hook up culture, the fall of marriage rates, and the increase of divorces are unequivocal proofs that young adults are indeed liquid.

And he would be partially right. But he will miss the point that social changes are the consequence of creative minorities and not of passive majorities. And these young minorities are longing for an uprise. They no longer face a family authority against to which rebel, not even a sexual ethic to mock at. Today we can only rebel against licentiousness, disorientation and the pain arisen from what Erich Fromm called separateness. Will we let this opportunity go by?

We stand at the crossroads. Writers and academics continue to fill novels and papers with ink that smells of May 1968; sympathetic governments impose those ideas through public policies; and a legion of journalists, inspired by such breeze of uniformity, believe to be the carriers of the latest news while reporting the ultimate sigh of a revolution that already smells like naphthalene.

But while the crowd looks at the domes of universities, governments and media, outside those walls new ideas are being born and a counter-reformation is being prepared. When everybody stares amazed at the achievements of the so called sexual freedom, a more attractive freedom settles down in the heart of thousands of young people. And it settles, with the tenacity that arises from the consciousness of being unfairly censored by political correctness.

Far from winning the cultural war, the sexual revolution has begun to realize that its age is coming to an end, and while at the time it enjoys the rewards earned in the battles of the past, it faces the defeats which are the source of its future extinction. We, young people who were not even born in the sixties nor in the seventies feel tired when adults that were once our age—and alas, they have now become old—put in our mouths words that no longer can be theirs.

So, while Simone de Beauvoir lies in her deathbed with a smile, contemplating tons of news and thousands of laws putting her ideas into practice, some of the children still unborn are already imagining a different culture. Be sure that they will reap new public policies from the seeds sown by the young people of today, who with the force of their reasons, are already attracting hearts to participate in a new revolution: the revolution of the faithful, true, responsible love. The revolution of solid love.

A Stripper, Her Doctor, and the Case for Virtue Ethics

2011-03-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

In the latest edition of the Irish Rover, Notre Dame's independent student newspaper, you can find a column by our Events Planning Coordinator, Greer Hannan, who is also the Executive Editor Emerita of the Rover:

"A Stripper, Her Doctor, and the Case for Virtue Ethics"
by Andrew Haynes ND '09, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
and Greer Hannan ND '09, Executive Editor Emerita

You’re a hot-shot doctor. (Don’t worry, pre-meds, you’ll make it eventually.) Jill, a 19-year-old young lady, comes to the hospital. Despite being only somewhat conscious and slightly delusional, she is complaining about a sharp pain on her lower right side. After a few tests, you diagnose perforated appendicitis. Her appendix has torn from the growing inflammation, and the infection has started to spread throughout her body. Left alone, Jill will probably die. Yet new forms of minimally-invasive, low-risk laparoscopic surgery mean you can help. An emergency surgery can save Jill’s life, leaving her with only a small scar.

Unfortunately, you have not had a meaningful conversation with Jill because of her confusion. Whenever you get close to her bed, she pushes you away and refuses any treatment. She clearly doesn’t understand what is going on. Wanting to help, you wonder whether you should perform the surgery despite her apparent refusal.

Living in a society dedicated to personal autonomy, you understand that liberty rules the public sphere, and medicine is no exception. You are obligated to respect Jill’s wishes unless you determine that she lacks the capacity to make decisions. Fortunately, you remember back to your ethics training. To have “capacity,” the patient must (1) understand the facts of the situation, (2) appreciate the significance of the decision and the risks involved, (3) rationally weigh the options, and (4) communicate a decision based on that reasoning.

You go back into Jill’s room and decide that she fails all four parts of this “decisional capacity” metric. Jill cannot communicate a choice, let alone understand the situation, reason through options, or appreciate the significance of the risks. Because it is an emergency situation, you perform the surgery.

She recovers in three days and thanks you profusely.

The following week, you find yourself in a shockingly similar situation. Jane, also 19, comes to the hospital with the same complaint. Her diagnosis is identical. Fortunately, Jane is lucid and able to communicate. You recommend surgery. To your surprise, Jane tells you that she is in the adult entertainment business, an erotic dancer, and refuses any treatment that will give her a scar.

Unable to convince her, you ask for help. Her nurses, a psychiatrist, and the ethics committee of the hospital all intervene to no avail. The stalemate continues. Jane clearly understands her situation, including the simplicity of the procedure and the small size of the scar. She rationally argues, in multiple conversations, that her physical image and her dancing career are so important that she prefers the risk of refusing surgery.

No scars, she says.

You understand that you cannot perform the surgery against her will, even though you feel it would be in her own best interest. You back down, give her antibiotics, and hope for the best. Tragically, she dies the next day. [Jane’s story represents a real case from a large Midwestern hospital.]

Was the best moral conclusion reached? Certainly not. Yet although the conclusion was tragic, Jane’s right to liberty and self-determination prohibit her doctors from paternalistically performing a forced surgery that would have lead to a better outcome. The US Supreme Court has affirmed the rights of informed refusal in cases like Jane’s: Forced medical treatment legally constitutes battery.

On the other hand, Jane’s conception of her own human good is obviously stunted, leaving her with a half-baked moral system in which she wrongly values her physical appearance and her career over her life. Because she is not morally well-formed, Jane is not fully equipped to make medical decisions about her welfare, even though she fulfills the four criteria for decisional capacity. Weighing the benefits of alternative choices requires both a good system of values and a clear vision of how those values contribute to a flourishing life.

In our society, we raise our children to listen to the dictates of their consciences. Generally, they know what is right and what is wrong. We do not, however, teach them to question how their consciences have been formed or how their moral principles contribute to a good and happy life. As a result, our children grow to become people who have lists of moral principles in their heads, but no systematic understanding of how to balance them or what grounds their values.

Catastrophic situations, such as serious medical crises, can cause us to question our long-held moral precepts and values: Is life still worth living if a certain quality of life has been lost? With only a list of moral principles, and no systematic understanding of the sort of flourishing to which those principles are intended to contribute, we are stuck. We are left unable to determine which principles should be privileged when they come into direct conflict.

Virtue ethics provides one such systematic understanding of the good life and how to attain happiness. It emphasizes the appropriation of the virtues rather than adherence to lists of precepts. Virtue ethics presents a conception of the good life as one in which moral principles are so deeply internalized that they determine one’s whole posture toward life. Living justly and temperately becomes a matter of habit because one’s desires and sympathies have become ordered to a life of virtue by reason and acculturation.

As Will Durant once summarized Aristotle’s understanding of virtue, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” The formation of good habits requires rigorous discipline, much like the repetition of athletic training. Raising our children this way will at first look like the training of Pavlov’s dog, but it will not be complete until it has lead them to careful reflection on what the good life for man is and how the virtues contribute to it, individually and in concert.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that these debates are just for philosophers and doctors. It is likely that you will be faced with a difficult decision about critical medical care either for yourself or for a loved one whose wishes are unclear. More crucially, Jane and Jill had parents; parents who, in Jill’s case, formed in her a rightly-ordered attitude to life so that she could express gratitude for a surgery she was incapacitated to choose. Jane’s moral formation went tragically wrong; her lack of the virtues and of a well-formed conception of human flourishing cost her her life. How are you going to raise your children?

Andrew is a second year medical student at Northwestern and Greer is the Events Planning Coordinator at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. They can credit the back roads of Ireland for their friendship. There are some things you can’t go through together without becoming the greatest of friends: breaking your arm cycling through Co. Kerry is one of them.

An Interview with Dr. Bernard Nathanson

2011-03-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist, who once ran the world's largest abortion clinic before converting to a pro-life commitment and being baptized in the Catholic Church, died last week at the age of 85. He is now remembered for his pro-life advocacy, particularly in producing and narrating The Silent Scream, a documentary of the abortion of an 11-week old unborn child. An interview he gave in 2008 is now available here. An excerpt:

"I didn’t always look for the truth. It’s only been the latter part of my life which I have spent looking for the truth. I spent the first half of my life being driven by hedonistic motives. Then I changed. Philosophy is the search for the truth. The truth lies at the bottom of a bottomless pit. It seems that truth is not absolute, as if ‘my truth is not your truth’. But there is a profound and eternal truth: life itself."

UK physicians to advice women that abortion is safer than delivery

2011-02-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

The Telegraph reports today that new guidelines drawn up by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists instruct U.K. physicians advising women who are considering abortion to explain to them that abortion is safer for them than carrying their baby to term. Physicians are also to tell women that psychological harm following an abortion is unlikely, and there is no proven connection between electing an abortion and mental ill health. According to The Telegraph, "Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems....Speaking in a personal capacity, Prof Patricia Casey, a consultant psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The message this sends out is very worrying. There are more than 30 studies showing an association between psychological trauma and abortion.”"

Read the full story here.

Billboard in NYC stirs debate

2011-02-25T07:48:00.000-08:00

A billboard in SoHo, situated a half a mile from a Planned Parenthood center, has sparked angry debate in New York. It depicts an African-American toddler in a pink sundress under the words "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb." The claim is related to the recently published statistics about abortion in New York City, where three out of every five pregnancies by African American women are terminated with elective abortion. The billboard is sponsored by Life Always, an advocacy group in Texas that plans to bring the billboard to other cities as well, but started with New York to coincide with Black History Month.

City Council member Christine C. Quinn was quoted in the New York Times, expressing the anger that many feel about the billboard: "To refer to a woman’s legal right to an abortion as a ‘genocidal plot’ [as Rev. Michael J. Faulkner, of the New Horizon Church in Harlem, did] is not only absurd, but it is offensive to women and to communities of color. Every woman deserves the right to make health care decisions for herself, and I will continue to fight to protect this basic right and against this sort of fear mongering." Ms Quinn apparently does not look upon herself as a defender of the rights unborn women in the womb have to good health care and eventual moral autonomy.

To those upset by the billboard in New York City, we must answer with the great novelist Walker Percy in his 1981 letter to the New York Times, "To the pro-abortionists: according to the opinion polls, it looks as if you may get your way. But you're not going to have it both ways. You're going to be told what you're doing."

You can read the full Times account of the controversy here.

RIP, Kurt Pritzl of Catholic University of America

2011-02-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

The Rev. Dr. Kurt J. Pritzl, O.P., Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Philosophy, died at about 9:45 p.m. on Monday, February 21, owing to complications from the cancer diagnosed almost three years ago.
Father Pritzl was a great friend to many of us in the Center and an adviser to the Center from its earliest days. He participated in our events frequently and came to our aid on a number of occasions when his advice and assistance were crucial the the success of our endeavors. He has played a vital role in the world of Catholic philosophy for over two decades, shaping the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, playing a leading role in the training of the next generation of Catholic philosophers, and working effectively in the movement to reinvigorate Thomism in philosophy. He was a model of the Catholic intellectual. He will be sorely missed by all of us. You may read the memorial notice at CUA here: http://philosophy.cua.edu/

Requiescat in pace.

Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Notre Dame

2011-02-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

This week is Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Notre Dame, featuring events every day to make everyone on campus more aware that sexual violence does occur on our campus and its victims are members of our student body. Sadly, this week the Chicago Tribune has reported another incident in which parents of a St. Mary's College student are upset with Notre Dame police that their daughter's report of a sexual assault perpetrated by a Notre Dame student was not given more careful attention when it occurred in September. The report that has recently come to light was filed shortly after Lizzy Seeberg's own report, the St. Mary's student who tragically committed suicide in September after police action on a sexual assault report she filed was delayed.

Last week the Notre Dame and St. Mary's College Observer reported that the U.S. Department of Education has made Notre Dame the subject of a federal review into the University's procedures and policies related to sexual assault complaints. University spokesperson Dennis Brown claims that the investigation is "unrelated to any specific cases" of sexual assault reported this year. While that may or may not be true, Notre Dame's independent student newspaper, The Irish Rover, highlighted in its issue this week that "Among colleges and universities in Indiana, Notre Dame ranks second only to Indiana University at Bloomington in the number of forced sexual assaults on campus." Phillip Johnson, director of Notre Dame's police force, has confirmed this sad statistic.

During Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Notre Dame, please pray with us that our campus can come to more fully embody our commitment to the dignity of human persons, not just in our policies and procedures, but in the actions of every member of our community and of the administration that seeks to care for its students' pastoral needs.

Is it so nutty to point out abortion rates of African American and Hispanic babies?

2011-02-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Linda Greenhouse in the New York Times claimed on Thursday that "there has been a lot of nutty talk about abortion lately," castigating Ruben Diaz for his remarks highlighting the racial disparity in the abortion rate in New York City, where 41% of all pregnancies end in abortion. The National Review Online has published Diaz's response.

An excerpt:
"New York City’s Department of Vital Statistics show that out of every 100 pregnancies, 41 babies are aborted. Forty-nine percent of Hispanic babies are aborted, and 59.8 percent of Black babies are aborted....It’s hard to imagine how anyone would consider me or any pro-lifer “nutty” for stating what these statistics show: Abortion in New York City IS racial genocide."

Read the full response here.

ND law grad, causing a ruckus in VA

2011-02-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

From the Notre Dame Law School news page, an article about Anna Franzonello, '09 J.D., a former graduate student assistant at the Center for Ethics and Culture:

"Americans United for Life staff attorney and Notre Dame law grad Anna Franzonello, ’09 J.D., testified before the Virginia Senate Committee on Education and Health February 9 to present the AUL’s view that Virginia should “opt out” of President Obama’s Health Care Law. (Click here to read a newspaper account of the hearing.)

Later that day Ms. Franzonello led a news conference to discuss the significance of the recently released undercover videotape that features a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute seeking abortion and contraceptive counseling at a Virginia Planned Parenthood clinic. (Click here to read an Associated Press story at the CBS News website.)

Franzonello was the subject of a Student Spotlight while studying law at Notre Dame and you can click here to read about her law school experience."

RIP, Ernan McMullin, former chair of Notre Dame Philosophy Department

2011-02-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

From Michael Garvey, Notre Dame Newswire:

Rev. Ernan McMullin, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, died yesterday (Feb. 8) at Letterkenny General Hospital in Donegal, Ireland. He was 86 years old.
A native of Ballybofey, Donegal, Father McMullin was an internationally prominent scholar in the philosophy of science. He studied physics at the National University of Ireland under the Nobel laureate Erwin Schroedinger and theology at Maynooth College before being ordained a priest in 1949 and receiving his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Louvain in 1954. He joined the Notre Dame faculty the same year, and for the next half century explained that decision by praising the then-new president who had recruited him. “Father Ted Hesburgh could charm a bird out of a tree,” he would say.

At Notre Dame, Father McMullin chaired the philosophy department from 1965 to 1972 and served as director of the history and philosophy of science program and of the Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Human Values before retiring in 1994, continuing to teach on the graduate level until 2003. For the last seven years, he had lived both in St. Paul, Minn., and Donegal.

“Ernan McMullin was a good priest, a good philosopher and a good friend to generations of Notre Dame students and teachers,” said David Solomon, director of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture. “One of the giants of Notre Dame, his thought and personality transformed and dominated the philosophy department for almost half a century. With Ernan’s death following so quickly on the death a year ago of Ralph McInerny and the recent retirement of Alasdair MacIntyre, the philosophy department will lose a certain Gaelic flavor. We will much miss the brilliant conversation, the personal charm and the profound philosophical insights of these three towering figures.”

Father McMullin wrote and lectured widely on subjects ranging from the relationship between cosmology and theology, to the role of values in understanding science, to the impact of Darwinism on Western religious thought. He also was an unrivalled expert on the life of Galileo.

The author of some 200 articles in scholarly and popular journals, Father McMullin also published 14 books including “The Concept of Matter,” “Galileo: Man of Science,” “Newton on Matter and Activity,” “The Inference That Makes Science,” and “The Church and Galileo.”

During his career, Father McMullin held visiting appointments at the University of Minnesota, the University of Cape Town, the University of California at Los Angeles, and Princeton and Yale Universities. He also served on numerous scholarly committees and congresses worldwide and is the only person ever to have been elected president of all the following professional organizations: the American Philosophical Association, the Philosophy of Science Association, the Metaphysical Society of America and the American Catholic Philosophical Association. His numerous awards included honorary degrees from Maynooth, the National University of Ireland, Loyola University in Chicago, Stonehill College, and Notre Dame.

Father McMullin’s formidable intellect and erudition were transcended by the warmth of his personality. From the remotest rows of a lecture hall or from a hundred yards across a campus quadrangle, a humorous twinkle in his eyes would often be strikingly visible. Many of his close friends were the developmentally disabled people of South Bend’s Friends of L’Arche community, of which he was an active member and supporter.
Father McMullin is survived by his sisters, Maire O’Donnell of Mountcharles, Donegal, and Ailis Malone of Vancouver, Wash.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Saturday (Feb. 12) at 11 a.m. at Saint Agatha’s Church, Clar, Donegal. The family requests that memorial donations be made to Down Syndrome Ireland; Citywest Business Park; Old Naas Road; Dublin 12, Ireland.

Mass celebrated in Tahrir Square in the midst of Egpytian political unrest

2011-02-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Mass was celebrated on Sunday in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's political unrest after weeks of protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Egypt's Coptic Christian community has faced discrimination under Mubarak's thirty-year rule, and terrorist bombings of their churches. On Sunday, Muslims stood in solidarity with the Christian worshipers, forming a protective ring around the perimeter of the square while Mass was celebrated. According to the Daily News, "On Friday, the holy day for Islam, Christian protesters in Tahrir Square joined hands to form a protective cordon around their Muslim countrymen so they could pray in safety. Sunday, the Muslims returned the favor. They surrounded Christians celebrating Mass in Cairo's central plaza, ground zero for the secular pro-democracy protests reverberating throughout the Middle East."

Read the full story of their witness to peace here.

Recent case exposes myth of "safe", legal, and rare abortion provision in Pennsylvania

2011-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

A corrupt Philadelphia physician has been charged with one count of murder and seven counts of infanticide for his performance of late-term abortions. Inducing labor in third-trimester mothers and then cutting the spinal chords of the babies they deliver is an illegal but sadly commonplace practice for late-term abortions; the scandal in this story lies in the conditions in which Dr. Kermit Gosnell carried out the procedures, which the grand jury has described as "third world." The criminal grand jury found that: "[He] regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels – and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it." Read the full Grand Jury Report here.

As Joseph Bottum of the Weekly Standard comments, "Pennsylvania may not be a third-world country, but its abortion mills—like those in most other states—really are reminiscent of one: free and independent entities, uniquely exempt from supervision and regulation, carved out from the rest of medicine. Every other kind of doctor is weighed down by record-keeping and inspection requirements. Abortionists alone are free. “Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has deliberately chosen not to enforce laws that should afford patients at abortion clinics the same safeguards and assurances of quality health care as patients of other medical service providers,” the Gosnell grand jury explained. “Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety.”... Many people knew what was going on at his Philadelphia clinic; several filed complaints with state and local agencies. But nothing was done, and at the time of his arrest, he hadn’t been visited by a medical examiner for 17 years. As the grand jury noted, with the change of governors in Pennsylvania in 1995—when the pro-abortion Tom Ridge replaced the pro-life Bob Casey—“the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all,” as “officials concluded that inspections would be ‘putting a barrier up to women’ seeking abortions.”"

You can read more about the gruesome case in Politics Daily or The Weekly Standard.

Happy Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas!

2011-01-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas! Here are our top ten suggested ways to celebrate:

10. Wear black and white
9. Begin all retorts with "Sed contra!"
8. Compliment deserving friends with "how angelically doctoral of you!"
7. Go to Mass
6. Resist the temptation to turn the oppositions' positions into straw men.
5. Transform common nouns into proper nouns to give your best friends nicknames employing some unorthodox capitalization (eg, "The Philosopher," "The Commentator," "The Theologian")
4. Enjoy your food and drink with gusto. But make sure the youngest are fed first.
3. Send a pack of whores packing
2. Begin all of your best arguments with a Patristics reference
1. Realize that, in the end, all of this is but straw.

What didn't make the news: the March for Life

2011-01-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

This blog may be called "Ethics and Culture in the News," but today it looks at something that didn't make it into the news- or, at least, into the mainstream media: the annual March for Life. As is its annual tradition, mainstream American network news channels and major newspapers simply ignored the demonstration in which tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Americans participated. Participants in the March for life walked from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., up Constitution Avenue, past the Capitol Building, to the Supreme Court, where 38 years ago the Court handed down the devastating Roe v. Wade ruling. the Washington Post was one of the few major newspapers to cover the March; you can read their article here. The online site News Busters covered the lack of coverage. An excerpt from their article:

"Neither NBC, ABC, nor CBS gave any coverage Monday to the march on their respective evening news programs; none of the networks covered the story Tuesday morning. The New York Times did not cover the story, as the MRC's blog "Times Watch" documented. The Washington Post, however, did provide a fair account of the rally in its Metro section....It's not as if the March was crowded out by weightier news developments. Among the stories featured on the broadcast news networks Monday evening and Tuesday morning included a 13-minute segment on the upcoming Academy Awards on CBS's "Early Show," over 20 minutes dedicated to the Oscar nominees on NBC's "Today," and segments on Oprah Winfrey re-uniting with her long-lost half-sister on national television."

The full article is available here.

To correct News Busters, the New York Times did make an 8-picture slide show of the March available on their website, but no article appeared in the paper.

John Paul the Great to be beatified!

2011-01-14T13:39:00.000-08:00

Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday, in the Vatican. The announcement follows the certification of a miracle attributed to him, the healing of a French nun from Parkinson's disease. Beatification is the last step before canonization, and bestows the title "Blessed" upon one whom the Church holds up as a model of holiness. Read the full story here.

First Anniversary of the Earthquake in Haiti

2011-01-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

One year after the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, very little progress has been made. The country still languishes in chaos and poverty. The Wall Street Journal diagnoses the reasons for discouragement. Although they do not put it in these terms, it seems that a major part of the problem is a lack of commitment to the principle of subsidiarity: with hundreds of international charities involved and rebuilding efforts that seem to purposely exclude involvement by Haitians, the people's needs are not being met, and the possibility of leading the rebuilding of their own country is not open to Haitians.

An excerpt: "Due to concerns about Haitian corruption, most of the money is handled by international agencies like the United Nations and charities rather than Haiti's government. Haitian officials say this means they have little control over the money, yet have to face an angry populace that demands progress....

Adding to a sense of dissatisfaction with reconstruction efforts, few reconstruction contracts handed out so far have gone to Haitian companies. Few charities are hiring Haitians, either. One non-profit coordinating refugee camp management for all humanitarian agencies said it's faster to build shelters with imported labor than Haitian workers. After protests from Haitians, a deal was struck to give 25% of the jobs to locals."

Read the full article here.

Controversy over Kidney Donation between Released Prisoners

2011-01-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

The New York Times reports today that two sisters imprisoned for a 1993 robbery have been released early on the condition that one donate her kidney to the other, who is suffering organ failure. Gladys Scott, 36, volunteered to give her kidney to Jamie Scott, 38. Controversy has arisen because in their early release from their double life sentences, Gov. Haley Barbour has required that Gladys Scott follow through with the promised kidney donation after release. Ethicists are questioning the governor's motives, who admits that in suspending their sentences rather than pardoning the women, his concern is to relieve Mississippi of the burden of Jamie's annual $200,000 dialysis bill. It is unclear who will pay for the kidney transplant, since the family does not have the means.

An excerpt:
"The kidney donation was the sisters’ idea, and is supported by the N.A.A.C.P. and other civil rights organizations. But the unusual nature of the arrangement has been criticized by some medical ethicists.

Legal experts said that suspending a prison sentence contingent on an organ donation is highly unusual and may be unprecedented.

Jamie Scott requires dialysis treatment at least three times a week, and her health has been failing during the past few months....

Gov. Barbour said he had acted in part out of concern over Jamie Scott’s health, but also to relieve the state of the cost of her dialysis treatment, approximately $200,000 a year.

“The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society,” Mr. Barbour said in a Dec. 29 statement. “Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state of Mississippi.”"

Read the full article here.

Study linking vaccination and autism retracted

2011-01-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

The scientific study that touched off a major vaccine scare in the late '90s has been officially retracted, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The British Medical Journal has concluded that the study was largely falsified. Despite this, its influence was deeply corrosive, resulting in thousands of children falling ill from measles/mumps/rubella because their parents feared that if they were given the standard vaccine they would develop autism. The study claimed to demonstrate a causal connection between receiving the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine and developing autism. All of the original co-authors of the study, except Dr. Andrew Wakefield of Britain, have retracted their original findings.

The article reports:

"The findings provoked a still-raging debate over vaccine safety and they prompted thousands of parents to forgo shots for their children. Measles outbreaks were subsequently reported in several Western countries. Several epidemiological studies conducted since the Wakefield paper by public health authorities haven't found any link between the vaccines and autism.

The Lancet withdrew the article in January of last year after concluding that "several elements" of the paper were incorrect. But the journal didn't describe any of the discrepancies as fraud. A British regulator stripped Dr. Wakefield of his medical license last May, citing "serious professional misconduct" in the way he handled the research."

The full article can be read here.

Unprecedented 10 Year Plan for Catechesis in Ireland Launched

2011-01-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

Today Ireland has launched a new ten-year plan to re-invigorate Catholic catechesis at all levels. The Catholic Church has fallen on hard times in Ireland, where the culture has undergone radical change in the last forty years, and where the clerical sexual abuse scandal was even more horrific than that faced by the United States. As a result, in a nation that was once overwhelmingly Catholic, weekly attendance at Mass has dropped off steeply and publicly defecting from the Catholic Church on websites such as countmeout.ie has become popular.

In Ireland, schools take the primary responsibility for catechesis, since theology, like Irish language, is a mandatory subject in the national schools at all levels (and an equally unpopular subject at that). This has been shown to be an ineffective approach; Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has charged that students leave school largely "theologically illiterate" even after years of catechesis in school. The new ten-year plan, presented in a document called "Share the Good News" is the first of its kind in Ireland, and it recognizes the need for a whole new approach to catechesis in Ireland, focusing on the family and the parish as the primary medium for catechesis, and calling for more lay volunteers to be involved. Archbishop Martin vividly illustrated the predicament of the Church in contemporary Ireland in his remarks following the publication of the new ten year plan:

"We can no longer assume faith on the part of young people who have attended catholic schools nor indeed young people who come from Catholic families. This is not to say that there is a lack of goodness and generosity and idealism among young people. This is not to say that in many there is not a search for deeper values and meaning in their lives.

The problem is that there is a growing undermining of religious sense in our culture. This religious sense will not arise automatically from within contemporary culture as was to a great extent the case in the past. There are aspects of our contemporary culture which can lead us all to deviate from a true religious sense. Even our liturgies can loose the sense of a transcendent God....

Our catechesis must assist people to enter into the religious sense in a culture in which it is increasingly absent. Without this, catechesis would only become indoctrination, and a catechesis of indoctrination does lead not to freedom but to fundamentalism. This is not just pre-catechesis; it is a much more necessary and fundamental pre-condition for the ability to understand the Gospel and it is something that was not necessary in the Ireland of the past....

Faith is a deeper matter; it is a matter of a deep encounter between the individual and God. Such an encounter cannot be forced on someone or pushed through like a hard sell. Evangelization is always counter cultural but not a-cultural. Culture must ne evangelized by men and women who live within that culture and who are contaminated by some negative aspects of that culture. Evangelization is about an encounter with the God who is totally other, but who became incarnate as one of us to enable us to know ourselves more fully and thus to find our true identity.

That faith finds it roots and nourishment in the faith community which is the Body of Christ, where Christ is active in our midst calling each of us to holiness, renewing his people as he did throughout human history through his faithful love."

The full text of his remarks can be found here.

Conditional grants program finds unprecedented success in Latin America

2011-01-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

The online edition of the New York Times today featured commentary on a program implemented in various forms in 14 Latin American countries and 26 other countries that uses conditional cash transfers to relieve extreme poverty in the present and to break the cycle of poverty for future generations. Poor families who traditionally suffer from malnutrition, disease, and whose children are forced to leave school early to work and support the family are seeing tangible improvements to their living conditions and better prospects for the health and education of their children. Each program functions differently, but the general approach they all take is to provide cash grants to families for ensuring that their children regularly attend school, medical check-ups, and parenting classes focusing on diet and nutrition. The families benefit immediately, but the program also helps the children end of the cycle of poverty through improved nutrition and education. The article reports impressive results:

"Children in Oportunidades [the program in Mexico] repeat fewer grades and stay in school longer. Child labor has dropped. In rural areas, the percentage of children entering middle school has risen 42 percent. High school inscription in rural areas has risen by a whopping 85 percent. The strongest effects on education are found in families where the mothers have the lowest schooling levels. Indigenous Mexicans have particularly benefited, staying in school longer."

Read the full article, "To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor," here.

The Ruins of Babylon

2011-01-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

The New York Times ran an interesting article today on renewed efforts to preserve Iraq's cultural heritage, especially through archaeology and restoration of sites like Babylon. The US State Department has provided a $2 million grant which is being used to preserve the Ishtar Gate, built by Nebudchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C., among other efforts. An excerpt:

"The World Monuments Fund has been carrying out what amounts to archaeological triage since it began its conservation plan in 2009. It has created computer scans to provide precise records of the damage to the ruins and identified the most pernicious threats, starting with erosion caused by salty groundwater. “What we’ve got to do is create a stable environment,” Mr. Allen said at the site in November. “Right now it’s on the fast road to falling apart.”"

Read the full article, "A Triage to Save the Ruins of Babylon" here.

"Safe, legal, and rare"- in practice, abortion is none of those things

2010-12-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

Writer Breda O'Brien comments on the recent case of A, B, and C v. Ireland that went before the European Court of Human Rights. She describes each woman's situation and the poor counseling they received, being pressured to see abortion in the UK as their only option when in fact it would only exacerbate their difficult personal situations.

An excerpt:
"As a woman who still calls herself a feminist, it makes me furious that feminists seem to think that abortion is such a good thing for women, an absolutely necessary “right”, when so often it is a somewhat brutal substitute for what they really need....Again, becoming a mother is seen as the worst possible option. How far have women’s rights come when that is still the case?"

It is an excellent piece, illuminating the difficult alternatives that stand before Ireland now. Read her full column here.

Ireland and Abortion

2010-12-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

The European Court on Human Rights has issued a complex ruling this week on the status of abortion in Ireland, the significance of which is hard to estimate. The Court ruled in a case brought by three women from Ireland claiming that their rights were violated when they were not able to terminate their pregnancies by abortion. The Court has upheld the claim of one woman, who had been diagnosed with cancer before becoming unexpectedly pregnant and who wanted to terminate her pregnancy in order to undergo cancer treatment. Their ruling will require Ireland to amend its abortion legislation in ways poorly defined.

The status of abortion in Ireland is complex. Consonant with Catholic teaching, a right to life, rather than a right to abortion is enshrined in Ireland's constitution. The 1861 Offences Against the Person Act absolutely prohibits abortion in Ireland, but in 1983 an amendment to the Constitution came into effect that stated “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” The 1983 amendment is therefore open to the possibility of the loss of the life of the child for the sake of saving the life of the mother. However, the circumstances and procedures for such a sacrifice were never explicity defined. Therefore in practice abortion has not been performed in Ireland; were a doctor to perform even an abortion he or she deems medically necessary to save the mother, both doctor and mother would expose themselves to the risk of prosecution and the doctor could lose his license.

The case is further complicated by the 1992 Irish Court's ruling on Case X in which a 14-year-old girl resorted to seeking an abortion in the United Kingdom after being raped and becoming pregnant; she sought the abortion because she was suicidal, and the Court ruled that abortion should have been make available to her in Ireland because her life was put at risk due to the situation of her pregnancy. Despite the ruling, Ireland still made no move to legislate clearly in what circumstances doctors should be allowed to perform abortions in Ireland. So while both the 1983 amendment and the 1992 court case open up the possibility of abortion in certain very limited circumstances, Irish doctors live in a culture of fear and confusion as to when they can actually recommend abortion to save the life of the mother.

The risk now is that the European Court on Human Rights is requiring Ireland to generate the legislation it has continually put off, providing a window of opportunity for pro-choice advocates to push through a much more permissive abortion law than the Irish people of 1861, 1983, and 1992 every intended. This is a dangerous moment in Ireland. Some are calling for a referendum on the decision of the courts in Case X, hoping to overturn the 1992 decision and therefore exclude risk of suicide as grounds for legal abortion. It is not entirely clear that such a referendum would have that hoped-for outcome, though figures do suggest that despite massive cultural shifts in Ireland in the last three decades, roughly 70% of Irish people do still approve of the 1983 formulation of the right to life for both baby and mother. Some also fear that the European Court could force Ireland to legalize abortion on demand, consonant with the rest of the EU, except Malta, whose situation is similar to Ireland's.

Of course, the fact that abortion on demand is illegal in Ireland does not mean that Ireland has been spared from the scourge of abortion. Cheap flights to London make it easy for Irish mothers to procure abortions in the UK, and it is estimated that several thousand do annually. However, that number has been falling by hundreds in the past eight consecutive year: in 2001, 6,500 women with Irish addresses obtained abortions in the UK, while last year that number had fallen to just 4,500. The practice is generally accepted, so that while it is still taboo to speak openly about seeking abortion outside of Ireland, it is a well known and politely ignored phenomenon- even Brendan Behan wrote about it, in his collection of short stories called After the Wake, with a party to welcome a girl back to Dublin who had just taken a 'holiday' in Britain to obtain an abortion serving as the plot for one of his stories. Abortion is complexly situated in Ireland's culture, in a society that has become very permissive in a very brief interval. Nevertheless, it is still an overwhelmingly pro-life country and has one of the best track records in Europe for maternal health.

For further insight into the developing story, stay tuned here, and check out these articles:

"Legislating Abortion Can No Longer Be Evaded" from the Irish Times, 12/17/2010
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1217/1224285727637.html

"Abortion Travel Numbers to UK Fall" from the Irish Times, 12/16/2010
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0722/breaking55.html

"European Court Says Irish Abortion Laws Breach European Rules", Catholic News Service, 12/16/2010
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1005125.htm

The full description of the three women's cases can be found at:
http://www.turtlebayandbeyond.org/2010/abortion/a-comment-on-a-b-and-c-vs-ireland/

There's just something about Jane

2010-12-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

If you visit our offices in Geddes Hall, then you are likely to find that the question "Who is your favorite Jane Austen heroine?" is frequently fodder for small talk around the Center. Today's Wall Street Journal addresses the trans-generational popularity of our literary heroine:

"The appeal? Ms. Austen's tales of courtship and manners resonate with dating-obsessed and social-media-savvy 21st-century youths, says Nili Olay, regional coordinator for the New York Metro chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America, or JASNA.....Jennifer Potter, 24, a member of JASNA's New York chapter, says Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" feels antiquated. She finds Jane Austen's writing more relevant to her life. "Marrying for money, crazy parents, dating—these are all basic themes," Ms. Potter said, sipping tea near the sandwich table at a recent Austen meeting that drew 200 members."

Read the full article here.

In Thanksgiving for Life

2010-11-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, Wisconsin Right to Life has produced this beautiful short video telling the story of two families who discerned that adoption was the best parenting choice for them. Their story was especially poignant to us at the Center, as we made adoption the theme of this semester's Bread of Life dinner and discussion a few weeks ago. Watch the video here. This Thanksgiving, we are giving thanks for life at all its stages, from conception to natural death, and for the great sacrifices our parents, our forefathers, have made to give us the abundant life we celebrate.

In Defense of High Concepts

2010-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Past Assistant Director of the the Center for Ethics and Culture, Dan McInerny, has a new blog considering high concepts as expressed in contemporary art forms. Check it out here. A brief snippet:

"Why is the need for what Chesterton calls the “true romantic trash” infinitely deeper and more important than the rules of good art? Why does my son go every morning to his “Lego table,” and the city he has built there and the adventures of its citizens? “Literature is a luxury,” Chesterton affirms, “fiction is a necessity.” Is this because the need to be amused or distracted is deeper than the need to be intellectually stimulated? Or does it have more to do with the wonder provoked by the high concept? For isn’t this what makes a fictional concept “high”—that it generates maximum wonder on the part of an audience?

The high concept is a way of wondering, and philosophy, Aristotle says, begins in wonder. When we engage with a story, we wonder at a fellow human being set out on a path in which he will achieve either happiness or misery. How will it turn out for him? Will he find happiness? Or will he find out that what he thought was happiness really isn’t? To wonder about these questions is the beginning of the quest for wisdom."

He will be updating it regularly. Happy reading!