On the Occasion of Magnificent Valor: Mary Ann Glendon

The most memorable thing about the Making Men Moral conference celebrating the work of Robert P. George of Princeton at Union University was George's own prophetic warning to the assembled not to lust for the praise of the ambient culture.

Mary Ann Glendon wasn't there, but she shares the spirit of Christian witness with her colleague and has given her conviction concrete form.  Though she was invited to be honored at the same Notre Dame graduation ceremony as Barack Obama, she has turned her back on Notre Dame because of the cognitive dissonance of a Catholic university honoring an advocate of abortion laissez faire.  (The highlighted link goes to her letter to ND President Father Jenkins.)

As you will see from the letter, she particularly objected to the use of her name in press releases as balance to President Obama's point of view.  I was talking with a Catholic professor on Friday who suggested the idea of balance on this issue is ridiculous.  Would you get an anti-theft speaker to balance a pro-theft one?  Professor Glendon refuses to be used in this way.

It cannot be an easy thing to be a Catholic rejecting the embrace of one of the great Catholic institutions of higher learning in the world, but Glendon has done it.  Bravo. 

Comments

[maria horvath]

This is such a beautiful and graceful witness to the truth.

Bravo! Professor Glendon.

[Steve Perkins]

This is truly heroic. While it may not be as great a love as Christ spoke of in laying down one's life for one's friends, yet it ranks among the smaller martyrdoms. What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? Professor Glendon has answered with an eloquent "nothing" and in so doing has gained everything.

[Kamilla]

This is very good news. Brava!

Kamilla

[Jim Kushiner]

If only ALL the bishops and leaders of ALL churches had such courage as Mary Ann Glendon. She would have been the best man at the graduation....

[Ethan C.]

Wouldn't it have been more effective to show up according to the plan, and then publicly embarrass the ceremony by, say, giving a speech specifically condemning Obama to his face, and then tearing up your honorary diploma onstage?

[Chelie]

Wow, Fox News online has posted this story, too!
Thank you, Mary Ann, for stepping up and taking a stand.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

A beauty pageant contestant, Miss California Carrie Prejean, has more biblical courage than many pastors and priests when she spoke in support of natural, traditional, historical, and biblical marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Now Professor Mary Ann Glendon is also showing tremendous biblical courage by publicly declining Notre Dame's award which in turn publicly rebukes Notre Dame's for its shameless renunciation of Catholic values in awarding President Obama an honorary doctorate.

Modern-day "Deborahs".

[maria horvath]

I'd like to add to that list the name of another beauty contestant, and vice presidential candidate. Sarah Palin has also demonstrated her fidelity to the tenets of her faith.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Ethan C. asks: "Wouldn't it have been more effective to show up according to the plan, and then publicly embarrass the ceremony by, say, giving a speech specifically condemning Obama to his face, and then tearing up your honorary diploma onstage?"

No. That would have been classless, shamefully in poor taste, and ineffective.

[James Kabala]

Ethan C.: She received an honorary degreee already in 1996. This was a higher honor, the Laetare Medal. (Rather difficult to physically destroy!) I just wanted to make clear what is actually happening here.

[Ethan C.]

All the better. Bring the old honorary degree along, and then tear it up or burn it on stage. Then throw the medal in a trash can on the way out the door.

[Ethan C.]

>>No. That would have been classless, shamefully in poor taste, and ineffective.<<

Right, classlessness like Elijah's classlessness. Poor taste like Ezekiel's poor taste.

And what do you mean ineffective? Which makes the more clear and public statement of condemnation: a public spectacle, or a gentle refusal to attend?

[Susan D.]

Prof. Glendon's was both a reproach to UND and a graceful act in itself. That's more powerful than any action she could take at the Notre Dame commencement ceremony.

[Ethan C.]

Kinder, perhaps. Certainly more graceful. Quite definitely safer for her reputation. But I don't see how it's necessarily more powerful than intentionally hijacking the event. One can simply turn the acceptance speech into a refusal speech.

[Ranee @ Arabian Knits]

Brava! Would that more people would do as these people do.

[Deacon John M. Bresnahan]

Wonderful. She is a real St. Catherine of Siena prophetically speaking out and taking action when a Church institution is guilty of dereliction of duty.

[Patricia]

I totally commend Prof. Glendon. What a leader! I think that she did the correct thing by withdrawing at this time and with the public reasons that she gave. I would expect a twit like Bill Ayers or his reprehensible wife as the kind of people to pull a rip-the-diploma, spit on the stage protest. Not Prof Glendon. To wait until the ceremony would have also embarrassed the graduates, which is probably the last thing that she would want to do, other than accept a medal on the same stage with the most pro-abortion President in history. Bravo.

[Benighted Savage]

For those who haven't heard: Father Jenkins wants to pass this hot potato to another recipient.

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/11618-statement-by-father-john-jenkins-on-the-laetare-medal

Any bets on who would accept it?

[Hunter Baker]

Douglas Kmiec.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Ethan C.: "Wouldn't it have been more effective to show up according to the plan, and then publicly embarrass the ceremony by, say, giving a speech specifically condemning Obama to his face, and then tearing up your honorary diploma onstage?

Bring the old honorary degree along, and then tear it up or burn it on stage. Then throw the medal in a trash can on the way out the door."

Ethan C's suggestions, made in mind with the thought of it being a more *effective* form of protest than what Professor Glendon has chosen to do, reminds me of what Miss USA beauty pageant judge Perez Hilton said he would do if Miss California had won Miss USA.

I.e., He would have run up on stage and grabbed Carrie Prejean's tiara off her head if she won. Would that have been an *effective* form of protesting?

[Ethan C.]

>>I.e., He would have run up on stage and grabbed Carrie Prejean's tiara off her head if she won. Would that have been an *effective* form of protesting?<<

Absolutely, it would have been effective. It would have very clearly communicated the protester's views, in a way that cannot be ignored by either the audience or the media. This is what a protest is supposed to do. The question of effectiveness is separate from the ideology of the one doing the protesting; it's a matter of technique. Spectacle and surprise can be very powerful.

In contrast, how effective is Dr. Glendon's simple refusal likely to be in heightening awareness of the Notre Dame situation? She will not attend; the university will award the medal to someone else more pliable; the ceremony will proceed as planned; Obama will get his degree. While we who already agree with her will applaud Dr. Glendon's action, in a few months it will all be forgotten. Perhaps the prestige of the Laetare Medal will be slightly besmirched among conservatives, but that's just about it.

Understand that I'm not faulting Dr. Glendon for her gracefulness, nor questioning the legitimacy of her action, nor doubting her personal courage. I'm merely trying to debate the effectiveness of her gesture as an act of protest (and I'm playing a bit of the devil's advocate).

[Micah]

Perez's protest as described would have been effective only if the goal was sensationalism or to impress the irrepressibly boorish. He would have turned off a number of people.

Glendon's hijacking of the graduation with a flamboyant gesture would have created a sensation, and it would have been red meat to those of us looking for an emotive release for frustrations with Obama, but it would have not have been effective if the goal is furthering the pro-life cause. The only people who would be impressed are those already persuaded. The middle, to whom we must make our case, would likely find it, well, somewhat boorish.

[Clifford Simon]

I was a "good boy," Ethan, and I have never spit before, not in my whole life except to maneuver spent toothpaste into a better place (of not crowding my maw). But if anyone ever says to me, "Don't you have too many children?", well I think I'm going to do what's effective. Now if only I could get married...

[Steven H]

May I offer a dissenting opinion to this thread?

Notre Dame extended the offer to Obama to speak because his is the President of the United States (quite an achievement, that) and the member of a minority group which had heretofore not achieved that office (which makes it even more of an achievement). I think Obama's pro-choice sensibilities are very wrong, but why has this become the centerpiece of the invitation?

If Obama during the course of his presidency had advanced the pro-choice agenda beyond what had been the case in the past, then I could understand the outcry. The reality is that his moves have re-established the status quo under the Clinton administration. Is this a good thing? Most surely not. But does it warrant making Obama the poster boy of the pro-choice movement? If someone wants a poster boy, why not choose the 5 Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of Roe. vs. Wade?

Notre Dame is not Steubenville (and I mean no slight to Steubenville). They have different roles in Catholic education, and both have different temptations. Notre Dame's great temptation is to get too cosy with the secular world, which is what the public debate about Obama is about. But Steubenville also has its temptations, one of which is to be excessively critical of "the world" and to refuse to engage it in a meaningful way. Christ asked us to be the leaven in the world, not a bystander shouting screeds.

[Benighted Savage]

>>> If someone wants a poster boy, why not choose the 5 Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of Roe. vs. Wade? <<<

Because they are all long dead? However, they would serve well as penates for pro-abortion households...

[Benighted Savage]

Steven H -- You might find this worthwhile. It's written by Elizabeth Lev, Glendon's daughter:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/04/29/why-mom-turned-down-notre-dame-award-over-obama-honors/

[smh]

Please note that "Steven H." is not me, Steve Hutchens (smh), Touchstone editor, but someone else.

[Christopher Hathaway]

I think Obama's pro-choice sensibilities are very wrong

"Sensibilities"? I think Herod's sensibilities to have been wrong too. But his actions were a bit more serious than his sensibilities. Obama is the most virulently pro-death politician in national office. That he defended the murder of children born because protecting them might threaten the right to kill them in the womb is a bit more than a sensibility. That he is also the most powerful politician in the world and capable of advancing death towards the unborn and just born more than any other is supreme justificatio n for making him the poster boy for abortion.

And Obama is being honored with more than an invitation to speak. He is being awarded an honorary doctorate. Christ may have eaten with prostitues and tax collectors, he didn't pat them on the back and say, "Well done."

Would you have called Christ's denunciations of the Pharisees "screeds"? I find your use of that term illuminating as to your possible "sensibilities". Those who do not hate evil become complicit in it.

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

I find your use of that term illuminating as to your possible "sensibilities". Those who do not hate evil become complicit in it.

Nice. It's always good to clearly state which members of an internet discussion are just downright bad people.

[mcmoderator]

Cooler tempers, please. See the blogging rules: Respond to the argument; do not make personal characterizations of the author.

[Judy K. Warner]

Steve H., if Notre Dame had invited a Nazi, say Jorge Haider when he was in the Austrian government, no one would give them a pass. They would not say Notre Dame is too cozy with the secular world; rather, they would accuse the school of incredible stupidity at the least, and of pro-Nazi sentiments at the worst. We understand that the media and other elites will not see a passionate supporter of abortion in the same light as a Nazi, since they do not see an equivalent between unborn children and those the Nazis killed. But that doesn't mean we others shouldn't keep that comparison in mind.

It is necessary to use Nazis for a comparison because they appear to be the only manifestation of evil that our liberal elites accept as such.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Christopher Hathaway: "Obama is the most virulently pro-death politician in national office."

Here is an article titled "100 Days of Death" which lends support to Christopher Hathaway's statement.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Benighted Savage: "Any bets on who would accept it?"

Hunter Baker: "Douglas Kmiec."

Why not? Professor Douglas Kmiec was former head of the Office of Legal Counsel to Ronald Reagan and former dean of the law school at The Catholic University of America.

Professor Kmiec wrote Obama is the Best Candidate, Final Day Endorsement published on the site "Catholics for Obama".

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Apparently there are a sizable number of Catholics who support Notre Dame's invitation to Obama. This alumnus Tom Matzzie is proud that his alma mater is welcoming the president.

He writes: "The charges by the Cardinal Newman Society and their ilk are not representative of Notre Dame students or alumni--nor the vast majority of weekly church-going Catholics like myself. They should be dismissed for what they are--a radical ultra-conservative cabal driving a political agenda through Catholicism.

I urge my fellow Notre Dame alumni, family members and supporters to contact the university and show your support for Notre Dame and President Obama."

[Benighted Savage]

The alternate has been selected. Sort of:

"Judge John T. Noonan Jr., the 1984 recipient of the Laetare Medal, has accepted an invitation to deliver an address in the spirit of the award at Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony on May 17. His speech will be in lieu of awarding the medal this year."

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/11655-former-laetare-medalist-judge-john-t-noonan-to-deliver-address-at-notre-dames-commencement