Catholics vs Obama

Oh, how this story seems to keep on playing endlessly. I just saw this video:



For those of you that have been living on a rock for the past two months, conservative Catholics are angry that President Obama is speaking at Notre Dame. Why? Because he is 'pro-abortion.' First off, NO ONE IS PRO-ABORTION! Being pro-choice means that the decision is not up to you, but up to the decider. Morality is a personal thing (anyone that has ever read Kant would know that); I have personal morals that some people may not follow (like, how I make it my duty to always wish friends 'Happy Birthday' -something that not everyone can agree with or could follow). That duty can only be a moral if everyone can follow it. Well, on the issue of abortion, to begin this argument, only women can choose that.

Second off, these people that oppose Obama speaking never seemed to have a problem with conservative speakers that are -if you weigh it- more opposed to Catholic Social Teaching. (I am working on a more extensive blog post on that very topic, which is forthcoming.) The argument is that since Obama is pro-choice he is opposed to fundamental Catholic beliefs. Maybe one, but other issues are just as heavily weighted. Health care, environment, anti-war labor, death penalty, and poverty -all of these are necessary to be consistently pro-life. So, Obama who is wrong on one issue suddenly has more moral baggage than Newt Gingrich (whom spoke at Fordham University last month) whom is wrong on all of the other ones? Why is one life suddenly more precious than another? All of those issues are necessary to sustain life, why does one trump them all? A friend of mine once said "conservatives care about babies up until the point they are born." I will not go so far as to say that, but when I look at the hypocrisy of all of this, I cannot help but feel that he is right.

The radical liberal would say that President Bush is just as wrong as Obama on the life issue because of the War in Iraq. I do not know what to make of that (to make a poor pun, such a weighing is 'above my paygrade'). I doubt that if President Bush spoke at a Catholic University, the Cardinal Newman Society would make it an issue (they certainly did not for Newt).

I will be honest, at face value, I am not consistent on my views on Catholic Social Teaching, but I look at the issues on a more philosophical level that makes the issue more complex -but that explanation is for another time (I blame my Jesuit education).

Some News That Most of You Will Not Care About Reading

Most of you will not care for this, but I do, so I will report it. As some of you may know, I attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, which was founded by Fordham Jesuits (originally as a college, but there were a lot of changes that occurred over the years, which, I will not get into). Obviously, you cannot tell one school's story without the other.

Some new additions and old members to/of Xavier's Board of Trustees:

• Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J. (President Emeritus of Fordham) -old
  
• Rev. Robert Grimes, S.J. (Xavier Class of 1970) (Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center) -old
  
• Jennifer Mussi (Assistant Dean for Student Leadership and Community Development at Fordham)

Also, a recent addition to Xavier's Hall of Fame is Professor Constantine "Gus" Katsoris (Xavier Class of 1949), who is a professor at the Law School and one of the longest serving faculty members in Fordham history (and a rather good friend of my family's).

I know that just about none of you will care about this, but I do, so back off! (To sort-of quote Billy Madison).