Mrs. Glendon Should Refuse

I just read an item in a respected journal in which a father whose younger son will graduate from Notre Dame in May denounces ND's intent to confer a doctor of law degree on President Obama in no uncertain terms. The gentleman goes on to expose the weakness and perfidy of the school's president with an anecdote from a few years back when an older son was at the school.

Excuse me for asking --I want to put it as gently as possible since I know neither the gentleman nor his circumstances-- but why did he send his youngest son, knowing from experience what the school was like and was likely to be in the future under such leadership? Does he imagine his tuition payments were not a vote in favor of more of the same?

It's all well for us to wring our hands as I've been doing these past days, but how has Notre Dame gotten away with these sorts of antics my entire adult life if not because of Catholic parents who prefer their kids' professional advancement to Catholic witness --i.e. have been perfectly willing to pay exhorbitant tuitions for the privilege of making the same Faustian bargain we now deride in the university administration? (Are we not being conformed to the world and not Christ if we prefer a prestigious degree to the good of giving our money to a faithful institution?)

It's all very well to scream at Fr. Jenkins, but the ND administration is what it is because generations of Catholic parents, alumni & trustees have not seriously cared that it became so. They sign petitions and write letters of protest now and again, yes; no doubt they anguish over current betrayals. But if any notable number of Catholics had ever voted with their feet, the school would have righted itself long ago.

Notre Dame hopes to buy Catholic acquiescence by giving Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon its Laetare medal on the same day it honors the President. Were I in her shoes I'd decline it. What can such a medal mean in such a context?

Fidelity imposes tough choices sometimes.

Related: Bill McGurn (who's an alum, I believe) on how ND helped build the abortion orthodoxy of the Democratic Party. So when will we decide sending our kids to Notre Dame is cooperating with evil?

Update: Clearly she consulted with the bishop whether to decline.